Complaint calls

This is an e-mail i received from a - drum roll please - swim parent after our state coverage.
Anything in CAPS is me replacing our school's names.

For this particular paper, we cover three schools. This paren't school didn't get much mention because no one did anything and one of our schools finished top four and had one swimmer who set two state, pool and meet records - she's a future olympian.The next day at the boys meet, I featured this woman's school because they had two double gold winners and one relay wins.

In this same boys story, our local team that won five of the 11 events wasn't even close to winning and I mentioned - with quotes from coaches - about how the scoring at these meets favors the larger schools, not the ones with the best swimmers.
Apparently, this same woman didn't appreciate it.

So at this point, I'm agitated. Then she calls me out.

I wrote a response, took a break, then edited myself and sent her a final response, pointing out the fact that we are a newspaper - we report news. A bad team losing is not news. I mentioned newsworthy stuff - medal winners. She added a PS to the letter about not mentioning her daughter and I wanted to - but didn't - write something along the line of "if you want your daughter's name in the paper, tell her to swim faster."

 

Ma'am, stop advocating for recognition of mediocrity to be a real parent.

 

She's probably upset because your lack of coverage is going to cost her kid a college scholarship.

 

hey you bastard, she already said he worked hard.

 

You are entitled to get your name in the paper twice — when you're born, when you die.

 

And a spot on the Olympic team

 

Your obligation to respond to all complaints died the day that management began whacking jobs at your employer. Implicit in this alleged obligation is the belief that we, the rank and file, are responsible for cultivating readers and fostering business. If management cares so little about its consumers that it is willing to put forth a substandard product, then we are absolved of any responsibility to play nice with the customer. Thank you. That is all.

 

But is anyone really entitled to that much? That's one mindset I will never understand. I got tired of dealing with people who thought I owed them something or that they deserved something from me. I don't owe anyone anything, and nobody owes me anything. Rant over.

 

I do think we are responsible to respond to the readers/viewers. People are entitled to an explanation, and I find many times, walk away understanding why things are the way they are.

When they don't, well, I learned long ago you'll never make everyone happy, regardless of how hard you try.

Also, my favorite response to "why don't you cover JV sports?" is, I will. In 2 years. When it's called varsity.

 

They were clipped a long time ago.