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What's the worst thing your boss has ever made you do?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Mizzougrad96, Apr 16, 2008.

  1. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    Knowing where 2much worked, I'd say fishwrapper's deal was worse.
     
  2. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    Not necessarily. When the local college hoops teams made it into their national tournaments, the only question the publisher ever asked me was, "Can you set it up with the AD so that we can take advantage of the team hotel rate?" (Yes, we paid.)

    Never had a travel request shot down, never had somebody looking over my shoulder telling me what to publish or emphasize.

    Wasn't a great town but for a while we had a great little paper. If not for Katrina wiping out our Gulf Shore sister paper, I probably would have been able to leave a few months later on my own terms. (No insurance down there because the sister paper's facilities "were too close to the Gulf." Turns out that was a really bad place to have a newsroom and printing presses. Who'da thunk it? We had the best presses in the chain, so we printed their storm editions and shipped 'em 1500 miles. Then everybody in the company was told to make cuts. We had no fat to cut.)
     
  3. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I once got a call from the theater critic at my paper who told me that the superstar player I covered, who we only got access to once a week at a press conference, had been at the opening of a play. He told me, "I need you to find out if he liked it, if he would go again, what he thought of the ambience and what part of the play he liked the best..."

    He needed it done that day.

    I told him, "Look, if I could get him alone, I would be happy to help, but I can't so, either come up here and ask him yourself. I'm not doing it. We only get 20 minutes a week with the guy and he's been miserable to deal with as is."

    Critic: So you're telling me no?

    Me: If you want to come here and ask the question, that's on you, but I'm not doing it.

    Twenty minutes later our managing editor calls me up and tells me that I absolutely have to do it. I don't want to get fired, so I go to the shootaround and beg the PR guy for 90 seconds alone with Player X. I tell him what it's about and I begged and begged and begged... I think he felt sorry for me so he made it happen.

    I asked all of the questions and then send it back to the critic. His answers were pretty decent all things considered.

    In the story the next day it said,

    "Player X attended the opening and said he liked it."

    No quote used...
     
  4. armageddon

    armageddon Active Member

    You didn't finish the story...You know, where you went over to the home of the movie critic and kicked his ass.
     
  5. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    If his column mug didn't run in the paper, I wouldn't even know what the guy looked like. I don't think we've ever been in the building together at the same time...
     
  6. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    Yeah Missou, sometimes you have to appease the hands that write the paychecks.
     
  7. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    FYI,

    If I was trying to keep costs down and justify a trip, I would find out where the team was staying and call the hotel myself saying I was with that group and ask for their rate.

    I figured I was good with that because I wasn't asking the school to do anything for me. I was just piggybacking. Plus, it was better for me to be at their hotel.
     
  8. Jeremy Goodwin

    Jeremy Goodwin Active Member

    But without you feeding him the quotes the critic wouldn't be able to say if he liked it or no. ;)
     
  9. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    A. Ace quoted it wrong. I didn't write the part he quoted. 2much did.

    B. 2much, we're talking about different gigs. I thought we were talking more recently.
     
  10. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Sorry, IJAG. I ditched the wrong attribution. Didn't mean to make you a plagiarist.
     
  11. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    I'm talking about the gig in the state you used to work in. "They're screwed down there, so we're screwed right here, so you're screwed right now."

    [​IMG]

    Only good thing: The guy who followed me got paid so much less than I did that they were able to take the difference between the amount they were supposed to save and the amount they actually saved and hand me a severance/buyout/settlement check for $3K.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  12. mdpoppy

    mdpoppy Member

    The worst part about it, I bet Mizzou didn't even get a contribution line!
     
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