One-man shop covering your own kid

I have always thought it silly that we can't just accept that we're an important part of the product. We have to go all the way and argue that we're the most important part of the product.

Well, I don't buy it. Outside of the occasional story with off-the-field ramifications like spending issues or marauding bands of player hoodlums terrorizing college towns, we're a diversion. Hard local news has always been what moves papers, and always will. And that's OK.

Also: Newbie, suck it up. No need to martyr yourself after 17 posts. The ride here can get bumpy sometimes. Deal with it and carry on.

 

At my first shop, there was a pervasive toy department mentality toward the sports departments, and all I could think was, "are you fucking kidding me?"

Now, I'm at a place where everybody accepts each other and respects each other, and nobody thinks they're more important than any other, in terms of circulation or respect. That's the way it should be.

 

My point was that we shouldn't feed into the toy department stereotype by having lower professional standards than any other journalist.

And of course everyone should respect one another. And that includes sports respecting news. I've been around too many sports writers who have the same chip on their shoulder Shoeless Joe expressed about how the sports section drives the bus. It doesn't.

 

There's no one here who has worked for a guy who was an unabashed supporter of his kids? I think there are a couple people who might recognize the sports editor I am talking about.

When they hit Little League, we started covering it a lot more. Not just their teams, but Little League in general, because he (who came in late on game nights) got to talking with other Little League parents, and realized "there's a lot of interest out there."

Same thing happened with Babe Ruth.

Now the kids were great kids and good athletes, and of course we covered them in high school too.

PS: On a similar topic. Taught one of my own kids.. In Journalism of all things.

 

Last time someone asked me how things were going in the toy department, I told them to go call Sears Roebuck!

 

And meant it, too.

 

Thankfully, I've never been in such a Mickey Mouse situation. Company blogs, on the other hand, are a whole different animal, and I've seen evidence of embarassingly severe abuse of position on blogs.

The notion that any one section carries a daily publication is ridiculous. I'm fortunate that the arrogance/superiority expressed by the colleagues in my department is limited to election night panic by news and pagination skill. Actual reporting, writing and impact on circulation never come into the discussion.

 

That's the trouble with the Internet. Sometimes when someone says something, it comes across totally different than what they meant. I read over your previous posts several times, and it didn't seem like a warm welcome. I apologize that I came off as standoffish.

 

To expect to get off to watch every one of your kids' games is false sense of entitlement at it's worst.
You know the hours, you know the expectations. And yet, you expect your bosses and co-workers to cover for you and, worse, you expect to write about it objectively -- or the appearance of it.
I work with a guy now who has a daughter in softball. He doesn't see many of her high school games because he covers our whole area and that team isn't very good. But he also watches her in tournaments most of the year and carts her around in a lot of travel ball. The daughter is mature enough understand dad's job.
I have another friend who is one of the top prep writers in the country. Had three kids play high school sports -- all three ran cross country and his daughter was pretty good in basketball. He saw a lot of cross country and not as much basketball -- but again, this guy saw a lot of AAU stuff. And his kids understood the job. Son ran XC for Notre Dame and, since he didn't work a lot of Saturdays, he saw a lot of meets. He didn't ask for special favors, to cover his kids events (Went out of the way not to unless it was a state meet), didn't ask for time off. He did his job, he saw his kids games when he could, didn't ask to cover his kids games -- and everyone turned out OK....

 

At the one-man shop I was at years ago, the other reporters would joke that I had the best job because "I got to watch games and get paid for it."

Then a couple of times, one of them had to cover a game for the paper because we'd have two major events going on at once and I couldn't be at both. They managed to do it, and write a nuts and bolts story, but they also admitted how hard it was.

 

Not suggesting "you" (the Royal You, not you or him specifically) shouldn't expect to share in them. To expect to be at every game and still do your job, is unrealistic.

 

I was in a 10-man shop. At a big paper in Mass. My football beat was a certain conference my younger cousin's team played in. As soon as he reached high school as a freshman I told my HS Coordinator and my sports editor that maybe I should switch beats with somebody else because my cousin, who I love dearly and is like a little brother to me is starting varsity as a freshman. I was told point blank that "We aren't switching you. You are one of our best reporters, and we have faith in you that you will not do your job any differently." They were right, I covered that beat like I always did - fair and impartial. But it was certainly nice in his sophomore year to cover his team all the way to a Super Bowl win. Still, I covered it like I would any other team with any other players. I didn't even hug him until I was off the clock that weekend at a family party. My aunt and uncle and other cousins respected my wishes and treated me like just some other reporter at games.Just be true to yourself and your profession.