Learning reporting
Patrick T. Reardon
Learning reporting at City
News Bureau of Chicago, a
boot camp for fact-gathering
marines, beaten and hammered
and formed by a drill sergeant
editor, many came to love — not
the ex-seminarian who was used
to being hammered and formed
without forgetting himself.
The joke at City News was no
joke: If your mother says she
loves you, check it out.
It was repeated every day.
There was a poster on the wall.
It was said to the ex-seminarian,
and he said it to others. Facts,
confirmed, nailed down, even
if self-evident. Nothing left
to chance.
Years later, the veteran
fact-gatherer who had been the
ex-seminarian checked it out
— no joke — and found it false.
It explained much. Sad truth.
Patrick T. Reardon
6.14.26
This poem was originally published by Silver Birch Press on 6.12.26.
Written by : Patrick T. Reardon
For more than three decades Patrick T. Reardon was an urban affairs writer, a feature writer, a columnist, and an editor for the Chicago Tribune. In 2000 he was one of a team of 50 staff members who won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. Now a freelance writer and poet, he has contributed chapters to several books and is the author of Faith Stripped to Its Essence. His website is https://patricktreardon.com/.