Silly journalists

The professor I interviewed on Thursday was...interesting.

From the start, he treated me patronizingly. He gave me two sentences per question, repeated things constantly (in a way that made me think he assumed I wouldn't understand it on the first go), and just made it really hard for me to interview him.

I got through it, and managed to get some good information. He's working on a project to find stronger and more heat-resistant materials to use in second-generation nuclear reactors. That's perfect for the energy feature I'll be doing for Fall 2013--yes, Fall. Bill decided that since that magazine will be larger anyway, and it will give me more time to track down professors which is SO HARD TO DO UGH.

Anyway, so after this interview he's like, "You're going to send me whatever you write before you publish it." And I responded yes, of course, we always do, and he kept going: "And when I give you corrections, you will actually do them."

I'm a little flustered. Why wouldn't I do them? Why is he telling me to do my job? I've never even spoken to this man before, I've never seen him, and he's almost angry at me all of the sudden. So I reassure him, tell him yes, of course (or some mumbled flustered version of it, I don't know) over and over, and then out of nowhere he asks me what my major is. I tell him I'm a physics major.

His eyes widen. "Oh, you're a scientist? So you understand! So you understand what we do!"

His demeanor changes like somebody flipped a switch. "These journalists," he continues, "they never get anything right. They just don't get it right, and then we give them the right way, and they don't take it and they just publish anyway--"

I thought it was both amusing and disconcerting. He did not treat me politely before he knew I was a physics major. And then he referred to "journalists" as if I wasn't one, as if scientists and journalists were completely mutually exclusive and opposite. It seemed rude, and close-minded. Maybe he had some bad experience with journalists? He is the director of a large international research collaboration, so I'm sure he's had to sit down and be interviewed by journalists of all types.

But still. He made that interview unnecessarily hard, and treated me like a fool because he thought I was just a stupid journalist who wouldn't understand. And that's not a civil way to treat a person, in my opinion.