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The best phone call/compliment you ever received

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Baron Scicluna, Feb 13, 2008.

  1. farmerjerome

    farmerjerome Active Member

    There are two coaches who always intimidate me, and I've gotten muliple e-mail compliments from both. Always puts a smile on my face.

    Honestly the best one comes from one of my old teachers in high school. He came up to me at a game and told me that I write like I love what I'm doing.
     
  2. Gomer

    Gomer Active Member

    After joining my current paper as a reporter and moving up to S.E. within a month, I had a fellow reporter leave for another job.

    During the hiring process I brought an interviewee back to my desk one time, only to find a handwritten letter on my keyboard.

    Basically, the writer stated that in all her years reading our paper, she'd never seen such a turnaround in any one section as what had happened in our section since I became S.E. She said that the paper was lucky to have me and it should do all it could to keep me.

    What made it even better was that I got to read the letter to the job candidate. And yes, the paper has done whatever it can to keep me. Nearly four years later I'm still here.
     
  3. ink-stained wretch

    ink-stained wretch Active Member

    I will treasure this always. A love note from a local neo-Nazi:

    "And Mr. Ink-Stained Wretch, YOU are the lying, cover-up enhancing, media mongrel other papers talk about. You insult me for not trusting Israeli and zionists who have proven how back-stabbing they are. You, IMHO, are a fucking asshole and your family is full of assholes. Next time you write an article, try to look beyond the walls of your rectum."

    Ranks right up there with Pat Robertson, through a spokesman, alleging that I was the "spawn of the devil".

    You can't buy that type of adulation.
     
  4. nitrobreath

    nitrobreath Member

    I covered my old high school football team in the third round of the state playoffs. My team, way back in the Jurassic period (Class of '74) went 0-10 that year. Our coach, who was in his first year at the school, caused so many problems - including calling black players "that word" numerous times - that he was fired at the Christmas break.

    So, 20-plus years, I was assigned to cover my alma mater in the aforementioned road playoff game. I was so moved by their camaraderie, confidence and positive coaching that I wrote a column before the next week's game - basically an open letter laying out my team's past and we could live out our broken dreams through them.

    The coach, who'd been in the business for more than 30 years, called to say he was getting the story framed, and that in all his years he'd only done that to one other piece. He said it captured everything high school football was supposed to be, and that if I ever saw him mistreating his players the way my teammates and I had been, I had permission to come up and kick him in the ass, right there on the spot.

    Then there's the reader who wrote that he'd like to open our paper someday and read some good news - that I'd "been in a wreck or had a heart attack."

    Life is all about balance, right? LMAO ...
     
  5. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    Farmer jerome's story reminds me of the e-mail our paper's then-production manager sent to the CEO.

    I had accepted a gig at another shop that would make much more than I was making at the current one. It was pretty much accepted as a fait accompli that I would be leaving, but the production manager wrote an e-mail to the CEO extolling my virtues as editor of the weekly paper. She laid out a lot of what she saw as positives and added a note to say that I might stay with a better offer.

    The next day, the CEO and publisher both offer more money to try to get me to stay.
     
  6. didntdoit19

    didntdoit19 Member

    I covered a weeklong, small-time tennis tournament for the city's metro. At the final trophy presentation, the organizers thanked me (by name) for showing up every day and writing two or three stories.

    I thought that was really cool for some reason.
     
  7. NoOneLikesUs

    NoOneLikesUs Active Member

    I have several stories in trophy cases at several schools. I honestly don't think the stories in those cases are anything special, but those stories, I imagine, are probably read on a daily basis by someone just passing by.
     
  8. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    During the dog days of summer in baseball-less Indiana, I wrote a column about Reds broadcast team Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhull. The crux of it was that even though the Reds sucked that particular year, Marty and Joe were so good, they compelled you to listen whether you were a Reds fans, or like me, were not.

    I thought nothing of it, just thought it was a throwaway summer column. About a week later, I received an e-mail from Brennaman himself. He sent a few thank you graphs and said the next time I was at Cinergy Field to stop by and pay a visit.

    I was at a podunk paper on the fringe of Reds territory. I took another job before the next baseball season, so I never got to take him up on it, but it was thought it was pure class that a Baseball HoF'er would respond in person to something like that. I still have a printout of the e-mail in my house.
     
  9. maumann

    maumann Well-Known Member

    Back when the ACC Men's Golf Tournament was held in Rocky Mount, we'd play it up like a major tournament, with a special tab and prominent play on the sports front every day.

    I ended up interviewing a kid from Georgia Tech after a good round. He was real polite, shook my hand and thanked me for taking the time to talk with him. I went back to the paper and wrote what I thought was a nice feature, nothing contest-worthy, but solid.

    The next day, I'm walking through the clubhouse and the kid comes running over to me, holding the paper and beaming. Then he asks me if I wouldn't mind meeting his mom and dad, and they gush about how nice the story was. He even offered me his box lunch, which I politely declined.

    Yeah, Stewart Cink was a pretty nice kid.
     
  10. Sam Mills 51

    Sam Mills 51 Well-Known Member

    I'd heard that Stewart Cink was about as nice and unpretentious as they came. Good to hear another anecdote to back that up.
     
  11. Breakyoself

    Breakyoself Member

    i've gotten some hand-written letters from parents and some emails from kids thanking me. those always make all the BS we have to deal with worth it, for a few minutes at least :)

    i wrote a column once about a kid who had been in legal trouble after his dad died, seemed to straighten up and was playing very well after a few games suspension.

    came up to me and told me I made his grandmother cry, and him too. that was nice.

    three weeks later kid got in trouble with law again and was in jail. oh well, at least the column was nice.
     
  12. editorhoo

    editorhoo Member

    Two stories:

    1. On voicemail, a mother of a football player thanked the staff for running, "Beautiful color pictures of my Leo."

    2. One week on our prep football picks, I was the only one of the "Pigskin Prophets" to pick a certain team. When that team won, a mother cut out our grid, circled my pick and had every player on the team sign the grid. She made copies of the signed grid, made placemats out of them and distributed them to the team at the team's weekly Thursday dinner. I didn't find out about for three years, and the mom eventually gave me a copy.
     
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