Take better pictures, write better stories
©Scott Sines
When I started work in San Antonio I was in computer training with Maury Maverick Jr. A Texas legend he was making a career transition from politics to journalism. He was the great-grandson of Samuel Maverick, signer of the Texas Declaration of independence and the rancher who refused to brand his cattle so that any cows without a brand were called Mavericks.
A committed democrat Maury served in the Texas legislature fighting for civil rights and organized labor. He left public office and went to work for the ACLU where he represented Viet Nam war protesters, a bookstore owner who sold books by communist authors and many other liberal causes.
Young journalists in San Antonio were drawn to Maury. He was a rumpled, craggy-faced hell raiser. We amused him and he inspired us. In a conversation about Texas politics he could use the words ‘chicken shit’ over 30 times in 15-minutes. He mumbled so badly that sometimes all you could hear were the swear words. If he managed to get himself laughing you couldn’t even make those out.
About that picture. John Burnett and I heard that the state communist party was having its convention in the little border town of Ciudad Acuna. It was our first time working in Mexico together and we were excited. We got into the convention and stayed for every minute. We tracked down some of the local party activists, got interviews, pictures, etc. We sent it all back and went to bed feeling pretty good about things.
The next day we crossed the border and bought a Sunday paper. As I remember the picture got decent play but everything else: stories and pictures got butchered. We were so pissed. We stopped and got one of the bottles of Tequila we smuggled out of the spare tire well of the company car.
Our way home took us right past Maury’s house so we stopped. We ranted and raved. Maury had already seen it. He told us to write better stories and take better pictures. He was right.
