Worst recurring stories you have to write

Yes. Sadly this will never go away.

I used to have go out every week and find four people to answer a question. Any question. Never have I or will I have a harder job. Finding four people who a) are educated about a current event b) have an opinion about said event and c) are willing to give their name and be photographed along with that opinion - can take hours. HOURS. You finally learn to dumb down the questions as much as possible, ie., What's your favorite color?

 

Let you know in three weeks when soccer season starts.

 

Winner!
The single biggest reason I left sports: the good old D-II signing story. Jesus H. Christ! If I had to write one more 12-inch story - with cheesedick photo (that I took!) - on (INSERT NAME HERE) little John Hometown signing with (INSERT SCHOOL HERE) Hillbilly Tech to play (INSERT SPORT HERE) football, I would have killed someone.
They are all the same damn story. D-I I can understand, but D-II and even D-III (yeah our dumb asses write D-III "signing" stories!) just suck.
On the news side, weather and gas stories suck.

 

Swimming, by far. I have a pretty good girls' program on my beat, and coverage is required. But NOTHING ever happens at a swim meet, unless it's a DQ or a diver getting injured.

Writing season previews for teams that I know are going to suck is also a painful exercise in diplomatic propaganda.

 

Fan stories. No question.
"Your team here" is going all the way!
"Your team here" played really hard!
We have this crap every Sunday during football season. Totally pointless.

 

Ummm... has anybody told your editor that Division III athletes don't "sign"?

 

Season previews.

Who graduated.
Who's back.
Who's new.
What style will they play.
Who's their top competition.

I could sum up every season preview to those few questions.

I always try to find that angle that will be fresh or that a team's success or failure might hinge on, but damn if a season preview doesn't come down to those basic facts.

Your lead will be different, hopefully you'll have some interesting angle on the team, but that stuff goes into just about every preview.

 

I don't do this, but I'm guessing writing a Pittsburgh Pirates gamer, notes and a preview for anything they do past May 15th could be on this list.

 

Mine's blue. What's yours?

 

I'll find it. There's a great line by Alan Robinson I saved somewhere.

 

Alan Robinson, an AP writer in the Pittsburgh bureau, wrote about the Pirates' 5-4, 11-inning loss to the Diamondbacks on June 19, 2006, and I got a few kicks out of it. ...

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=260619123

 

The newspaper industry is going to Hell in a Lean Dean-monogrammed handbasket.

I'm just sayin'.