Territory Folks Should Stick Together

In the wake of yesterday's horrible news helicopter crash here in Seattle, the Rogers and Hammerstein lyrics from Oklahoma come to mind. "The Farmer and the Cowman should be friends." Journalists and public relations professionals don't always see eye to eye. But during my career, I've gotten to know reporters who understand both sides of the situation and photo-journalist Bill Strothman, who sadly died in yesterday's accident, was one of them.

I can't say we were friends but we always recognized each other when we were working a story. Our careers spanned about the same amount of time and he and I stood around together on countless occasions waiting for the news to happen. Mostly we would chat about what was going on in town but, because I started out as a correspondent and teach media relations at the University of Washington, I was always anxious to get Bill's take on the world around us.

Bill had a wonderful sense of the news and was a model of the ethics that make good reporting work.  He knew where not to go with his camera and he knew when the time was right. An affable, comfortable person, he never pushed when we were together.  He'd listen and, even when he had no reporter with him, he knew to ask the questions that would fill in the blanks.

One of my mentors told me that the best public relations comes from being a good reporter. I try to always take the media's side when finding the news in a story. Bill Strothman was the kind of person who helped me see through the clutter on a daily basis.

I'm glad I knew him and my heart goes out to his family and his colleagues at KOMO News. The tragic loss of Bill and the pilot Gary Pfitzner is being felt by the entire community. For me, all of us in the communications business are trying to tell stories in a way that people can understand and relate to them. Whether it's reporting or promoting, we should have the same goal in mind. Effective communications is what we want. No matter which side of the fence we're on. Like the song says. "Territory folks should stick together." That's important now more than ever. For certain, I know we've lost a gracious advocate in Bill Strothman and we'll miss him.