Time is on my side - yes, it is

Two weeks after my last blog post, I'm still in the same recycling story. Filed it yesterday, and made some changes today. Yes, the same story of the previous post. Three weeks in one simple story isn't something that I'm used to do. I'm positive they just allowed me to spend all this time because I'm a fellow - a friendly one, heh.
But we have to take advantage of what life brings us. I could afford to actually be in the field and I've knocked in a lot of doors lately, to see how Philadelphians take care of their trash. Many people treated me badly and others showed me some politeness, as I expected.
I also took that long to write the story because the editor asked me a whole new bunch of questions after I considered my reporting done. Her questions opened another flank on the reporting and gave the story more substance. The method and the relationship reporter-editor here is a little different than in my Brazilian newsroom: here, the ball is always in my court, so to speak. She asked me a lot of things, but I called the shots on defining the characters, places to go, angle. We discussed a lot more, and that's a different approach, not only a matter of having more time.
I'm not saying the editors don't use their power to interfere, as it happens everywhere in the world. But even the words chose to talk about the story show a different point of view. Here, the editor says "your story". In Brazil, editors almost always say "the story" or "our story". It's a different approach, and I'm not sure if the Inquirer's way give reporters more power than Zero Hora's way, as it might look. I didn't yet have to fight or stand for something I wrote and the editors didn't accept or changed. You just can tell something about the balance of power after getting into some kind of conflict. But letting me decide a lot about the story is certainly a more comfortable way to work for a reporter. "Do you think you have everything you wanted to have in this story?", asked me the editor after I filed it. In my 10-year career as a journalist, I didn't remember to be asked that very often.
Of course this has its drawbacks. Reporters and editors working like that have to be extra careful to not get lazy, specially covering a beat, and stuck with the same sources and stories. I'm seeing this here with some people: searching their clips, you see a pattern on leades, voices, news. More dangerous to lose perspective than if you have an editor messing more with your work from the beginning. Although the editors here seem to be more respectful with the reporters, the reporters have to be more humble to listen to their insights. And humbleness is not exactly a feature for journalists in general.
Is all this blah-blah-blah? Could be. But is also the development one of my goals for the fellowship, something that my Brazilian editors wanted me to learn: how to get big stories done. This boring 3-week reporting provided me many tools on double-checking, note-taking, organization, source development. I'm pretty sure I'll have a different, more effective way to report and deal with editors in Brazil once this is over.
I've never had such luxury as this lot of time. I made good use of it, I guess.