fair news spears

I’m in my third semester of journalism and doing a story remote from Phoenix. That’s okay. I have years of experience working across the country from a single location as a technical recruiter, staffing manager and a director.

The straw that broke the camel’s back there was the dot.com bust and a new found passion in dealing with some of the rarest of rare, software and IP network engineers: fascinating world. I could never go back to “corporate” after that and I could never work for any organization that didn’t do the best for their job candidates. That includes Google based on firsthand experience with them.

A job candidate is a special person and their experiences with a company in the interview process affect not only themselves but family, friends and community organizations. I found my job with them and members of an organization to be one of customer service and tantamount to that performance was information. The worse thing a recruiter can do is to leave a job candidate or a manager in silence. They should never have to come to you and ask what happened. Maybe that’s why I have been referred to in the past as one of the best recruiters on the planet. Customer service.

Doing a story on Britney Spears is a lot like my former job as a recruiter. I am remote. I am often dealing with the unfamiliar but recruiters are like that; they often by necessity learn to transfer skills between recruiting for an engineer (scary) to a lower tech friendly interface person. But Britney’s story is off the map and her life involves complexities that a recruiter can often adapt to by spending time with the techies who are part of a team and who want you to be successful. They also don’t want you wasting anyone’s time or being an embarrassment to the company.

In Britney’s case I feel like there is a void of reliable information just as there was a scarcity of qualified job candidates for which I was highly compensated to find and recruit. I am not paid a dime on Britney. I’ve never sought to make a dime but at the rate I am going perhaps there is a book while meanwhile I study the art of professional and fair story telling.

I am used to teamwork. I am used to making calls where people most often want to hear from me because there might be something in it for them like money or competitive intelligence if it suits.

The Britney story is different. The cast and motivations by each player are unpredictable and have nothing to do with money as pertains to me. I’ve never been so intimidated to make some calls but risk not, want not. Every now and then there’s someone really nice that sees what I am trying to do or how challenged I am without having a big name to back me. Or simply that I need the information to do a story.

What I feel bad about is that with a lack of incentive to some, I can’t always get the information I need as quickly as I might want it. My deadlines are a little soft. That sounds bad but to get a complete story together it is sometimes necessary.

Today’s entry to make the Puma Press’s Sunday deadline but what I really wanted to do as an article is reliant on a third party’s response. I want to give them a fair chance to reply and state their side of things. It’s what a good journalist is supposed to do; try to get everyone’s side. I will give them until Monday or even another day if they tell me they need it. No comment or did not return calls will suffice in this matter.

I apologize. This entry is probably not what you wanted to read. You presumably want to know like I do, what really happened the day Britney went to court. I can’t tell you that (and neither can anyone else with authority – it is a personal conservatorship) but I can sure as heck cipher the media that did report to you and what they said and leave it to you to figure out their organization’s motivation.

I do with the conservators and Britney’s label might realize that there is value in customer service. None of us really expect to know the details of “Britney’s illness” but if they would just put out a press release now and then and disallow Harvey Levin of TMZ to be the sole spokesperson of Britney Spears, it might go a long way toward the initial rationale behind the conservatorship.

p.s. Did anyone retain a copy of TMZ’s updates for Jan. 22? I and a few others cannot find them on TMZ’s website. Did they truly disappear and if so, why? I’m fallible so maybe they became hidden and are not gone at all. If they did remove them then that is another call to make, another possible delay of the story I’ve been wanting to bring you since Jan. 22.

p.s.s. Courtney Love Cobain is apparently in England this week on a brief tour which is her first in years. She continues to be of interest because of the peculiar twist of attorneys involved in the guardianship of her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. Last I heard, there is a hearing in that case this Wednesday as to permanent guardianship. Frances turns 18 in August.

Lynne Spears versus Sam Lutfi is also on Wednesdays docket but in the court of appeals. Spears lost her Anti-SLAPP case to Lutfi so she is appealing the verdict. Mass media has never reported it and The Associated Press has said anything official to me as to why they didn’t cover the story nor that of the five people provided sworn testimony that she lied in her book. Since when did the mother of a superstar cease to be of interest to the public? Where’s the customer service?