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Anyone else getting bombarded by angry parents?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by FuturaBold, May 8, 2008.

  1. Don't forget about scrapbook clippings!
     
  2. amraeder

    amraeder Well-Known Member

    The parent complaint I hear all the time is parents from School A say we give School B more coverage. Parents from School B say School A gets all the coverage. School C complains about School A and B getting more coverage... yada, yada, yada.

    Today, I was covering an NLI signing, I hear a parent sitting RIGHT BEHIND ME go something along the lines of "Where's the media. If it's a kid from School B, they're all over it." Couldn't help but laugh to myself.
     
  3. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Yes ma'am. We know the exact game this is going to happen, each and every time.
    It's a conspiracy theory.
     
  4. amraeder

    amraeder Well-Known Member

    If you actually said that to a parent, you're my new hero.
     
  5. farmerjerome

    farmerjerome Active Member

    Actually, I'm going to disagree with that. Why would you go and cover a team where the team you go to see has vitually no shot of winning, unless it's to piss more people off?

    Sure, you're screwed if it's an upset but that's not probable.

    I'm a stringer, so I choose what I cover. If my boss wants to send me to a game where one of our home teams is sure to get killed I'll pass. I'll take a look at the schedule and point out a better game and see if that works. Hell, even when I was on staff I did that.

    I've always found the way to shut parents up is to tell them you're planning on covering them in the post season. Hey the shitty teams deserve a story or two too.
     
  6. JBHawkEye

    JBHawkEye Well-Known Member

    We can never get away from these people.

    • We get a two-to-three-week break from high school sports between the winter and spring seasons. But we have schools that run indoor track during that time.
    • We get absolutely no break between the spring and summer seasons (since Iowa has its baseball and softball in the summer). The final day of the state track meet is May 17. The first day of baseball and softball games is May 19. Oh, and we're still wrapping up soccer, golf and tennis postseasons (along with baseball and softball postseasons on the Illinois side of the river).
    • We get three weeks of no prep stuff in August, but we're working on preseason football stuff, and also during that time, we get the whiny Little League parents.
    • And if we're lucky, we might get two weeks between the fall and winter seasons (that's if we don't get someone to state volleyball or the final two rounds of the state football playoffs). Last November we had a team win the state title in football on a Saturday night, and that following Monday we had our first prep basketball games. There were no games on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, or on Thanksgiving Day, but the following day we had several teams playing in tournaments.

    Right now in Iowa, you can't play games between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day. But there are coaches badgering the state associations to change that rule so they can play holiday tournaments. Doubt if they'll accomplish that, but they're trying.

    It seems like it never ends for us.
     
  7. Fixed.
     
  8. Believe me, I despise the irrational parents as much as the next guy. But it could be worse. If you're a silver lining kind of person, look at it this way:

    In a time when our job is becoming more irrelevant than we're comfortable with, it's nice to be important enough for people to get pissed about, right?
     
  9. Smallpotatoes

    Smallpotatoes Well-Known Member

    That's one way of looking at it.
    If somebody is taking time out of their day to write or call me about something, I figure whatever they're contacting me about is pretty important to them.
    I guess I have to respect that.
     
  10. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    Angry parents are among my favorite people --- the people who not only read but subscribe to the paper.
     
  11. Cadet

    Cadet Guest

    Uh, not necessarily. Had a middle school coach who was on my case all season (we were small and ran middle school stuff as briefs). At the end of the season, she asked me for 1) dates when each of her team's briefs ran and 2) three copies of the paper for each of those days.

    I asked her why. "Oh, I don't subscribe to the paper." So I gave her the dates but told her that giving away copies would defeat the purpose of selling the paper and she was welcome to purchase from our archives.

    Had other people who demanded I tell them exactly when stuff would run because they weren't willing to buy the paper outside of that date.
     
  12. I often tell those callers that we have a television in the office gets ESPN, but not ESP.
    It usually takes them a minute or two to get it.
     
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