James Tate and the Happy Ending

James Tate, the senior from Shelton, Connecticut, is going to his prom after all.

That's the lede -- as we often spell it in the newsroom.

But this is more than just a happy ending for a Connecicut teenager.

One of the reasons many of us love working as local news reporters is the ability to take one person's story and tell it to the world. The world can then make up its own mind about good or bad, fair or unfair, right or wrong.

But even if it's a story that speaks for itself -- it needs a platform. That's us -- News at 6, or 10 or 11. Radio. Blogs, websites, Facebook, apps. Even the Grey Lady. That's The New York Times for those of you who think Facebook and Twitter are the media of record.

So all of us with our platforms -- we huffed and we puffed and we blew the house down.

And why is James Tate going to his senior prom? Without saying she was right or wrong, Shelton's headmaster said the "international" pressure was too distracting. Getting in the way of what a high school is supposed to do. As in teach.

But the story of one romantic kid - which captivated the media and everyone else - is all about teaching.

Teaching us again - us reporters - why we're here in the first place. (The idealistic part about telling someone's story).

Teaching school officials (who should have known) about the power of social media -- and how the mainstream media are now interwoven with Facebook and Twitter.

And perhaps teaching James Tate and his fellow teenagers that there are consequences to every action -- even if all you wanted to do was ask a girl to the prom.

James Tate and the Shelton High School Prom

All anyone in this part of the country can talk about is a romantic kid from Shelton, Connecticut named James Tate -- who has been banned from his high school’s senior prom.

And what terrible thing did this teenager do? He and friends taped some big block cardboard letters up on the school’s outside wall – at 1AM – asking a girl to be his date to the prom. “HMU – Tate” said the signature. In a more elegant age he might have said call me. But this is 2011—so he said HMU. As in “hit me up”. Which, when I was going to my senior prom, was all about lending someone some money. As in “I’ll hit Dad up for the money for the prom tickets”.

OK – back to 2011. The girl said yes. But the high school’s headmaster Beth Smith said no. Seems she wasn’t amused. Nor did she think – like 99 percent of us – that this was a most creative way to ask someone to the senior prom. No – the headmaster thought that James Tate had been trespassing, being that it was 1AM and such, and by trespassing, had broken school rules. So she suspended Tate for one day.

If that had been all she did, I wouldn’t be writing about this because it probably wouldn’t have become the story of the moment on Twitter and Facebook – not to mention the mainstream media. No, it seems there are school policies at Shelton High. And, she said, school policy is that if you get suspended – you don’t go to your senior prom. Period the end.

But it’s NOT the end. James Tate has made network television appearances. Shelton’s Mayor thinks maybe the headmaster should revisit her decision. I’m writing about it along with hundreds of other reporters and bloggers. Not to mention all the tweets and comments and Facebook support page “likes”.

Some people think maybe we are all a little bats to make such an issue out of what is really just a school disciplinary matter.

But really, that’s not the point. At least not to me.

First of all, one’s senior prom is an event to be remembered for a lifetime. The right to those memories shouldn’t be cancelled for something that harmed no one. There was no violence. No one was bullied on Facebook or anywhere else. Tate didn’t flunk his finals. He’s going on to college.

And if I had a business which could use such a guy – I’d hire him in a minute!

It seems to me what America needs most these days is creativity and some derring-do. People who can come up with new ideas, new ways of doing things. And yet link them to the old ways so that all of us who aren’t 18 aren’t frightened off by those ideas. Well – finding a creative way to ask a girl to a prom is probably as old as proms themselves. We can all identify. And at a time when Tate could have used any number of digital, new media ways to reach his target – he chose one everyone could appreciate. Except of course Shelton High’s headmaster.

Come on Beth Smith. Give the guy a break. Bend your rules. Let him do the community service he’s volunteered to do. Cut off a lock of his hair maybe.

But reward his creativity – don’t stifle it.

Or maybe just reward a romantic deed in an age that is more about Lady Gaga than Rhett Butler.

And James Tate – when you graduate from Syracuse University – if you need a reference for that first real job – HMU. You know where I live. On Facebook.

LinkedIn Is Not Twitter

For me – social media began with LinkedIn. I joined it years ago – because it made sense. If you free lance or have your own production company as I do (both), networking virtually beyond your immediate circle of colleagues and contacts makes excellent sense. Especially if you hate networking the old fashioned way as much as I do. And if you are ultimately as bad at it as I am.

Have I ever gotten a job outright from LinkedIn? I don’t think so. But I don’t think that’s the idea – even though I’ve never fully milked the network’s potential. I’ve learned ways to solve problems from others in my profession. I’ve been able to mine my network and even those of my connections for ideas or expertise. And perhaps most important – I’ve stayed alive professionally during times of extreme drought. And anyone who’s ever sat at home desperately looking for work -- feeling totally invisible – knows what that’s all about.

But something has happened to the LinkedIn I’ve known all these years. It’s beginning to look a lot like Twitter. And Facebook. Each of which has its own purpose. Something users –perhaps addled from all that facetime online –seem to be forgetting.

Instead of seeing professional or educational updates when I check my network, I see tweets. And retweets. Sometimes about where my connection is vacationing (OK if it’s upscale enough it might qualify as a “status” update). Sometimes it’s a shortened link to a news story someone likes. But didn’t personally produce, write, shoot or report. The whole purpose of LinkedIn is being lost in a maze of nothingness.

I too write about nothing – although certainly not as stylishly as Seinfeld did. I LIKE writing about nothing sometimes. But that’s what my Facebook page is for. Where my friends hang out. Where we can get together and throw comments back and forth and feel like a little community – if only on some server someplace. I want LinkedIn reserved for work and education – so there’s someplace in this virtual world of sharing and liking and commenting and loss of individuality – where I can shut the office door, turn off the texts and chats – and just - well – network professionally. Sort of what LinkedIn advertises. Ya know?

Since I’m a journalist --- I use all media for journalistic purpose. I tweet and retweet information and stories on Twitter – which links to my Facebook page. I search the lists I’ve constructed on Twitter for good leads. I follow people who do the same thing I do.

Do I occasionally post something self serving to LinkedIn, which is then processed to Twitter and ends up on my Facebook page? Of course. I'm going to post this. Ultimately – if you’re a news person – everything is useable, everyone you know a possible source. (Yes, even your grandmother sometimes.) And in this incredibly competitive, 24/7 newsroom of a world --- if you don’t promote yourself all the time, you’ll be run over and buried under a heap of social software – by someone who does.

So please – give me my LinkedIn back. Keep your story links and shopping sprees and Starbucks double lattes for the other social media. I’ll even join you there. We’ll do lunch. Virtually.
Just NOT on LinkedIn.