Desire to seek apology from player's parents

It's like talking to Drip a brick wall.

 

Mr. X, if you're looking for sympathy, it's in the dictionary between shit and syplillis. Mistakes happen. You encounter assholes in life. It sucks, but it has to be water off a duck's back.

But say you get your way. I can guarantee within six months you won't have to worry about being dissed any more by parents, athletes or co-workers because your effectiveness to your paper and readers will be around zero. Why not put up little signs by the rack, like on rides at the carnival: "You must be THIS tall to read this paper."

 

Simple thought: If she doesn't make a save in a game, she doesn't go in the paper. The rest of your "beef" is, as others have alluded, a matter of posturing and soothing your own ego.

 

So you're going to punish the kid because her parents are jerks? That's worse than what they wrote. The respect thing works both ways. I think if the next time you interact with them if you are kind and apologize, etc., that their tone has a good chance of changing. Heck, as you've pointed out several times, it doesn't even seem like they completely realized it was a mistake the paper made. Has anyone pointed this out to them? Should they have asked you first? Sure. Should they have been a little more level headed? Of course. But they didn't cross a terrible line. Hell, even now what's wrong with sending them an email, apologizing and letting them know a bit how the process was handled? I'm sure it would go a long way to smoothing things over. Might make you feel a little better too.

 

I doubt the player cares if her name is in the paper. The parents care.

If I was disrespectful to them, like calling them crappy parents, they would want an apology.

I want an apology for what they said, which was disrespectful.

 

But it WAS crappy reporting on your part. You really think those comments are over the line? Hell, I think most of us have gotten worse for smaller mistakes. I've gotten worse for mistakes that weren't even mine.

Allowing your personal grudge to influence your reporting is extremely unprofessional. Expecting parents to apologize for their response to your mistake is childish and borderline delusional.

Please tell me you don't actually mean this stuff and you're jerking our chains.

 

Forgetting to change one word when cutting and pasting is not crappy reporting. I had the information. I just forgot to change the name.

I mean all of this.

A lot of this stems from the power imbalance. The school board president has a lot of power. So many others around here have power. I have no power and want to get some.

As mentioned earlier, I'm tired of being run roughshod over by the parents, who want more and more coverage, and the publisher, who I have a long list of complaints about. I'm also tired of the parents putting too much importance on high school sports and the quest for a college scholarship.

 

Indeed, I have received far more self-absorbed, condescending, abusive letters and phone ca

Then you may need to find another career or at least another paper. Complaining parents aren't going away.

 

Either Mr. X is playing us all, or he's on the verge (or in the midst) of a nervous breakdown.

50-50.

 

When it comes to complaining parents, I just want to be able to give back what I take. Many, many people who cover high school sports think that. Few do anything about it because it would be harmful to their careers. Do you just keep taking it?

I'd love to tell many parents, "There's no way your son or daughter is getting a Division I scholarship no matter what I write. He or she is simply not good enough."

I made a mistake. The New York Times makes mistakes in game coverage. But the parents think I did something awful. I just got a player's name wrong. (Part of me thinks the desk should have caught it, but it rarely catches any mistakes. I wrote Jones made four saves in the first half and did not allow a goal. The next sentence was Jones made five saves in the second half and allowed a goal. I am expecting too much for them to catch something like that?

Yes, I'm trying to get a different job. I made one application earlier this year and hope to make two more this week, one outside of journalism.

 

Aren't you really pissed because the parents weren't thrilled with your writing enough to give you a job?

 

Great work with the trolling. I'd hit up Walmart and McDonalds tomorrow.