One-man shop covering your own kid

Then find a new career. Accommodating every game for four years?
And as the title reads -- at a one-man shop? That's unrealistic if you're going to do your job.

 

You can't cover your kid.

And I assume you realize that.

 

... No, you have a stringer cover the kid while YOU watch your kid play. OK, let's cover all the bases: If it's a one-school town, stringer covers kid and dad watches kid play. If there's more than one school in town and dad is forced to cover games (and let's face it, the schools probably play on the same day and in the same league), dad will have to miss SOME of the games. If that's the case and/or you're on a stringer budget, report some games by phone so you can see the kid play. And if your supe or other coaches have an issue with it, tell them you're going to watch your kid play because it only happens once and you aren't going to miss it. If you have a good work rep, your boss and the coaches will understand.

 

Oh.
In other words, quit, go on welfare and get a free college education for your kid, depending on what state you live in.

 

How does that work at a one-man shop without a stringer budget?

 

"I'm not missing my child's career ..." ?

No, you're the one with the career. Not your child. Your child is a participant in an extracurricular activity. Let's not confuse the two.

I'm with those who say write a column at the outset and then cover the team as you usually would. I assume you're currently not writing columns about kids who don't get enough playing time or second-guessing coaches on position assignments, so don't start once your kid is on the team.

You may also find yourself bending over backward to exclude your kid from coverage to avoid the appearance of impropriety. Don't do that either, or you'll make your kid unhappy and it may not be an accurate report of the game.

The fact that you are thinking about this already means your head is in the right place.

 

Career or whatever word you choose, you're sending a message that another kid is more important than your own. I also guess that most of ones on here who don't get it are early 20s, don't have a family and think this job is some kind crusade.

It's a job. Family comes first.

 

I don't know how it works. But you can't do it. Ethics doesn't just go away because you don't have a stringer budget.

 

Without a stringer budget, the only way you could have your team's kid covered would be to have one of the news reporters cover the team. And unless they know about sports, that could get real ugly.

If you're a one-man shop, odds are that you're in a small town. There's considerable conflicts of interest that arise all the time that are unavoidable. If you fall and break your leg, are you not supposed to go to the local hospital because you or your paper covers them? If your non-sports playing kid's teacher is also the basketball coach, are you not supposed to cover the team because your kid may get a better or worse grade?

If the paper doesn't want to transfer the one-man guy to the news side until the kid graduates, or pony up the bucks for a stringer to cover the kid's games, then they can't be whining about conflicts of interest. And if readers complain, then tell them to come up with a solution that will still provide you with a paycheck and let your kid play.

The other pain in the butt thing I could see is if the writer is off-duty and watching his kid play, and end up getting all the "Why aren't you putting this in the paper?" BS.

 

Then when the time comes, I hope you are planning to transfer to news.

Because this is what you were hired to do, family or not.

And some 22-year-old bachelor shouldn't have to take on your workload just because you have a family and he doesn't.

 

The day I transfer to news would be the day I walk. As Junkie says, it's high school sports. There is no one outside of a bunch of message board SPJ types that would give a shit about conflict of interests.

Like I say, I know a dozen guys who have done it at papers all around our area. One a mid-major size paper had three girls come through, and he covered all of their soccer and basketball games. Another guy at the same paper right now covers the heck of his son's soccer games. No one I have ever heard has complained.

Our sports editor's daughter was cheerleader in high school. While he wasn't covering them, you knew for four years what school he was covering during basketball season.

 

I'm all for transparency, but I'm not sure the pre-emptive column is such a great idea. It might be hard to pull off without sounding defensive before the fact. Taken the wrong way, people could perceive it in and of itself as being self-indulgent, which is part of what you're trying to avoid.

I believe it's possible to cover your own kid and still be professional about it. Bob Griese serves as a good example, all those Michigan games he had to announce and always said his son's full name and called the game in a tone that betrayed no familial connection.