Ask the Right Questions Ch. 01

I nodded and she walked out of the room. Ten minutes later I could hear the garage door opening, her car starting, and the garage door closing. The house was eerily quiet and I felt very alone. Enough day dreaming - I needed to get my ass moving... Why couldn't this be Saturday and we could spend the morning, day together?

Friday June 8th, 8:21 AM, Phoenix, Arizona

"Jake, that piece on the President is trending," Kim paused to look at something in the pile of papers in front of her, "The pictures Kevin took at the border detention center are getting noticed, over a hundred-thousand views and a good percentage of secondary cross-platform shares. The story is getting a boost in traffic from our international affiliates. Dumb luck the Presidents' son's security detail was able to assist in that drug bust in Tucson. Good work you two."

There were a few murmurs around the room congratulating Jake and Kevin. It was short lived because Kim wasted no time switching gears and quieting the room - leaving her twenty-minute cheerleader spiel with the web news team - for the diarrhea of metrics regarding site hits, advertising redirects, social media posts, and search engine rankings. When she began this portion of the morning staff meeting, it was officially my turn to check-out.

Sure, this stuff was the new scorecard for journalists who wrote stories and were lucky enough to have their stories posted on our site. I get that, but everything I had been assigned the past year was pure fluff pieces - 'human interest' stories. Nothing I'd written amounted to even a single percent of site traffic on any given day. Seriously, I'd love to meet anyone who read my drivel about the best dog parks in the city or comparing non-franchised coffee stands to one another for the best cup of coffee in the Phoenix area? Tiring, depressing, and writing this kind of bullshit for the past year was really beginning to grate on me.

I should probably care more about the metrics, but I had a list of mind crushingly boring fluff pieces yet to get my head around and submitted. Two stories were nearly complete and the one I had turned over to James - an Associate Lifestyle Editor - required a rewrite of the ending to be more of a 'summary' than an opinion leaning piece on the evils of grocery store self-checkout kiosks. Whatever, just kill me now...

Friday June 8th, 9:19 AM, Phoenix, Arizona

"Got a minute?"

The question caught me off guard because since I had been with the Phoenix Post Intelligencer, Mike Beatty - Managing Editor, had spoken less than a hundred words to me. Generally, it was, 'Good morning, Cassidy...' and nothing more. Sure, I worked directly for James, who reported to Lifestyle Editor Allen, who reported to Resident Editor Kim, who reported to Mike - so it was logical I would only have sparse interaction with him. Only Candice, the Editor-in-Chief, was above Mike in the food chain - so him wanting a 'minute' with me meant something was probably wrong.

Sure, my attitude could use an adjustment - but I didn't think it was that bad, not like 'lose your job bad'. I would be happy to eat whatever shit sandwich he was about to put on my plate if I wasn't about to get an ass chewing or worse - fired.

"Sure...," I replied after the initial spike to my anxiety levels jumped and I could feel the blood rushing from my head as I stood. I stood, assuming he wasn't going to have an unpleasant conversation with me at my desk in the middle of the newsroom...

"Excellent," he said turning and heading towards the hallway where all the conference rooms were located.

I followed him, unable to get the thought that this impromptu meeting was going to be an ass chewing. If they were going to let me go, could I pick up work from one of the other local news outlets? Could I freelance from here? Augh... Don't put the cart before the horse. Journalism might have been the wrong career choice after the Army.

We walked in silence toward the conference rooms because I couldn't think of anything worthy or constructive to say. As we approached the 'Mesa' conference room I could see there were others already seated - the News Editor Carol Black and a couple reporters. The absence of anyone from HR put me a little more at ease but being included in this group of power players replaced my 'getting chewed out' anxiety with a mix of curiosity, a little dread, and your basic nervous gitters. So, what's going on?

I took a seat next to Kevin, one of the senior reporters on staff. He smiled at me, "Hey Cass..."

"Hey...," I replied, trying to smile back.

"Okay, think we've got all the right players now," Mike began taking his seat, "Let's talk about the Estrada story."

"Valerie is handling that...," Carol said, as Valerie raised her hand - everyone turned to look at her.

"Alright... I'd like to discuss tightening this story up," he stated looking around the table, "Valerie, did you touch base with Lynn on the Solis and Morena assaults?"

"Lynn's out on maternity," Carol chimed in before Valerie could answer. She looked annoyed, but she had that look most days.

"I understand that, but with the Estrada assault that makes this the third Trans Woman in just over two weeks' time...," he looked around the table, "Anyone besides me think that's a bit unusual?"

I certainly didn't, but I wasn't going to speak unless spoken too...

"I reviewed Lynn's stories, her notes, contacts, and police interactions...," Valerie stated sheepishly.

Mike looked like he was digesting Valerie's statement, maybe that Lynn was on maternity leave, "Everyone know Cassidy Ruiz? She's been with us a little over a year now..."

There were nods all around the table which made me feel oddly spotlighted - given the story Mike wasn't happy with. I was shocked he knew how long I had been with the post - not so much that he knew I was a Trans Woman. Guess we know why I was included in this power group. I was about to form his next statement in my head when he laid it out there for everyone...

"Anyone talk with her about these assaults?"

Nailed it... My stomach fluttered nervously; my mind ran through relaxation exercises to control my immediate want to hyperventilate. No one ventured an answer to his question or even looked at me. Okay, pure awkwardness. Did he really expect someone was going to say something about me being Trans? Fuck no...

"Carol, get with Allen, see if he can free up Cassidy for this story. Valerie, you'll continue as the lead on this, but you'll work with Cassidy. Carol, we good here," he asked.

She nodded, "Valerie's piece on Ms. Estrada was well done, Mike...," she added in defense of what had been written and published. Of course, she would say that because in truth she reviewed and authorized its release.

"The story is getting less traction than I would expect...," he looked around the room and appeared to be measuring his next statement, "I want new angles, insights, prospective, and I want to know why the Phoenix Times has a profile on who they think is doing this and more substantial details about what is going on than our story. I would hate to think we've glossed over this story..."

"I understand the ask, but we're not glossing over anything...," Carol shot back.

Now she looked really pissed and her tone - in my opinion was a mistake. If I were her, I would have taken the critique and ran with fixing what Mike didn't like.

Mike looked down to his notes, "Did Lynn's story include that a description of the vehicle and a partial plate number was caught by a witness?"

Valerie shook her head 'No', Carol sat in silence fuming.

"Did we report there is traffic camera video of a person driving that vehicle four blocks from where Ms. Morena was dumped? That the person appeared to be trying to avoid being seen by said camera at that intersection... The police have a full plate number now and it was tracked to a stolen vehicle... These are details, these are facts," he concluded raising his voice.

"Those details weren't available at the time we posted, Mike...," Carol said coming to Lynn and Valerie's defense, not backing down.

He interrupted her, "No mention of the type of assault, sexual or otherwise by the police - why don't we know more about that? I read on the Times site that Solis claims to have been videoed and we don't mention that," he stated looking around the silenced room, "There's more going on here than has been released by the police and the Times is reporting it, we're not."

"None of the victims could be reached Mike," Carol interrupted, adding, "They are here illegally and have disappeared after being released from the hospital..."

Mike looked annoyed that his train of thought was interrupted, "This has been the deadliest year on record so far for the Trans Community, no mention of that in our story. I find it a little disturbing that I can get that fact from the Times, but nowhere in any of our stories. We have the ability to update our stories at any given time," he said pushing back from the conference table, stood. "I want missing details from our stories updated, I want this dug into, and I want the site traffic for these assaults doubled by the end of the weekend. We good here?" He looked around the room, settled his attention back to Carol.

"We're on it...," Carol conceded, "Valerie, Cassidy, stay seated. Everyone else we'll ping you if needed."

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I'm trying to grow as a story teller, I'm far from perfect, so any help is much appreciated. Thanks for reading...

Rachel M. Moore