The Reporter by Mark Paul Smith

Author:Mark Paul Smith [Mark Paul Smith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boutique of Quality Books Publishing
Published: 2021-09-03T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Jesse was busier than ever after his hitchhiking story and working through the trauma of the plane crash. The news stories were getting so weird it felt like the world was turning upside down.

The school beat was heating up as racial imbalance collided with federal quotas. School bus drivers were being attacked by unruly students. The Ku Klux Klan was rearing its ugly head. Rattlesnakes were biting preachers, and heroin addicts were turning to methadone.

To complicate matters further, his weekly musical gigs with Butch at Mother’s were getting more popular. The two of them were rehearsing more than ever and writing new songs. Dreams of rock-and-roll stardom were beginning to feel possible. They talked about adding a third member to sing high harmony and wondered if they should book time in a studio to record their songs.

None of this went over very well with Kelly. “Do you even care how I feel anymore, Jesse?”

He tried to hug her, but she backed away and put her hands on her hips. He knew he needed to respond. “Of course, I care, but I can’t talk about it right now. I’m late for work.”

She let go a parting shot as he walked out the door and down the stairs. “I’ll tell you how I feel. I feel like a third wheel. That’s how I feel.”

Jesse knew better than to turn around and argue with her. It was Saturday, and he was headed for the newsroom to write the second article of what would be at least a ten-part series on the cross-country trip. The article wouldn’t be published until weeks later when the Sunday features section had room to run it.

He was already writing in his head as he got in the car. The sad truth was he couldn’t write at home. Something about the apartment was beginning to feel quite crowded.

Meanwhile, the national news was earthshaking. On September 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford granted a full pardon to former president Richard Nixon, the only United States president to resign from office.

Weatherly had previously assigned Jesse to get the local reaction story to Nixon’s resignation on August 8. The “pardon” story turned out to be pretty much the same as the “resignation” story. Nixon supporters thought the resignation was bad and the pardon was good. Nixon haters, predictably, felt exactly the opposite.

The interesting thing to Jesse was that people from all points on the political spectrum now viewed the media as making news instead of simply reporting it. Nixon people hated Woodward and Bernstein and the Washington Post, and blamed them for bringing down their beloved president by using an unnamed source known only as Deep Throat.

Nixon haters, on the other hand, turned Woodward and Bernstein into national heroes. Reporters were becoming as popular as their stories. The rising ranks of the counterculture loved the mysterious anonymity of Deep Throat and its roguish reference to the pioneering pornographic movie of the same name. Jesse had quickly learned the importance of anonymous sources. Very few people from any profession were willing to talk “on the record” anymore.

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