March 12, 2009
I’m going to tell you a little secret. Sometimes when you work on a story, you have to interview some boring people and it is up to you to make the story interesting to everyone else. Sometimes you can, sometimes you are pulling your hair out, trying to make the story interesting to even yourself.
Well, this past week was not the case for me. I wrote a profile about the new dean of the fine arts college and I already figured he would be interesting because he worked for the Walt Disney Company for over 27 years!
Plus, in case, if my journalistic career doesn’t pan out, I could always go with my childhood dream of being a Disney princess. Well, I set up the interview and met up with him in his office.
I came into the interview like I do for most. With my questions in hand and ready to make small talk to put him at ease, I was heartily welcomed by the man that was put up by President Boren to be the new dean of the fine arts college.
Rich Taylor approached me with a smile and sat down with me in his sitting area rather than at his desk. As we started the interview, the first thing he said to me was, “Now, what can I do to help you?”
Alright, now that doesn’t really seem like much of anything, but to a reporter, it is a blessing to find a source who is willing to spend their time sitting down with a reporter and be open to them when they don’t have any real personal gain from having a story written about them.
I don’t know if it was because he worked for Disney for a good part of his life, but I felt as though I was meeting a Disney character.
As I sat and listened to Taylor tell me about his professional background, his demeanor and disposition put me at ease and I found myself not noticing that our interview had lasted more than an hour.
Walking back to the newsroom, I felt a sense of joy just from meeting him and marveled at how nice and entertaining Taylor was coming from the corporate world, even if it was the Walt Disney Corporation.
I’ll end with this; sitting down to write the story was anything but difficult and I enjoyed every minute of it.
— LeighAnne Manwarren, Norman City Beat Reporter
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