Assignment Information

April 18, 2007

I just got a great idea for a book. It would be compiled of the crazy information found on assignments slips. I’m talking about the things reporters and editors write in an attempt to be funny. And it gets even funnier when a subject inadvertently reads it.

Like the time one of my co-workers went out to photograph a man who had his head bashed in with a brick while trying to stop a violent crime. The assignment was slugged: BLOCKHEAD.

Years ago at another newspaper, I was given the assignment to go out and photograph people enjoying the beautiful spring weather. The editor suggested I head over to a local park where college students were known to sunbathe. On the assignment slip, the editor wrote, “Show me some skin!”

I still have that one. It’s on pink paper.

Another time I was sent to cover a gun show. The assignment read something like, “…show us all the crazy gun nuts…”

With assignment slips there’s always a danger that the subject will see those “funny” words. It happens more often than you’d think, especially when you’re looking over the slip for information like a phone number or confirming the spelling of a subject’s name.

Sometimes even the most innocuous description of an assignment can get you in trouble. Since I often use my assignment slips as note paper, there are times when the subject of a story will see and even read the information I’ve been given. On an assignment that read, “photograph this family and the trailer they live in,” the mother of the family read those words and said tersely, “We live in a mobile home, not a trailer.”

One more before I turn it over for comments. From a business assignment to photograph a “high-end boutique (name omitted) … it sells a bunch of stuff most people can’t afford.”

This post first appeared here.

Posted by trent | Filed Under On Assignment, Trent 

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