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Who here has mailed it in before?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by ColbertNation, Mar 31, 2008.

  1. ColbertNation

    ColbertNation Member

    I did tonight. I don't know what happened. I went into work today with my usual amount of gusto, but somewhere around 7 or 8, that all went out the window. I tooled with my front for a while, but when I zoomed out, the whole thing looked like garbage. On almost any other night, I might have scrapped the whole thing and started over, but I just didn't have it in me tonight. It wasn't pretty, but it was serviceable, and tonight good enough was good enough.
    Just wondering if anyone else here has had a similar night or if I'm the laziest paginator in the world. Writers should feel free to chime in on this as well.
     
  2. spaceman

    spaceman Active Member

    Don't sweat it. Everyone on this board has gone in the tank one night or another. Every single one of us.
     
  3. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    You are the laziest paginator in the world.

    J/K. I'm sure we've all had those moments when good enough was good enough. Even though you know you could have put more into it.

    I think that way about one of my stories in which I interviewed a state cabinet secretary. There's so much I wanted to do to make that story sing and it croaked like Roseanne during the national anthem.
     
  4. ColbertNation

    ColbertNation Member

    Well, that may very well be, but as long as it had no bearing on my night tonight, I think I'm OK with it.
     
  5. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Last year, soon-to-be ex-Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron was talking to an alumni group here. One of our interns was coming to live with me for the summer, and he had gotten into town a couple hours before. On top of that, it was my last day of work before taking two weeks off for my wedding. I talked to Orgeron before the speech about a few things Ole Miss-related, put together a half-assed story and went off to help my new roommate settle in and prepare to become a groom. I didn't stick around for the speech.
    I feel a little guilty (and lazy) about it, since it's the only time I've ever done something like that. Our news editor still makes the occasional snide remark about it. But any other night I'd have stuck around. There were just too many other things on my plate that night. The fact that that was the one time out of 100 that I left early allows me to sleep at night.
     
  6. didntdoit19

    didntdoit19 Member

    Everybody's done it.

    Shit happens.
     
  7. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    shit. i thought this was a thread about sex.
     
  8. beardpuller

    beardpuller Active Member

    That last point is the thing -- I've only come to the realization that I did a crappy, half-assed job in retrospect. I've never once willingly, intentionally done so. But yeah, if you're in any job long enough, it happens.
     
  9. Full of Shit

    Full of Shit Member

    C'mon, people, let's get with the times. The question should be "Who here has e-mailed it in?"
     
  10. PHINJ

    PHINJ Active Member

    Every night my top priority is to make sure that I don't mail it in. In our late meetings we pick apart every page to try to make every element better, whether that means writing a better headline, subbing a story for a new quote, cropping a picture better, cleaning up a graphic, adding more info in a caption, etc.
     
  11. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    You certainly hope you never do it intentionally... Usually, it's something like, "Well, my flight was delayed and they only time I could file my follow was before the connection, so this was the best I could do in 45 minutes...

    Or I was throwing up in the bathroom in between quarters, so this is the best you're going to get given the circumstances...

    Or, Player X's agent called me back and halftime so I missed the entire third quarter as I was getting the trade specifics, so if something of importance happened in the third that's not in the box score or mentioned in the post-game presser, it won't be in my gamer either...
     
  12. Or, I got really drunk the night before and could barely focus on the computer screen for most of the day.
     
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