The challenges of dealing with death

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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.