Earlywood: It’s OK (Good Even!) When They Hate Your Work

Publisher’s note: Happy Saturday, happy Earlywood, a free excerpt from one of the thousands of pieces I’ve written since 1996. Sometimes, it’s from a magazine article. Or a book. Or (in this case) a couple of blog entries published in 2017. Enjoy!

The city council candidate was screaming at me through her phone as I sat hunched over my desk in the newspaper’s newsroom.

“How about I pull down my pants and you come and watch me go to the bathroom?” she screamed. “You’d like that wouldn’t you?”

This impolite invitation was issued after I inquired about a long string of tax troubles the candidate had suffered during the last few years. Unpaid taxes. Lawsuits. State charges. And etc. It’s all part of doing your job as a journalist. When people run for public office, you look up what the public record has to say about them. And you let them explain their side of the story, even if it involves a toilet.

After years of this sort of work, you get used to people hating your guts. You do what you th…