FAT City: Leading with curiosity

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Well, it’s newsletter time. Let’s see, what did we publish this week…

Ah yes, the article about Tacos El Cabezon, downtown Fresno’s mysteriously closed taco shop. This one has gotten picked up everywhere, and inspired a response from the business itself. Since our article, TEC owner Armando Arias Jr. confirmed the permanent closing (mystery: solved), and noted plans to downsize to a food trailer. Of course, just hours earlier, he told KMPH that was just “out purchasing produce,” so take that for what you will.

It’s great to see our stories get traction, but at the same time, every time we post something “negative,” I see the inevitable Instagram comments about “let the business handle it!” or “stop trying to tear down local entrepreneurs!” And so forth.

You’d think that after spending the better part of 20 years as a culture writer on the internet, I’d be inured to strangers virtually shouting at me by now (the amount of online vitriol you get is directly proportional to how trivial the opinion expressed is, I find), and mostly I am.

BUT, those kinds of comments do still make me momentarily ask myself the hard questions. Like, am I just being “a hater” or trafficking in gossip, or whatever else someone said? (And don’t think I don’t see the sub-tweet posts).

The most honest response I can offer here (in case anyone actually asked) is that we always lead with curiosity.

Every article I write starts with something that I genuinely want to know, whether that’s where to get the best shawarma in town, what to eat in Chinatown, or why does that taco place with all the billboards always seem to be closed. I always start with a question that I care about (note: a question, not an answer), because other people can usually relate. And even if they can’t, caring is contagious when you do it right, I find.

Obviously I’d rather write about businesses that are thriving than ones that are failing. Or to only write nice stories that make me feel good. But who does that actually serve? And what do you do when a source contacts you out of the blue, putting their neck on the line to tell you when something shady is happening? Just ignore them, because they don’t fit whatever pre-fab narrative you want to promote?

That strikes me as abdicating our main responsibility: to care and to be curious about things. If we were just supporting a pre-conceived thesis every time, the stories wouldn’t be very interesting. It would be something more like PR. And I’m happy to leave the PR to the people who are better at it.

I’m not looking to be Woodward and Bernstein over here, but I also can’t just ignore any news that isn’t a heartwarming human interest piece (even if I still enjoy writing those more). Don’t worry, there’s plenty more to come. In the meantime: stay curious, my friends.

— Vince Mancini, Contributing Editor, Food

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