So a bunch of months ago I received an e-mail from Charles Bethea, a freelance writer working on a John Rocker profile for Atlanta Magazine.
I’d never met Charles, but we spoke for quite a bit, and I found him to be extremely professional and fair. He asked lots of good questions, seemed determined not to lean one way or the other; had a nice breezy writing style. On and on.
When the piece came out, Charles e-mailed me a copy. I’ll write here what I told him: I thought it was extremely fair, and that neither I nor John could complain too loudly. Were there points I would have liked to have made? Sure. Was I 100 percent comfortable with everything the way it was portrayed? No. But that’s actually the sign of a job well done. If I loved everything about the content of the piece, Charles would rightly wonder whether he’d leaned too strongly in one direction.
Here’s a link to the story, by the way.
Anyhow, Charles e-mailed me today and mentioned that Rocker was strongly pissed over his work. Which blows my mind. The piece allowed him to make his points, to state his case, to explain why he behaved a certain way. Perhaps, like me, he didn’t receive carte blanche to spew on all things. But, well, such is life.
My point? Not sure. Guess the guy will never be satisfied with anything. Bummer.
