In real time a reader will pick up a newspaper, look at the length of an ambitious story and think, "I don't have TIME to read this." But when the story is good enough, when the door into the story is wide enough, real time has a way of melting away. The reader escapes from the here and now into another time and place, a place where unimagined worlds are experienced.
In this case, the unimaginable world is the one that a little girl named Danielle was born into. Until the age of seven, she experienced a level of neglect from her birth mother so great that it turned her into what the story calls a "feral child." The condition in which she was discovered by authorities was so horrendous that it made cops and caseworkers weep. Those conditions are described so vividly by the reporter that they have, by accounts from inside and outside the newspaper, brought tears to the eyes of readers as well.
I wish you could read the newspaper version of the story, written by Lane DeGregory, accompanied by the stunning black and white photography of Melissa Lyttle. But "The Girl in the Window" retains its power on the
St. Petersburg Times Web site, which adds
compelling audio and video to the experience, a combination that has attracted, according to editors at the
Times, an extraordinary number of readers -- 16 times the normal traffic.
The story inspires two crucial questions for those who care about journalism:
1. Is journalism losing its capacity to produce these kinds of stories, and at what cost?
2. Is there a growing appetite for such stories, or a shrinking one?
Another way of asking both questions: Does DeGregory's story mark the end of an era for news organizations, or perhaps the beginning of a new era?
To help me frame those questions, I've made a list of what I took away from "The Girl in the Window," that is, the value I received in exchange for 45 minutes of my time.
* I got to read a powerful story, a narrative that propelled me forward to learn what happened next to this amazing little girl, and, just as important, how it happened.
* By the end, I felt I had in some measure entered the lives of these characters, people who exist less than an hour's drive from the place I live: the girl struggling to speak and eat like a normal child; the mother who neglected her; the couple who adopted her; her new 11-year-old brother, perhaps the most impressive character I've ever met in a newspaper story; all the specialists and therapists whose hearts were broken by the condition of this girl, and who were inspired to try to help her.
* But this is not straight narrative. It is also a carefully reported story about a system designed to help abused and neglected children, a system capable of great moments of salvation and, as in this case, unspeakable failures. I am reminded that many children are in trouble. If they are turned over to foster care, terrible things may happen to them. If they are left with abusive parents, in extreme cases they can turn out like this.
* No character in this story is more fascinating and infuriating than the neglectful mother. Most amazing about this account is the way that the reporter reveals her character, not to defend or demonize her, but to make us see the world through her myopic eyes. I came away thinking that she really loves her child, and the author gives us evidence that challenges us to deal with that seemingly impossible notion.
Here's one argument about the future of newspapers. They should contain more of the elements that make the online experience compelling: shorter bites of information, greater interactivity, links to other resources. But, in spite of its enlightened online presence, "The Girl in the Window" represents the opposite of that experience. It is decidedly Old School in the time required to investigate and write it, in its scope and length, and in its vision of what a reader is willing to enter into. The story says to the reader: "You say you don't have TIME to read this, but we bet you can find the time to read THIS."
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
If a story takes 45 minutes to read, and people are busy, inattentive, multi-tasking, is it worth the time and resources to produce it?
And if a story of this character can attract an audience both online and in print are we in the process of eliminating the human resources and the news hole required to create it and give it a life in the community?
In other words, does Lane DeGregory's story have a moral? Does it portend an enlightened future, or the passing of an era?
Read it, and
tell us what you think.
