I'm Brooke Gladstone. Now starts the final lap in our poverty tour, which begins as we did with the

Virgil of our expedition, Jack Freck, who was for 33 years the welfare director of Athens County

in Appalachian, Ohio. He's led legions of journalists on the tour, grappling all the while with the customs and

quirks of the media biz.

As when some years back, an NBC Dateline producer spelled out exactly what his story required.

So he basically says he was pitching this to his bosses,

and he had to sell it to him.

And I'm spouting off statistics like I always do,

rattling off budget numbers.

And he said, the truth of the matter is,

we like to see a story arc.

I thought I knew this biz, but I hadn't really heard the story arc thing.

So I, you know, it's like, okay, what does that mean?

And he said, we like to start out and tell a story, describe the people, describe what's going on,

and then the crisis they're facing, rises up, rises up, and then there's some resolution

to it.

He says, it doesn't have to be a good resolution.

We like it better if it is, but you know there needs to be a story arc.

And I said, there is no story arc for these folks.

Their lives suck. They have hard lives.

Their arcs come and go within a day.

They get food today, they find a place to stay today.

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