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Q:
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How did you first hear about the abuses at Marianna?
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A:
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Well, The Miami Herald had done a piece. And then we ran an AP piece, which was striking, but it wasn’t long. And then two men simply walked off the street and came in to our offices. I interviewed them. They told their story. They had read the AP piece, and it bought back all the memories. One even wept in our cafeteria.
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Q:
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Did you all do the reporting then figure out the story construct, or did you have a structure in mind from the start?
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I think we had done quite a bit of the reporting, and this took a while, because we really started in October. And during the reporting, we got together in what became known as the War Room and mapped out how the story would go. It changed as we interviewed more people. This was the type of story we could have gone on reporting forever.
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Q:
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How did you take dozens of many powerful stories and blend them into one piece?
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There were so many stories we couldn’t use them all. And as we started talking, we decided to take one person all the way through the piece. So we had Bill Haynes, one person who people will remember throughout—someone to come back to.
Our first draft was extremely long. And then of course we had to cut back. The editor, Kelley Benham, was very good in sort of bringing it down to a point where it was readable and not so unwieldy. I think she did a great job of focusing the story. A lot was cut, of course, but it read a lot better. It was tighter, and therefore it caught people.
You can see the structure. You can see where we started with the “boys,” where they’re starting to arrive at the White House. We’ve got that section where they’re finding each other, where George Goewey reads the paper, and all this comes back to him. And then all the research. We’re showing this is nothing new.
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Q:
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How did you keep the story from sensationalism and make the "bad guys" human?
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A:
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It was key to get Mr. Tidwell’s daughter, and I think it was key to get his lawyer. So at least there was some sense of them. Even though they’d done all these dreadful things, they need to be represented. That was important, as were the details about Lenox Williams living in this cabin that he built himself. I think the reader then sees these people as people, and not as caricatures.
People said a lot of bad things about these men as individuals. But not everything is there—so much was left unsaid. And yet people who contacted us recognized the horror of it all.
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Q:
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What does telling the story as a narrative accomplish?
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It gets people to read it through. But I think it also makes people think, “Well, what’s next?” People want to know what’s next. What should be done? Something should be done. In telling it this way, they understand the effect of the school on these boys who are now men.
Because it’s storytelling, there are powerful things that couldn’t have gotten into a news piece. The incongruity of the cars coming by to see the Christmas displays made by these boys, in this whole atmosphere where they were brutalized. And Floridians not knowing about it.
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Q:
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What was it like to work on a narrative piece as part of a team?
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A:
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I have to credit Ben [Montgomery], because he was the main writer. I followed his lead, because his writing is a little different than mine. This might sound really ridiculous, but I tried to make it similar without losing my way of writing. More clipped sentences. I think his writing is a little harsher. I tried to sort of meld my writing to his.
It was a great experience for me working with another reporter on a story of this length. Our roles were pretty fluid, evolving as we interviewed people. We just kept following leads and asking more questions. Then we outlined the story and divided the writing.
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