The challenges of dealing with death
As editor of the obituaries at The Times, Jon Thurber needs to handle reader complaints with even more sensitivity than most in the newsroom. "We get quite a bit of anger directed at us when we reject a submission. And I suspect this is because it far easier to be angry at the obituary editor than it is at Death or God."
His observation about reader reaction was made in a recent chat done by e-mail with former Times staffer Claire Hoffman, who now writes a blog at the Washington Post.
Thurber faces challenges as well in dealing with fellow staffers. Hoffman includes her own experience with Thurber: "I had been covering a certain octogenarian TV producer accused of sexually harassing his home nurse, and Jon asked me to put a few facts together on the man, given his age. Then Jon asked again. And again. But I kept writing dailies and thinking if the guy had lived this long, he would surely live a few more weeks. Of course, one evening I left the paper and went for a massage. A blissful hour later, I emerged to my cellphone on fire with weary messages from Jon. The producer had died."
The interview, headlined "God, Death and Obituaries," is here.
