What Makes A Good Story?

Steve Hartman Tells You What Works For Assignment America...And What Doesn't

(CBS)  What makes a good story?

The short answer is...I know one when I see it. It's almost easier to tell you what's not a good story idea. Sweet as she may be, you're grandma’s 100th birthday is not a good story idea. Neither is your giant collection of Star Wars action figures. Nor your prize rutabaga. Been there, told that. Also, there's a difference between a good deed and a good story. Someone walking, biking, or even snowshoeing a great distance "to raise awareness" for a particular cause may be a very kind thing - but it doesn’t necessarily rise to the level of a national news story. First and foremost, a good feature story idea is unique. For example, if you grandma is celebrating her 100th by getting married to her high school sweetheart...I'm listening. If your giant Star Wars collection gets stolen by someone in a Wookie costume and you’ve got it on tape...I'm really listening. Or if your prize rutabaga has markings that that make it look like Oprah AND women from across America are flocking to your garden to pay homage AND you’ve got a Dr. Phil musk melon growing right beside her - done, you've got me!

Probably the easiest way to find a good story idea is to read your local paper. Yes, it's perfectly OK to suggest a really good story that your local media has covered. Don’t assume that just because a story makes news in your town that I must know about it. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee I don't. I'm one guy with one producer named Michelle (she’s the one who will be reading your suggestions) and there’s no way we can read all the major dailies - let alone all the smaller papers, local monthly magazines, and church bulletins where good feature stories like to hide.

Of course, I'm also interested in story ideas that haven't necessarily been in the local paper. But that's a lot harder. I've found when I've asked for story ideas in the past that most people suggest themselves - or a product they’re trying to sell. A self-serving story idea is usually a bad story idea. The best ideas usually come from people who aren’t related to the subject - they just heard about this person or place or event and thought it was a story all of America should know.

Finally, and most importantly, if it's a story that really caught your interest - if it's something you couldn’t wait to tell other people about - chances are I'll feel the same.

Hope this helps. And I look forward to your ideas.

Steve Hartman

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Suggest a story of your own by sending an e-mail to Steve Hartman at Assignment America.

[hypnotoad72]

How about something optimistic? One example is this: New fields that Americans can get educated for, to make up for the fields being offshored?

Or something less optimistic: Repercussions from the quality of offshored products and services; I''ve heard a lot of nightmares from people, but I will admit the media has covered a lot of melamine and lead paint issues already... regulations aren''t always bad things, otherwise we''d have no rules and laws to obey, ourselves, and there used to be an adage -- "You get what you pay for". These days, why do offshored products cost more when we were told offshoring was done to lower their costs? It''s not due to regulations and quality control...

Thanks for reading!

[tomtomasters]

DU Troops Infect Americans at Home

The Democratic leadership is so out of touch, and Republicans deny DU is a problem. They are either ignorant or out right liars. Many politicians have gone to Iraq and are candidates to contract the deadly poison. I bet McCain, Hillary, and Bush has it, without them even knowing it yet. Pretty unrealistic to think Iraqis will have any kind of economy or to trade in the world with DU poisoning now ingrained in its society. Even the idea of shipping Oil out of Iraq with DU floating in the crude to be shipped off to the US for distillation into the air is a major reality. Bush has created a monster. Do I really want my daughter going to school to play with her girlfriend whose DU father just returned from Iraq giving his little darling hugs and kisses, so my daughter can be hanging around her to get the deadly ceramic uranium microbe lodged in her body? The answer is NO, and I know many parents in the US are going to feel the same. Educate yourselves on DU. There are many links. Here is one:
http://www.the7thfire.com/Politics%20and%20History/Depleted-Uranium.htm

[tomtomasters]

KEEP the Troops in Iraq!
I think bringing the troops back to the US is a Terrorist Act. What defense do women have against it, and what about the deform babies? Spouses contaminate each other. And The abortion issue is taking on a whole new light, where abortion is legal to kill off the consequences of DU poisoned deformed babies caused from the war in Iraq. Things are not getting better by any stretch of the imagination. They are going to get worse. And how about the Iraqi people, who cares for them? We can''t even take care of our own VETS.

[tomtomasters]

DU Depleted Uranium the Coming Crisis

So many people have no idea what is really coming. One crisis we do not recognize is DU Depleted Uranium that is slowly killing off entire brigades of Vets that was once known as Gulf War Syndrome. Tons of the stuff was blasted into Iraq. I read that 700 cruise missiles were fired but never landed where they were intended. Think of where they went in Iraq, and exploding tons of DU into the environment. It gets into the water, contaminates food and fields, live stock and birds. This crime is going to wipe out the entire Iraqi population in the coming years.

And then we are without thinking; bringing DU contaminated troops back to the US to mingle in our communities, to contaminate our family and friends? The US will become like Iraq with deformed babies and wives and girlfriends slowly dying from the poison. It will probably get into the gay community and more and more people will suffer and die from DU poisoning. This stuff doesn''t go away. It remains in the environment forever basically. 4.3 billion years is the estimate. It can''t be burned, so cremation is no solution. And burial with the thought water can infiltrate coffins and seep into the ground water, is really no solution to this horrific mess Bush has given us in the world.

[brianbwb-2009]

I hope Mr. Hartman reads this page, as I''d really rather not subscribe to MS Outlook...

[brianbwb-2009]

For all that fear an Islamic revolution is coming for your children:

I have been honored to work with Elfa''s school of Music, started as a music mentoring project in a house in Bandung Indonesia. Since 1987, it has grown into a national franchise, with over 15,000 students, Muslim, Christian, and Buddhist, in this majority Muslim country.

Since the year 2000, the best of our students have competed in the International Choir Games (formerly International Choir Olympics) in the Jazz and Pop categories, and are four time gold medalists. (Bremen, Germany, Grado, Italy, Seoul, South Korea, and Xiamen, China) Their harmony on stage is matrched by their harmony in everyday life.

We are currently looking into the possibilities of a US tour, to show what beauty can be accomplished through inclusion, and to dispel the myth that Muslims are anti US.

[carolegene64]

Did you know that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee ordered the destruction of 93 state computers along with the information of state work product for all of his tenure which was 10 years, yet this guy is running for president? Unbelievable. He is also being sued for doing this because it completely violates the Freedom of Information Act since there are NO state public records anymore. I am attaching part of my complaint (maximum words allowed) to the FBI because the state of Arkansas is still the ''the good ''ole boys'' mentality!

Also enclosed (under another Post A Comment is a copy of my complaint against both the Pulaski County Prosecutor and State Attorney General who refused to investigate several written complaints for not prosecuting the former governor for committing state and federal crimes !!! Can you believe this? You can access the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette''s archives to read all the interviews with state law officials about this guy. Does America want a president like this? NO, NO, NO. Yes, extract what you want from either the newspapers or the civil suit to read the Pulaski County Circuit Court, case no. CV-07-9346 for details of the court action.

CBS. . . this must be published on your evening news because the voting public MUST be advised of this criminal misconduct of a former governor who is running for a presidential office.

[hennighg]

What happens to the stories that were not vote winners? Are those people and their stories simply dumped? It occurs to me that in one week you might have 3 urgently good stories and in another week you might have 3 rather dull ones. Just because an idea didn't win one week doesn't mean it isn't a great Assignment America, so I'm wondering: what becomes of the losers?

[dorispasilis]

I would like a story related to methadone treatment. It is being abused to get our young people weaned off of drugs. The Drs. are no longer trying to use it for this purpose. They keep these abusers on it for years. If used properly it should take an average of 5-6 wks. Drs. have a quota of patients they have to have in program to make their money. So why wean them off of it when they can profit by keeping them on it. In other words patients are paying the Drs. to get their daily fix. thank you

[lovey13-2009]

If you really care about America ,then interview the American people.Ask them about america,for example:
1. What about health care for all Americans. If we can spend Billions of dollars on war,Why can,t we spend it on American people.
2.When the average person pays all deductions and has very little money left,then where is the American dream at?
3.People that apply for Disability Social security must wait appox 12 months for a disission of there benifits. In the mean time they lose everything they worked for all there life. Modernize social security system. after all the elderly built this country. Have goverment move into the 21st century with computers.