Worst recurring stories you have to write

I never had to write one, but I sure had to read a lot of "Go down to the sports bar and interview local fans" stories. What a cliched load of crap.

 

Finding a local angle on the Super Bowl or any other national sporting event.
Some can be funny, the Knoxville paper did a piece on all the kids named Peyton a couple of years ago for their preview, but most are beyond lame.

A local news unfavorite of mine is writing about the newest book from the various local writers. Ugh.

 

Anything stemming from an NFL head coach's weekly gathering.
Anything that originated with a phone call that began "My son deserves some recognition..."
Anything the projects: Bowl game matchups, NFL draft picks, etc. ...
Anything that previews a game. Especially on the high school level.
Anything that involves cheerleading.

 

Daily sports writing, essentially?

 

Our new (couple of months) ME is into that crap, bigtime. He held up Page 1A in order to get a "Barstool Bob" story on the NFC title game (not, of course, involving our local team).

Sweet Jeebus.

 

The annual community festival.
Not only do you want to kill yourself because you're covering the "Poinsettia Parade" for the fourth year in a row, there are only so many ways to preview it as the angle never changes.

 

I literally have nightmares thinking back about the man on the street stories I did as an undergrad (in the only journalism class I took) and in graduate school (I know, I know, I ruined my life by getting a master's in journalism).

Last year, semi local pro team wins big title and we did huge section with local reaction. Luckily, I somehow avoided any of the go into the bar stories.

Honest to God, anytime I am heading out on an assignment I don't want to do, I think back to how horrible those college man on the street stories were (mostly getting people to give their name) and realize that covering a D-IAA signing or a regular season girls basketball game isn't that bad.

 

I hear ya. I still remember one time I was assigned to get quotes for a story about the local subway system adding two new stops on one of its lines. The first guy I asked had no clue about it and I would probably have had to miss deadline just explaining what the issue was. Turns out another guy was nearby and overheard me and immediately knew what I was talking about. I instantly switched gears and asked the guy who already knew and got a good quote that we ended up running.

But yeah, I hated going down into that dining hall for that...

 

Having covered one of the least noticeable programs in rarely note-worthy Division I-AA football was ... surprisingly fun for a youngster like myself. Damn near 24/7 access, generally good kids (not the ones in the nasty off-field stuff that happened from time to time) and young, energetic, goal-driven coaches who need the media for attention. And then watching all of that fall to shit every Saturday ... yes, maybe I am evil ... was fun, until coaching hotseat issues surface. Then ... it's not always fun.

Having a nice working relationship with a coach who seems to be a (fairly) solid human being, and then writing stories every day for weeks on whether he will or should come back ... AWKWARD ... no matter how professional you are.

Now, thankfully (in most cases), I am on a major college football beat with mediocre access, paranoid coaches (especially at the top), fans who want every story to be on how State U is the best team ever ... or State U needs to fire this coach and bring in the coach who will make State U the best team ever.

Then there's State U's hoops team, which is good enough to do serious March damage. That should be fun. But who knows? Six of them could be sitting in prison right now (just a wild guess), and that would put a damper on coverage this season.

Oh well, travel points! Summer's coming! Golf,drink, drink, Golf, concerts, beach, buddies in NY, drink, buddies in Philly/DC, drink, concerts, Mexico with girlfriend's family, Cooperstown/Canada with my family, some more beach/mountain weekends, Golf.

 

Why are the "man on the street" types so reluctant to give their names? I'm like everyone else - I cringe when I have to do that story, because I know that it's going to be a battle to get people to attach their names to something innocuous like, "Patriots all the way Sunday!" They look at the person they're with, they grin uncomfortably. Sometimes I can't believe the quotes I see, "who declined to give her name" attached to. Wonder what the psychology behind people's reluctance is. It doesn't seem to go along with the MySpace/Facebook/"Survivor"/"The Real World"/bloggin' era that we're in.

 

I was asked to write one of these, on a freelance basis, for the monthly magazine attached to the daily in our town. I read through the book and then tried to get out writing the story, thus giving up a good payday, just because the book was so bad. I talked to the mag's editor, 'splaining why we didn't need to give this book any pub, because I didn't want to subject anyone else to reading it. But we worked it out and I got a decent story out of it. But it was painful.