Is this letter out of line?

God, I wish more of the public understood this.

 

Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm getting at.

 

This fall, I talked to the girl schieza mentioned.
The picture we ran was seconds after her team had lost the state field hockey final in triple overtime. She was bawling. You could see the pain in her face as the opposition celebrating in the background.
So when I talked to her, I asked her if she was mad about the photo.
Her response was along the lines of "at first I was, but then I realized it showed exactly how we were all feeling at the time."
Made me feel better about running the photo and I made for damn sure to get a picture of her celebrating with her teammates when they won the title this year.
The letter isn't out of line. It's just funny that nine out of 10 times, the person who is worried most about the "scarring" pictures isn't the subject of the photo.

 

Amen [/congregation]

 

You want the kid's photo in the paper when he scores the winning TD? Fine. But then you've got to risk his photo getting in there when he fumbles.

And great work by the photog.

 

I did a whole lot of nodding and smiling when I was a prep writer.

You should not get mad when people have a strong reaction to what's in the paper as long as you are being fair. You want reactions.

Hell, people get mad because you never mentioned WR Little Johnny, who ran precise routes and threw a good block.
You have to let it slide.

What would piss me off is the folks who would say, "Oh, the Podunk Press finally showed up" when you covered a game. This from a paper that covered dozens of high schools.

 

You want your kids' name in the paper when he makes the honor roll? You have to get it when he gets an F.

You want your kids' picture in the paper when she stars in the school play? You have to put up with a story when she flubs her lines on opening night.

 

C'mon, Stainey.

A fumble can be the turning point of a game and those photos were fantastic.

We're supposed to sanitize the news?

 

Not if you don't want to. Go nuts.

I just don't get the argument that newspapers don't sanitize and run rah-rah stuff. It happens all the time. It's two different types of product, and your staff has chosen to give one type over the other and you have an unhappy customer. Happens all the time in business, but it's not like the guy's unreasonable for wanting the other type of product.

 

Yes, but if that was the product you gave everyone, eventually no one would want it.

 

I doubt it, personally. But we'll probably never know.

 

Podunk High's fans may want their news with a positive spin. But if you cover 10 other schools, they want all the dirt on them.