The Cost of Commitment - KJ2

by Lynn Ames

“No, sweetheart, I wasn’t. I fully intend for America to know that Jamison Parker is one of the most upright, honest, talented, intelligent, impartial reporters there is.”

  Jay laughed. “Is that all?”

  Kate smiled. “Well, it’s a start.” She kissed Jay on the forehead.

  “Here we go...”

  Trish was waiting in the lobby when they arrived.

  “Trish, this is Katherine Kyle. Kate, meet Trish Stanton, editor extraordinaire.”

  Trish nodded at Kate in acknowledgment before asking, “How are you guys holding up?”

  “Okay,” Jay answered for them. “How about you?”

  “Me? Piece of cake.”

  “You’re a terrible liar, have I ever told you that? Remind me to play poker with you. It’d be like taking candy from a baby.”

  “You wish, kiddo. Let’s go. The boss is waiting for us in his office.”

  “Is he in a good mood?”

  Trish gave Jay a playful shove. “Don’t be a chicken.” To Kate she said, “Is she this difficult at home?”

  “You have no idea.”

  Moments later they were ushered into the managing editor’s suite.

  “Hello, Patricia, Jamison.”

  “Hello, sir. This is—”

  “Katherine Kyle, I presume,” he finished for Jay as he strode across the room and grasped Kate’s hand in a firm grip.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Standislau. I only wish it were under different circumstances.”

  “I’m glad you could make it. Please, sit down, everyone.”

  When they were seated, Standislau said, “As you know, this has become bigger than any of us anticipated.”

  “I’m so sor—”

  He waved off Jay’s apology. “Don’t, Jamison. None of us thought this essentially personal matter would rise to this level. What’s done is The Cost of Commitment

  done. The important thing now is to nip this thing in the bud. I’m tired of being on the defensive. It’s time to fight back.”

  Sitting directly across from him, Kate smiled. She’d never met the managing editor before, though his reputation was legendary. He was known as a straight shooter—tough, gruff, fair, and fiercely protective of his magazine and his employees. She could see that the description was well deserved.

  “My experts tell me Wanda Nelson is a skilled interviewer. I hear she’s not afraid to ask the tough questions, but she’s also not obnoxious about belaboring issues ad nauseum. Ms. Kyle, my recollection is that you have some experience with her?”

  “Yes, sir. I would say your assessment of Wanda and her style is accurate. I have always found her to be fair. I think we have the added advantage of knowing that she is familiar with, and respects, Jay’s work.”

  Both Standislau and Trish gave her slightly surprised looks.

  “Wanda has met Jay once before.” Kate didn’t want to elaborate any further and was grateful when Jay’s bosses simply nodded in understanding.

  “Right then,” Standislau went on. “That helps.”

  “If I might, Mr. Standislau,” Jay ventured, “Kate and I have taken the liberty of running through the questions we think will likely come up tonight. Is there anything from your perspective you’re most concerned about?”

  He smiled at Kate. “I knew having a PR expert on hand would come in handy. You two make an impressive team.” He turned his attention to Jay. “My focus, as you might imagine, is strictly the integrity of this magazine and its product. I want folks to walk away from your interview and my three torture sessions tomorrow morning having confidence in Time, in the news we bring them and the accuracy of the information on our pages. I want the viewers and our readers to trust us.”

  “Okay,” said Jay, “what do you see my role as being?”

  “I want to give you a forum to defend yourself and to restore your reputation. I also believe that if the public meets you and gets to know you a little bit, they’ll know what we do: that you’re an outstanding human being and an excellent reporter with grit and honor.”

  Jay asked, “Are there any areas you’d like me to specifically avoid?”

  Standislau stood and walked over to the large picture windows, gazing out at the city below. Without turning around he said, “I think that you ought to focus narrowly on the accusations being hurled against your character and ethics. Leave the magazine’s policies and reputation to me.”

  Lynn Ames

  “If I’m asked a direct question about who knew what, when, how do you want me to answer it?”

  The managing editor turned around to look at Jay, and then at Kate.

  “How would you have her answer it, Ms. Kyle?”

  Looking him directly in the eye, she answered, “Honesty is the best policy, sir.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Trish shift uncomfortably in her seat. Kate added, “That doesn’t mean, however, that you have to say everything you know. It merely means that you should answer the question. As I’m sure you all know, there are many ways to answer a question.”

  Standislau regarded Kate appreciatively. “Yes, Ms. Kyle, there’s certainly a lot of truth in that. I suspect that Time and Jamison are in good hands with you.”

  “Just trying to help out, sir.”

  “Jamison?”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “How do you feel about all this? Do you think you can carry this off?”

  “I think, Mr. Standislau, that I’m tired of sitting by while everybody takes shots at me and at Time. I say you’re right. It’s time to fight back.

  I’m happy to have an opportunity to set the record straight and put this behind us.”

  “I’m glad to hear that, Jamison. Very glad to hear that. Okay, let’s reconvene after the interview tonight and see where we are. Then we’ll know if we have any specific adjustments we’ll need to make to our strategy or any areas on which we need to place particular emphasis.

  Good luck, ladies. I’ll have the car come and get you for the show at 6:45, all right? I believe my secretary has the address.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Kate and Jay said as they rose to leave.

  “Do me proud, ladies. Patricia, can you stay a minute?”

  “Of course.”

  When the door had closed he said, “Ms. Kyle is quite impressive, isn’t she?”

  “Yes, sir, she sure is.”

  “Her looks won’t hurt with the viewers, either.”

  “I think they’ll both score well with the public on that count, Vander.”

  He chuckled. “They will at that. I want you to know I’ve got pollsters standing by to run numbers after tonight’s show. That will give us a good idea what ground we need to cover in the morning.” He paused, looking uncomfortable for a moment. “It will also tell us whether or not it will be too much of a liability to hold on to Jamison.”

  Trish’s eyes registered indignation.

  The Cost of Commitment

  “This is a business, Trish,” he said, shrugging apologetically. “As much as you and I both like her and have faith in her talents and abilities, I can’t keep her to the detriment of the magazine.”

  “I thought you were of the opinion we could win this battle.”

  “I am.”

  “Without casualties,” she added bitingly.

  “I’d like that to be the case. Patricia, I know you think very highly of Jamison. I do, too. But we both have jobs to do and an obligation to the organization. Let’s just wait and see what happens tonight. Perhaps she’ll acquit herself well and we won’t have to worry about next steps.”

  Trish nodded curtly. “I have work to do.”

  The studio lights were hot, and Jay was grateful for Kate’s suggestion that she wear something sleeveless under her suit jacket, even though it was in the forties outside.

  “My television experience has to be good for something, sweetheart,”

  she’d said.

  A hand on her shoulder jolted Jay back to the moment.

  �
��Are you okay, love?”

  They were sitting on the set, waiting for Wanda Nelson to join them.

  Their lavaliere microphones had not yet been affixed.

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s understandable to be nervous, Jay. Just remember, I’ll be right here with you. Be yourself—you’ll win them over in a heartbeat.”

  “Thanks, Kate. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  Kate smiled at her affectionately, even as she thought with a pang, Without me, you wouldn’t be in this mess.

  “Good evening, Jamison. It’s good to see you again.”

  Kate and Jay looked up to see Wanda Nelson standing over them. Her tawny skin glowed with good health. Perfect teeth smiled out from a flawless face that had graced many movie screens. After serving as a guest host on the Today Show for two years, she had been given her own weekly newsmagazine show two months earlier. The thing that set it apart from all other similar shows was that the interviews were conducted live, not taped for later broadcast.

  “Katherine, it’s nice to see you again as well.”

  Both women stood up to shake her hand.

  “I thought I’d start by interviewing Jamison first.” Wanda looked from one woman to the other. “Then for the last few minutes of the segment we’ll bring you in, Katherine, and talk to you as well.”

  Lynn Ames

  While neither Kate nor Jay was particularly happy with this arrangement, it was clear that Wanda was in charge and there was no room for negotiation.

  “Sure,” Kate said easily. “Is it all right with you if I just stand in the wings to watch?”

  “Absolutely. I’m sure Jamison will be more comfortable that way.”

  Wanda smiled as a production assistant pinned a microphone to her lapel and handed her an earpiece. Another assistant outfitted Jay with a mic as well.

  “Two minutes, people,” called out a disembodied voice.

  With a squeeze to Jay’s shoulder and a wink, Kate moved off set, finding a spot that was directly in line with Wanda’s head. This would make it possible for Jay to steal glances at her, all the while appearing to be looking at her interviewer.

  “Thirty seconds.”

  Jay rotated her shoulders to relax as Wanda reviewed notes she had placed on the floor next to her chair.

  “And five, four, three, two, one...cue the music.” A hand behind one of the cameras was raised, and the operator cued the host.

  “Good evening, everyone, and welcome to America’s Heartbeat. I’m Wanda Nelson. In our first segment tonight, we’re going to examine a question of journalistic ethics. What happens when a reporter gets too close to her subject? Should a journalist be allowed to write about something, or someone, she knows? We’ll get up close and personal with Jamison Parker, a Time magazine reporter accused of doing just that, right after this.”

  The red light on the camera went off, and the host resumed reviewing her notes. Two minutes later, she received the next cue.

  “Welcome back. With me in the studio tonight is Jamison Parker, a writer for Time magazine who found herself the subject of much discussion this week. Ms. Parker, thank you for being here.”

  The camera was rolled back to fit both women in the shot.

  “Thank you, it’s a pleasure to be here.”

  Kate thought Jay looked relaxed, although she knew otherwise. She had taught Jay a couple of quick techniques for appearing at ease in front of the camera and was glad to see her lover using those to good advantage.

  “Ms. Parker—”

  “Please, call me Jay.” She smiled her most engaging smile.

  “Good enough. Jay, let’s talk about what happened earlier this week, and then we’ll take it from there. At a press conference you took the extraordinary step of openly acknowledging your homosexuality. Why would you do that?”

  The Cost of Commitment

  “As so many people do, Wanda, several months ago I fell in love.

  Unlike most people, however, I was unable to publicly declare that love.

  Being a lesbian can be difficult enough under normal circumstances in our society. Add to that a relationship with a high-profile individual, and it becomes nearly impossible. My partner and I finally reached the decision that we no longer wished to be hounded by members of the media, all of whom were inexplicably interested in my identity. It seemed that the best way to reclaim our privacy was to get our relationship out into the open. That is what we did earlier this week.”

  “For those viewers who are unaware of who Ms. Parker’s partner is, she is none other than Katherine Kyle, a former television news anchor who catapulted to fame last May when she became the only reporter on the scene as two explosions rocked the New York state capitol building.

  Ms. Kyle’s coverage was carried all over the world by CNN and other news outlets. The next week, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine. And that’s where this story gets interesting. Jay, you wrote that cover story on your partner, did you not?”

  “At the time I was assigned to write the story, Kate and I were not involved. She was not my partner, no.”

  “But you knew her?”

  “Actually, before the bombing at the capitol, I did not know her name.”

  The interviewer looked surprised, recalling clearly the chemistry between the two women when they had visited the set of the Today Show the morning after the bombing. “No?”

  “No. We attended the same college, although Kate was two years ahead of me. Our paths crossed several times back then, but I never knew who she was.”

  “So you were not an item in college.”

  Jay smiled. “I’d like to think I wouldn’t get involved with someone before at least asking her name.” She winked, looking over Wanda’s head at Kate, who smiled broadly back at her.

  “Good point. When, exactly, did you become romantically involved?”

  “We got reacquainted shortly after the bombing. When I saw Kate on television, I finally learned her name. I was in Albany to interview Governor Hyland. When I saw Kate on CNN, I went to the scene of the bombing to see if she was all right. It turned out that we both needed to get to New York City—she was set to appear on the three morning news shows the next morning, and my interview with the governor had gotten rescheduled for his Manhattan office later the same day—so she offered to give me a ride.”

  “And you became involved then?”

  Lynn Ames

  “No. I wrote the story on Governor Hyland, and Kate returned to Albany. When I turned in my piece, I was assigned to write a cover story about the new breed of journalists. My editor wanted the piece to focus on Kate. So I returned to Albany to research the story, interview her colleagues, and talk to some of the victims of the capitol bombing. The fact that she had run back into the capitol after the second explosion to help rescue folks who were trapped was something unique for journalists, who are generally impartial observers. That was one of the major angles of my story. It wasn’t until I had completed all of the interviews and research that we started to date.”

  “So you weren’t involved romantically before that, but you did know her.”

  “Yes, and in retrospect, I should have made that fact plain to my editors.”

  Good, thought Kate as she watched proudly from the wings. Take responsibility, tell the truth, exonerate the magazine, and control the interview.

  “Your editors didn’t know that you had a connection to Kate?”

  “No. At the time, I didn’t think it was relevant. Should I have told them that I went to college with her but didn’t know her name until the bombing? Perhaps, but it just didn’t occur to me that it would become significant.” Jay leaned forward as Kate had told her to do to convey earnestness. “I set out to write the most objective story possible. In fact, when I wrote the piece, the question I asked myself repeatedly was, would I write this any differently if I didn’t know Kate at all? The answer I kept coming back with was no. My intention was to let the bombing victim
s, her colleagues, and her actions tell the story. I am confident that anyone reading the piece will feel that that is the story they got.”

  Wanda nodded. “I have to say, Jay, I read the story at the time, and I reread it closely several times in preparation for this interview, and I could not find any hint of bias in it.”

  “I’m glad. I take my job very seriously. I have a responsibility to the public to inform them, to educate them, and to present stories that are well rounded, impartial, and interesting. If I thought for a minute that I had not met those standards in this instance, I would willingly step aside.

  I have no desire to mislead anyone. Folks fall in love every day with people they meet while working. That’s what happened here. If I had it to do again, I would make some different choices, perhaps. I certainly would have told my editors that Kate’s and my paths had crossed before, and I might have recused myself from the story if I’d known what would happen later. But I didn’t have a crystal ball and couldn’t foresee falling in love like that.”

  The Cost of Commitment

  Wanda said, chuckling, “I don’t know anyone who plans when and where to fall in love. I know that I met my husband while making a movie on which he was a consultant. Falling in love was about the last thing I thought would happen on that set.”

  There was a momentary pause, then Wanda said. “When we come back, a look back at the stories that made headlines this week.”

  The disembodied voice called out, “And we’re clear.”

  Wanda rose from her chair, reaching out her hand to Jay. “Wow, that went by too quickly.” She motioned Kate over. “I’m really sorry I didn’t get to talk to you both together, but we just ran out of time.”

  Kate wasn’t sure if Wanda was being sincere or if it had been her intention all along to interview Jay alone. “That’s quite all right.”

  “I want you both to know that I have tremendous respect for what you did by coming out—that took a lot of courage. I understand better than most what it’s like to have the paparazzi hounding you day and night. I wish you all the best and hope you find some peace.”

  “Thank you, Wanda. We appreciate that.” Kate waited patiently as a technician stripped Jay of her microphone. Then she placed her hand gently on her partner’s back and guided her off the set.