The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1954-03-19
OTHER EDITORS
ONE OF THE THINGS
THAT DON'T HAPPEN
(By Carlton Morris, Editor Gates
Couty Index

In the movies there are often
stories about how the reporter
has to meet a deadline and how
he faces many trials and tribula-
tons in seeking to do SO. AS far
as We newspaper folks are con-
cerned, that is lot of hog wash.
Any editor or reporter worth
his salt has to have his stories
ready to go to press and most
backshops want them as early as
possible, but meeting an imagin-
airy deadline is something very
few of us ever think about. A
weekly paper goes to press on a
certain day when it is made up
and ready, but setting a certain
hour or minute when no more
copy will be used is the bunk
and something dreamed up by
the movies with their usual fail
ure to face reality.
In my own case there is dead
line of sorts if you prefer to call
it that. My particular pride and
joy, the Index goes to press on
Tuesday and my deadline is
when can't keep my eyes open
any longer on Monday night, but
then that could apply to any
other day as well, for in our
profession we work until the job
is done any day. And the fact
that l may work until all hours
on the day previous to going to
press does not mean a thing, for
the very next morning am
again busy as my paper is being
made up, with correspondents
copy and maybe an ad or so that
has been phoned in. When my
paper is made up, it is slapped on
the press and that is the end of it.
Once when l was a youngster,
1 was terribly impressed with a
newspaper story in the movies
in which the reporter was out to
solve a grisly murder. He proved
himself to be smarter than the
police and solved the story in a
split second before his paper
went to press. Down to his news
paper plant he galloped and lum-
bered inside yelling, stop the
presses, stop the presses" and
forthwith the presses were stop
ped and his story appeared on
page one in bold, bloody scream
ing headlines. And all within a
matter of seconds. That was all
purest fantasy. Knowing few
backshop printers, am afraid a
reporter trying to get those boys
to tear up a whole page for one
story, any story. would be very
similar to trying to bail the ocean
dry with a soup spoon.
When l attended the Army
Navy game in Philadelphia on
Saturday after Thanksgiving, !
got up with three minutes left
to play with Army leading 20 to
20 and made my way out of the
Municipal Stadium. I had to walk
almost a half mile to the gate
where I was to meet my friends
since we were seated in different
parts of the giant bowl, and on
my way there a newsboy sold me
copy of the Philadelphia In
suirer which sold up town for 1e,
only he charged me soc, and In
screaming headlines the paper
told how Navy scored in the last
minute of play that will swear
hadn't ended 20 minutes earlier.
Not being a big city reporter, l
am still trying to figure out how
the paper managed to get the
story in and then get the paper
back to the stadium where it
happened within 20 minutes after
it did happen, while / was there
and didn't even see it happen, If
you can figure out what l am
talking about.
In a manner of speaking, this
column has to meet a deadline.
1t has to go to press on Monday
and of a necessity must be
written much earlier than press
date. Which is often difficult. l
know of columnists who write
about religion, or politics, or his
tory, or dogs and cats, but this
is the only column in existence
that writes about nothing at all,
and that is the rub. During the
four years that l have produced
it, / have never been late and
never missed but one issue. 1t is
true that back in the days when
it was an exclusive feature of the
Index, 1 left standing orders in
the backshop, that if the paper
was crowded and anything must
be left out, then it would be this
column and thus occasionally it
would be left out Intentionally.
Since appearing in more pa
pers, / missed one issue when /
was i'll last spring and started
another while i'll that was pub
lished even though it was only
a couple of paragraphs. Its brief
L u e. - =