GOOD COMES FROMGOOD Chris Ison
AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH SEMESTER, the students
in Chris Ison’s news reporting class take out a piece of paper and start a list of “Rules for Good Reporting.” Rule No. 1: In journalism there’s no such thing as writer’s block because, Rule No. 2: Good writing comes from good reporting. The class adds to this list over the course of the semester and it usually ends up being 20 items long. Many students claim to hold on to these rules as they venture out in the world after graduation. Jenna Ross (B.A. ’14) is currently the arts and culture reporter at the Star Tribune, and Ison was her instructor for two classes during her time at the Hubbard School. “He taught us how to ask tough questions, how to write a BY AMANDA FRETHEIM tight lede, how to source a tricky GATES story,” she said, referencing the “Rules.” “‘One-source stories suck,’ he’d tell us. ‘Two-source stories do, too.’ When I’m writing, I hear his voice in my head. Then I pick up the phone to make another call.” To this day, that particular “rule” is memorialized on the bulletin board at the Minnesota Daily office. Ison has been teaching in the Hubbard School since the early 1990s. He taught Public Affairs Reporting as an adjunct instructor until 2004, when he took a leave of absence from the Star Tribune to work in Murphy Hall full time. “I assumed I’d do it for a year and go back,” he said. Instead, Ison stayed for 16 years, taking on roles like speaker and trainer on journalism ethics, the Director of
steps back,
but his lessons
live on.
“Ethics and accuracy and fairness are still important, even if you’re tweeting. We can be too quick to lose track of that.”
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MURPHY REPORTER ❙ Winter 2020
