Is this really necessary?

[Doc Holliday]

This guy seems to think we need to explain ourselves because readers are too damn dumb to figure it out. I don't think they need an explanation, and I think most readers are fairly educated and smart enough to know better. I would have ****-canned this piece the minute it crossed my desk ...

Sunday Morning QB: Dear readers, we do not hate (or like) your team

 

[Riptide]

The butthurt is strong in that one.

 

[fossywriter8]

We have some readers — very dumb ones — who think we do play favorites.

 

[Doc Holliday]

We have some readers — very dumb ones — who think we do play favorites.

I did not say all readers. I said most. It's a fact most newspaper readers have a higher education than most. Whining to them doesn't seem very productive.

 

[HanSenSE]

Brie? Swiss? American? What kind of cheese would he like with that whine?

 

[jr/shotglass]

I'll tackle this one from a slightly different angle.

I'm not so sure the reader WANTS to hear from you that you don't care about their team or any other team. I mean, the guy probably feels pretty good about his "I'm above all this" column, but the reader doesn't want him to be above all this.

 

[MNgremlin]

The "Panel of Experts" sounds lame. No wonder they get complaints of bias if you're picking winners and losers and calling yourselves "experts" in the process.

 

[Rhody31]

If that ran online, I'm OK with it. In print, ugh.

We've all been where that guy's been. Mid-to-late 20s, you know more than everyone, you're soooooo proud of how unbiased you are and a win or loss doesn't matter to you. It's typical high school reporter mindset. I had it at the same age.

Things change. When I had my first kid a then-co-worker said I wasn't going to be as harsh as I was. I told him no way. I'm straight journo, thru and thru. Turns out he was right. When I do get a chance to cover things, I'm not "rooting" for the team I cover; but I'm not rooting against them either. If you're covering high school sports like it's pros, you need some perspective. That doesn't mean don't work a Friday Night like it's not a Sunday afternoon; just think about what you write.

Have fun covering high schools. Don't be jaded. Life's a lot more fun if you just relax and enjoy it.

(And if you really want to shut the parents up, keep a running tally of what teams you cover and what sports you cover and publish it online for all to see. Then when parents say "you never cover us because you hate us" you can back up your point with facts, not overwritten columns like this)

 

[jr/shotglass]

The "Panel of Experts" sounds lame. No wonder they get complaints of bias if you're picking winners and losers and calling yourselves "experts" in the process.

Sports departments have been doing that for decades. Hell, I was part of a "panel of experts" when I was a stringer at 16, for HS football and basketball. It dovetails nicely with something Rhody said right after you. You've got to have fun covering HS sports.

No harm, no foul.

If that ran online, I'm OK with it. In print, ugh.

We've all been where that guy's been. Mid-to-late 20s, you know more than everyone, you're soooooo proud of how unbiased you are and a win or loss doesn't matter to you. It's typical high school reporter mindset. I had it at the same age.

Things change. When I had my first kid a then-co-worker said I wasn't going to be as harsh as I was. I told him no way. I'm straight journo, thru and thru. Turns out he was right. When I do get a chance to cover things, I'm not "rooting" for the team I cover; but I'm not rooting against them either. If you're covering high school sports like it's pros, you need some perspective. That doesn't mean don't work a Friday Night like it's not a Sunday afternoon; just think about what you write.

Have fun covering high schools. Don't be jaded. Life's a lot more fun if you just relax and enjoy it.

(And if you really want to shut the parents up, keep a running tally of what teams you cover and what sports you cover and publish it online for all to see. Then when parents say "you never cover us because you hate us" you can back up your point with facts, not overwritten columns like this)

Yeah, I like where you wound up in contrast to where you were.

 

[Alma]

No, it was not necessary or enjoyable.

CFB is a little different. In CFB, there pretty much are unabashed homers - especially on the recruiting sites - who are "for" whoever the coach is because they need to kiss the coaches" rear ends to get info on recruits.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

I believe readers were even dumber during newspapers' record-profit years of the '90s.

 

[Roscablo]

If that ran online, I'm OK with it. In print, ugh.

We've all been where that guy's been. Mid-to-late 20s, you know more than everyone, you're soooooo proud of how unbiased you are and a win or loss doesn't matter to you. It's typical high school reporter mindset. I had it at the same age.

Things change. When I had my first kid a then-co-worker said I wasn't going to be as harsh as I was. I told him no way. I'm straight journo, thru and thru. Turns out he was right. When I do get a chance to cover things, I'm not "rooting" for the team I cover; but I'm not rooting against them either. If you're covering high school sports like it's pros, you need some perspective. That doesn't mean don't work a Friday Night like it's not a Sunday afternoon; just think about what you write.

Have fun covering high schools. Don't be jaded. Life's a lot more fun if you just relax and enjoy it.

(And if you really want to shut the parents up, keep a running tally of what teams you cover and what sports you cover and publish it online for all to see. Then when parents say "you never cover us because you hate us" you can back up your point with facts, not overwritten columns like this)

This is so true. My first full-time daily beat job was in a town with two main high schools. No other sports so to speak. Can obviously imagine the rivalry. I just hated when people said we favored one over the other, and of course everyone on each side believed we favored the other. I don't think I ever wrote a full column on it, but I know I put it into words a time or two how wrong they were. Heck, I went to high school in a different state that had the same name as one of the two schools, so I thought I was clever one time saying I was biased toward the high school name, but not the one in this town! Sort of cringe worthy.

I was young and dumb at that job but did fairly well and had a lot of freedom. I did a few things I'd like to take back -- wrote a very arrogant farewell column that I still regret today, for one a biggie. If I was in a similar situation now more than 15 years later I don't think I'd give two craps about the rivalry or what people said. I wouldn't even carve it up as having kids, although I do think at the very least that's made me more patient. It's just one of those learning as you go things, I guess.

 

[Kolchak]

We have some readers — very dumb ones — who think we do play favorites.

The clueless and angry nuts who call to say we're biased, costing their kid a scholarship, out to get someone, withholding the truth or whatever are a fringe minority of the readership. However, our executives treat them like they're the majority and have a tendency to bend over backward for the most inexplicable complaints and then pat themselves on the back over it. We're getting less and less repeat callers every year though, probably because those readers are dying.

 

[HanSenSE]

When you get the "you prefer Podunk East over Podunk West" call or email, have you ever wanted to jot down the phone number or email and pass it on to the person who'll call next week claiming "you prefer Podunk West over Podunk East"?

And that's your sportsjournalists.com speed dating tip of the week.

 

[moonlight]

I read this and thought, ****, he just came in to an angry voicemail from a helicopter mom who thinks he hates her kid.

Been there. But I never wrote the column.

 

[TGO157]

Interesting for me because I worked at that paper up until May (the writer of this piece replaced me). I never considered the Florida Emerald Coast area to be any more or less "soccer mom"-ish about the high schools and favoritism than any other place I worked.

I defend the article by saying the structure requires a "Sunday Morning QB" look-back piece each week during HS football season. When there are few district games and weeks where nothing really stands out, stuff like this happens. I wrote a couple pieces whining about the lack of district games and the state's transfer/waiver rules. The one discussed is just a little more of a "look at us" type.

The one thing I found interesting was the comment that "we do not have a ranking system of teams we have to write about more than others," which is 100 percent false. You cover the teams closer to home/with more subscribers than the teams on the fringe. You cover Niceville High more than Rocky Bayou Christian (sorry, I am going back to when I worked at this shop). I know you can't say that to the reader, but I think it's best to avoid the topic altogether instead of flat-out lying.

 

[fossywriter8]

The clueless and angry nuts who call to say we're biased, costing their kid a scholarship, out to get someone, withholding the truth or whatever are a fringe minority of the readership. However, our executives treat them like they're the majority and have a tendency to bend over backward for the most inexplicable complaints and then pat themselves on the back over it. We're getting less and less repeat callers every year though, probably because those readers are dying.

Luckily, our publisher is literally a "been there, done that" guy — he was a sports writer at our shop years ago — so he knows what we go through and doesn't make any concessions for the fringe-worthy fans.

 

[TexasVet]

I once worked at a paper where a guy counted the words in four weeks of stories about Team A and said there were 25-50 more words each week than what Team B got. He counted the words and said we were biased to Team A. You'll have parents like that so get over it, kid. You'll learn to grow thick skin in this business.

 

[jr/shotglass]

I'd like to take back -- wrote a very arrogant farewell column that I still regret today, for one a biggie.

I love reading arrogant farewell columns. Post it.

 

[Bud_Bundy]

I once worked at a paper where a guy counted the words in four weeks of stories about Team A and said there were 25-50 more words each week than what Team B got. He counted the words and said we were biased to Team A. You'll have parents like that so get over it, kid. You'll learn to grow thick skin in this business.

We had a guy back in the 70s who did the same thing, though he said he counted adjectives in stories about two rival high schools for a whole football season. It is absurd, sure, but it has been a good story to tell to journalism classes over the years about what you face out there. And, for the most part, they laugh, too.