The Biggest Blunder I Made as a Journalist? Herpes.
Yup, you read that right.
Picture this: the year is 2020, the world is in the throes of a devastating pandemic.
A young journalist is hunched over her laptop in a makeshift home office, trying to report on local news without breaking lockdown rules.
It’s days after VE Day 2020. Europe just celebrated the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII.
Celebrations were subdued.
Still, socially distanced street parties took place. People celebrated on their own lawns, waving to neighbours, getting dressed up, and decorating their homes with bunting.
And today, this young journalist gets an ‘exciting’ new assignment.
Her editor calls her and says: “Stela, people from the community have sent photos of their street parties. Can you come up with a few snappy photo captions to go with our gallery feature?”
The young journalist gets to work. Most captions are cheesy and whimsical. They’ll do the job.
She’s done in 30 minutes.
She hits send. Logs the story as complete. And moves on. A police press release about an exciting crime story has just come in.
