The Press: All the News

After his off-the-record chat with State Representative Steve Dolley one day last week, Reporter Paul Crooke of North Carolina’s daily Gastonia Gazette (circ. 20,491) tossed a memo on the crowded desk of Managing Editor Bob Hallman. Gist of the memo: Dolley, a onetime Gazette staffer, was only pleasing officials of nearby Bessemer City when he introduced a bill to reorganize their courts, had “no desire that the bill pass,” was convinced that “it has no chance whatever”—and wanted the Gazette to kill any stories about it. Somehow, in the deadline shuffle, the memo got mixed up with the copy, acquired a straight-faced head (BILL

WOULD EXTEND COURT AT BESSEMER), and was printed verbatim on page 2 of the Gazette. “It was a note that came up at press time, when there was no one around.” moaned beet-red Editor Hallman, “and . . . and … it was just one of those things.”