'I Shared a Byline With Rick Bragg'

By: Glynn Wilson Guest column

As perhaps the only freelancer to ever share a byline with Rick Bragg in The New York Times, I've watched in disquietude for the past few weeks as this pack of media critic hound dogs chased the rabbit Jayson Blair, trying to root out others of his ilk, and tainting Bragg in the process. Even a faction at the Times seemed to join the pack, and I'm wondering how that great institution, and other newspapers, will be affected.

After working on dozens of stories for seven Times correspondents for the national desk this past year, I've seen up close how the reporting and writing process works. My impression is, the Times is willing to put resources and people in close enough proximity to the big story to get it right, most of the time.

Since 1979 and my first freelance reporting gig covering sports for The Birmingham (Ala.) News, I have chased tornadoes, written features about celebrities and common folk, and specialized in covering the politics and science of environmental news with some effect.

I met Rick Bragg in 1999, when I tried to get him to write for my online magazine, The Southerner. He expressed interest, but was always too busy flying from airport to airport to get the dateline or promote his books.

The next time I ran into Bragg, I was teaching journalism at Loyola University in 2000. He had left the Miami bureau to become a national correspondent out of New Orleans. We became friends, comrades in arms, really, two reporters from Alabama in the Big Easy. After nine years of teaching, and watching the Internet grow, I decided to try my hand at freelancing full time.

In August 2002, with a void in the Southern bureau, the Times asked Bragg to help cover the West Nile Virus epidemic, a story I followed for The Dallas Morning News. Since Bragg was on sick leave, the national desk asked me to help as a stringer.

The next week Bragg and I went to Baton Rouge (along with his now-famous intern, J. Wes Yoder), when the serial killer story broke. I did not expect or receive a byline for this work. It wasn't Bragg's place to make the decision about shared bylines, I was told. Only the national editor could make that decision, and it was not the national desk policy to credit freelancers.

Next, Bragg wanted to work with me on a story about the U.S. Army's chemical weapons incinerator in Anniston, Ala., which I had covered for UPI. After weeks of gathering facts and conducting phone interviews, Bragg and I went to Anniston to report on the ground and to get the dateline. Rick flew in. I drove, for 32 cents a mile and $15 an hour.

We interviewed activists, politicians, and average folks. Bragg spent a couple of days talking to many, hearing their tales of dread. When we had enough, we went back to New Orleans and wrote the story. He worked his magic with words on the keyboard and screen, while I fed him facts and quotes. At the end of the day, the national editor agreed I deserved a byline on this one story (it's credited to Bragg, "with Glynn Wilson"), since it was good enough for Page One and some of the reporting could not have been obtained any other way.

Not long after that, the Times filled the two open slots in the Atlanta bureau. With eight states to cover, they have used me extensively, and I've proudly helped the Times get it right on dozens of stories, from the Trent Lott fiasco to the space shuttle disaster. Seeing what they do with a story is satisfying, even if your name's not on it.

Now, however, because of Jayson Blair -- and the search for scapegoats and bureaucratic solutions -- I'm afraid the Times (and possibly other papers) may use freelancers less. This may mean they will get it right less often, when the solution might just be to credit freelancers.

Early in the Blair affair, I sent an e-mail message to Bragg, inspired by a line in the movie The American President. In one scene, a jilted Annette Bening says to Michael Douglas, "You've got a bigger problem than losing me. You just lost my vote."

Now I told Bragg, "The New York Times has a bigger problem than losing you, or me, as reporters. They may lose me, and a lot of other people, as readers."

So, as an experienced reporter and writer, an academic who's studied how the news business works, and as a longtime reader, I have only one thing to say to Mr. Sulzberger and company: Get it right, and let me know if I can help.

By the way, if I ever run into Jayson Blair, for what he did to besmirch journalists everywhere I may just punch him in the nose.
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