Complaint calls

xan would have loved that post.

 

This is one of the reasons I enjoy covering the "minor" or "fringe" sports.

You go to horse-jumping, crew, rugby, small-time auto racing, etc., and those folks are ecstatic to see you.

Football coaches: "Where were you last week?

 

I used to think that, too, when we first started covering the local race track.

Now, it's "Why don't you write more about the hobby stock drivers? All you ever write about are the late models and sprint cars." Or, "Why don't you interview me, I finished fifth. I need to get my name out there so I can get a sponsor."

Sadly, the whiners are everywhere.

 

Another example why I'm glad I left the field:

Area TV station just signed on for this national HS sports site where people can upload their own pictures and video. It's fairly popular with people in our area and got a lot of hits (read: lots of out-of-focus pictures posted by moms) because my former paper's Web site was a piece of dog shit.

No shit, the TV commercial for the brand new site went something like this:

Is your team getting the coverage it deserves? Tired of never seeing your athlete's photo in the local newspaper? Then use www.newspapersarelame.com! Local sports for you, by you!

It's shit like this that give people a mentality that I owed them something and they deserved any kind of coverage. Fuck that.

 

fuck.

may i ask what region you live in?

 

Wow Rex, that's terrible. I'm glad there's nothing like that around here. I get terrible photo submissions all the time and then get people bitching about why it wasn't in the paper.
You mean the picture of your daughter at the cross country meet? The one where she was at the very right hand part of the photo about to run off of it and then there was nothing but field behind her? The picture of her and her teammates at the winner's podium looking like ants because you're obviously on top of a mountain or something trying to take their picture?

 

I only post for Songbird.

 

it's the way he would have wanted it.

 

Last year, I was at the sectional basketball finals and as I was leaving the arena, a guy who identified himself as a teacher at the school confronted me and wanted to make a complaint.
He was unhappy with the coverage the school's indoor track team received. I told him there was something in the paper about the team every week.
I guess he felt that I didn't play it up big enough, especially about a kid who placed third or fourth in the class meet and qualified for the all-state meet.
I just shrugged and walked away.
What part of "There was something in the paper every week" didn't he understand?
I know it wasn't shouted from the highest mountains, but I'm not a shout-it-from-the-mountaintops kind of guy.
There was something in the paper about the track team every week. What reason did he have to complain?

 

Probably ticked off his program isn't the centerpiece, SP. Give an inch, they'll try and take a section ... I think?

 

Smallp,

Yes, you definitely should return the complaint calls about why something wasn't in the paper. That's a no-brainer and the easiest and most satisfying complaint call to return.

If it wass a game you meant to have and no coach called, spell out your situation -- your policy is to take all those game but no one called. Put it on the coach.

If you covered something else that the caller thinks shows your bias, explain why you went to the game you did. Maybe point out the 10 times you covered her Podunk High team this year. But if the parent gives you grief about not covering Podunk, press for reasons.

Sometimes they will have good ones and give you story ideas. Sometimes they will realize themselves that they have no argument.

If it is a team/sport that you just don't cover, listen to them gripe, south sympathetic and keep your ears open to see if there actually is a story. I've gotten stories ideas, sometimes good story ideas, from parents calling to bitch about 25 percent of the time.

At worst, they get to vent and feel better, if you don't get mad and yell at them.

Of course, that also happens about 25 percent of the time, but that feels good, too.

 

Fixed