editors and articles

so today, I shadowed an editor for a local community newspaper. I had absolutely no idea what he was going to ask of me or what we would end up doing for the day. It turned out that there was a memorial service/lecture for Neil Aggett (for those of you uninformed, he died in detention for being an organizer of a workers union under apartheid). We walked through the chapel of Aggett's old school and as we approached as set of benches close to the lectern, my editor told me to sit there on my own. I did. then the academic procession began and I realized I was going to be sitting next to all the speakers in front of the entire audience.
the once the main speaker had been introduced, he got up to stand at the podium and started to speak. he spoke of far-off things like globalization, democracy and seeking social justice. i diligently took notes.
between all the verbal and academic wankery, came several strong messages, the man had very strong views on the current global economic status quo. he used the platform to berrate the USA for being the richest country in the world while have some of the most serious social ailments. he read out some facts; the united states currently has one in every 100 black men aged between 30 and 34, in prison. the number of people in the prison system of the US, is greater than the entire populations of Botswana and Lesotho put together.
He also juxtaposed the apartheid lagacy of descrimination, exploitation and violence with the way the financial pinacle treat the rest of society and of how globalization has been very bad for far more than to whom it has been good to.
My editor then left to go for a swim (i know hey) and he told me to write up an article and to write up a 120 word piece for the radio. I had no idea what angle he was looking for.
seeing as it was his memorial, i chose to write on the lecture from the side of an Aggett sympathizer and i proceded to tell the story of how Aggett lived and died and what we can learn from this.
I then showe dit to my editor when he showed up. he ate my soul for breakfast saying that i had written soft blog style writing that he would never be able to print. we then had a long chat about how I need to find the story beyond the platform and that i need to ask for a briefing before the event.
helpful words of wisdom. i just wish he could have been more approacheable. why is it that editors feel the need to have cub journo's learn by fire ALL the time? It is n't fun to feel like an idiot all the time. and the worst thing is that I am volunteering to get told that i don't know what i am doing. I told my editor that I have no idea what I was doing, in the hope that he might guide me with all his years of field experience. well all he said was that i will learn in time. WTF!!!
confused much??
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