The Landry News by Andrew Clements

local controversy. Now Cara, tell our viewers, was it your teacher or your principal who got you in trouble about this newspaper?”
    Cara wasn’t expecting such a question. She froze up.
    The reporter stopped smiling, lowered her microphone, and yelled, “Cut!” Bending so close that Cara could smell the acrid scent of her hair spray, Jordy Matlin said, “This is the part where I ask you questions, and you answer them, okay? All you have to do is listen to the question, and when I hold out the microphone, you talk. All right?” The camerawoman cued the reporter with a count of five, and then Jordy asked Cara the same question. “Now, Cara, tell us, was it your teacher or your principal who got you in trouble about this newspaper?” This time, Cara was ready. She had remembered that this was just like writing for the newspaper, only she’d be talking instead. All she had to do was tell the truth in a kind way. So Cara said, “Neither. And I’m not in trouble. The newspaper’s not even in trouble, really. It’s just a difference of opinion about what should go into a newspaper made at a school.”
    The reporter tilted the microphone back toward herself and said, “This story about a divorce that you published—didn’t you think this would cause some problems? If this isn’t just a story, say, if this really happened, then some family’s business has been spread all over town. And, of course, many churchgoers think divorce itself is bad. Didn’t you think there might be a problem here?”
    Cara looked into the camera and said, “I wasn’t thinking about anything except giving someone the chance to tell a story—and it’s a story that I think has been good for a lot of kids to read.”
    The camera stayed on Cara’s face for another three seconds, and then the reporter said, “Cut,” quickly shook Cara’s hand, and turned on her heel and clicked off across the parking lot, talking with her producer. Cara heard her say, “Now we need a shot of the school, and fifteen seconds each with the principal, the superintendent, and the school board president. And we’ve got to find this teacher that they’re trying to ax. We can lay out some copies of the kid’s newspapers and get a collage shot back in the studio before we do the full mix. Ted tells me he’s holding two minutes for us in the local segment, but we have to really hustle if we’re going to make it.” All the newspeople piled into two white vansand roared off toward the center of town.
    Cara was disappointed. She thought there would be more to it than that. She’d only gotten to say about three sentences, and it was such a complicated story. Fifty or sixty words wasn’t enough. And what had the reporter called Mr. Larson . . . “this teacher they’re trying to ax”? Cara winced at that, wishing she had used her moment on camera to say something that would have helped take the heat off Mr. Larson.
    Joanna Landry came over and put Cara’s coat around her shoulders. Cara smiled up at her mom and said, “Now I know why I like newspaper stories better than TV news stories.” Her mom nodded and smiled. “That reporter was kind of a tough bird. Still, you did just fine, Cara honey. Now let’s get in out of this wind.”
    Based on the number of phone calls received at the superintendent’s office, the location of the hearing was moved from the town hall to the high school auditorium so there would be enough room for everyone who was planning to attend.
    During the ten days before the hearing, Mr. Larson and his afternoon class kept track of each development and how it related to the First Amendment. The kids saw the impact of the newspaper and television coverage. They studied Mr. Larson’s interview in the newspaper and compared it to Cara’s TV interview, and then compared them