Fun with local weekly

So we're a pretty small daily (5,500) and this pesky weekly moved in about three months ago.
We just finished the first week of football and we made a new earlier deadline — a success considering we're kind of down a man in sports. So — like most of you guys — we work pretty fucking hard.

The weekly paper comes out Thursday — we picked one up today and noticed it had all of out stats in it. Every single one. The big high school's gamer is written from my box score. Even my mistakes — a guess of reception yardage on one crazy fumble play — were reprinted. I know this because of two reasons: the high school has a statistician who gives me "official" stats on Sunday and no matter who you are, if two people stand next to each other throughout a game, they don't get the same numbers.

Then to make matters worse, for every other game our stringers covered, their stats are pilfered from those and they even award the same guy the "Player of the Week."

There was no way their one-man sports desk went to any of the games. I understand that after awhile, some stats become kind of public record. I wouldn't be angry, for example, if another city's rag pulled a couple of my stats for a preview story they were doing.

But they basically did a report from our section. The same section I fucking bust my ass to do every week.

What is the maximum penalty I can enforce here?

 

I'd recommend something involving a flaming bag of poo.
It's therapeutic but doesn't really make a difference. That sounds to me like the kind of situation you have.

 

I was thinking something with fire but more brimstone instead of shit.

 

Starman had a great post on this very subject a while back.

 

Any key words to help find it?

 

<edit>starman might an answer for that kind of nonsense. don't know if you'll be able to put it off on a weekly though.</endedit>

do a search on starman and radio station.

 

Starman's solution would be funny, but I want blood. Do I have any legal recourse?

 

I would check with your editor and call their publisher or editor.

Or send them both an annotated copy of your paper.

Maybe send them a bill?

The editor and publisher might not care, but they might.

At the very least, I would send a note to the sports editor and let him know what you think -- po;itely.

Or, you could write a half-dozen letters from imaginary local people ragging on them and telling them you had high hopes, but that they managed to screw up the same things "the crappy local daily" did.

 

:

 

The other thought, of course, is to make up a new local school and call results in.

 

Sneak into their office and burn some microwave popcorn.

 

I'm fucking pissed. You wouldn't be?