July 19, 2008
 
Reflecting On Working with Tony Seaton
 
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
 
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Memorial Service for Tony Seaton is today, Saturday, June 19 at 11 a.m. at Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church.
 
When I heard the “Halloween” theme on my cell phone in the middle of the morning, I prepared for a long grimace or a sense of welcome relief. I had assigned various themes to different HNN staff members. Tony Seaton seemed to fit the tingling suspense of the classic theme.
 
With Huntingtonnews.net having early morning deadlines, a call from Tony meant he had found nirvana in a story on which he worked or, if he was acting as a copy editor, it might be a lengthy discussion of how many times I should, in his opinion, repeat “he said” in a story.
 
Although the latter occasionally made me daft with frustration, the key to resolving the copy editing crisis always came through vigorous debate that included me listening to his perspective as a potential reader. Most of the time the attribution controversy jutted beyond ‘he or she said.’ It would go to the essence of journalistic style --- how much of the reporter’s own experience could be assumed or added without the need for assigning the thought to a newsmaker.
 
Most often, Tony and I found a hard fought middle ground, particularly when the reference pertained to well known past events. He won the scissoring contest on most of the future leaps of faith, though. Those animated discussions helped me adjust from my entertainment critic writing style to mostly emphasize just the facts for breaking and general news items.
 
More often than not, before I had a reworked sentence or graph penned, Tony called having captured the compromise wording more eloquently than my re-write. Other times, he just caught the Microsoft Word missed grammar syntax or accurately filled in a missed object which occasionally happens when deadline pressures do not allow a good second or third re-reading before submission.
 
With his camera, he had a knack for slipping into the best location. And, when covering a story together, I felt sincerely confident just suggesting, for instance, you catch the mayor and I’ll get council. Our result from a controversial governmental collision always complimented --- I knew he had the dramatic visual bytes; he knew I had the in depth explanation.
 
Often, we had a recurring conversation : How with a small staff do you cover everything? Tony did not like the answer. I said, you choose and try to offer a unique perspective or deeper insight than newsprint or minutes permit. The infinity of cyberspace does have its advantages. Being Tony, he tried to cover it all whether through a touch of wonderment or a stretch of compassion.
 
We both learned on the fast track about hospitalization and internet access. Early in the year, my dad had an extended stay which had me pounding out stories and emailing them for editing. Tony, the patient, seemed comfortably productive not withstanding the hospital routine. He had as many news sources beeping in there as he did when working at his apartment or on location.
 
Before impending bad news filtered officially, I had already questioned something: Tony’s email box was full; new material was bouncing. It then made sense the urgency with which he toiled. And not until I saw his full resume for the first time did I fully realize where his commanding confidence, his conjecturing never fully answered questions, and his demands for balance came.
 
From his more cynical hard news agenda, he took my film criticism background and injected a responsibility to assess the evolving nature of reports which unlike movies do not hit ‘30’ when the music swells, end credits roll, and the lights come up.