Calvin Hobbes
Member
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2007
- Messages
- 323
So today was my day off. But like many of them, I was at the office anyway, working on stuff that needed to be done.
An e-mail comes in. Yeah, from a parent of a senior player on an unbeaten local football team. I'll paraphrase:
You know, East Podunk has a 7-0 football team, and you guys never give us any coverage. Last week, we beat West Podunk and you gave our story and photo a lousy spot on Page 4B. This happens all the time. I always look for our games in Saturday's paper and they're always so hard to find because our teams never gets its due. We're always inside or buried.
Our boys have worked so hard all summer and into the season ...
You've all seen these before. I know I shouldn't have done it, but the mom included her name and phone number. I called, introduced myself, told her I'd received her note and that I wanted to let her know that we have given East Podunk quite a bit of play on our sports front. I told her that of East Podunk's seven games to date, the first four all made the front page, and two or three of them were the main package.
But the last three were against three teams with a combined record of 4-17, and East Podunk won each by a huge margin. Last week, the Spelunkers won, 49-7, in a game played almost an hour away. As I mentioned, we had a story and photo, but it was from a sister paper in the other town, but it was a bylined story, and there were quotes from East Podunk, which is sometimes not the case when we get stories from other papers.
Anyway, as soon as it was clear I wasn't calling to apologize for dissing her son's football team, she threated to hang up if all I was going to do was argue with her. We spent about 10-15 minutes on the phone, as I tried to explain why a 49-7 game against a team with one victory did not merit front-page coverage, and she simply talked over me at every turn, changing the subject every time I made a valid point.
Essentially, her argument became, well, even if the stories were on the front, the type was too small. Well, since the copy type is all the same, I assume she meant the headlines. Then, after I explained that the same team (we have roughly 20 teams we cover extensively and another 20 "fringe" teams) is not going to get a 100-point headline every week, her argument became, well, the stories you people write suck because you never mention the seniors or the linemen. Her exact quote was, "You only write about the people who score."
Well, duh. The people who score get press. But the fact is, we have written about their line. Apparently, just not enough, and not about the "right" lineman.
You guessed it. Her kid is a ... wait for it ... senior lineman.
Anyway, this was the first reader contact I've had since I returned to work after burying my mom last week. Cancer. They found it in the liver, and it had started in the pancreas. I'm still feeling guilt about covering a bunch of meaningless games all these years when I could have been spending time with her. I'm needlessly beating myself up, but ... that's what I do. I know those are feelings a lot of people have when someone close to them dies, but I have them, and they feel real to me.
I know calling the lady was a bad idea. But since she submitted her rant as a letter-to-the-editor, I had to verify it before it ran, and she was just so wrong on a couple of things I felt she needed to know a little about what we do and how we do it. Should I follow up at all, given that I wasn't able to reach her on any level on the phone? I have a lengthy e-mail typed and ready to go, but I'm not sure it would help.
Sure felt good writing it, though.
An e-mail comes in. Yeah, from a parent of a senior player on an unbeaten local football team. I'll paraphrase:
You know, East Podunk has a 7-0 football team, and you guys never give us any coverage. Last week, we beat West Podunk and you gave our story and photo a lousy spot on Page 4B. This happens all the time. I always look for our games in Saturday's paper and they're always so hard to find because our teams never gets its due. We're always inside or buried.
Our boys have worked so hard all summer and into the season ...
You've all seen these before. I know I shouldn't have done it, but the mom included her name and phone number. I called, introduced myself, told her I'd received her note and that I wanted to let her know that we have given East Podunk quite a bit of play on our sports front. I told her that of East Podunk's seven games to date, the first four all made the front page, and two or three of them were the main package.
But the last three were against three teams with a combined record of 4-17, and East Podunk won each by a huge margin. Last week, the Spelunkers won, 49-7, in a game played almost an hour away. As I mentioned, we had a story and photo, but it was from a sister paper in the other town, but it was a bylined story, and there were quotes from East Podunk, which is sometimes not the case when we get stories from other papers.
Anyway, as soon as it was clear I wasn't calling to apologize for dissing her son's football team, she threated to hang up if all I was going to do was argue with her. We spent about 10-15 minutes on the phone, as I tried to explain why a 49-7 game against a team with one victory did not merit front-page coverage, and she simply talked over me at every turn, changing the subject every time I made a valid point.
Essentially, her argument became, well, even if the stories were on the front, the type was too small. Well, since the copy type is all the same, I assume she meant the headlines. Then, after I explained that the same team (we have roughly 20 teams we cover extensively and another 20 "fringe" teams) is not going to get a 100-point headline every week, her argument became, well, the stories you people write suck because you never mention the seniors or the linemen. Her exact quote was, "You only write about the people who score."
Well, duh. The people who score get press. But the fact is, we have written about their line. Apparently, just not enough, and not about the "right" lineman.
You guessed it. Her kid is a ... wait for it ... senior lineman.
Anyway, this was the first reader contact I've had since I returned to work after burying my mom last week. Cancer. They found it in the liver, and it had started in the pancreas. I'm still feeling guilt about covering a bunch of meaningless games all these years when I could have been spending time with her. I'm needlessly beating myself up, but ... that's what I do. I know those are feelings a lot of people have when someone close to them dies, but I have them, and they feel real to me.
I know calling the lady was a bad idea. But since she submitted her rant as a letter-to-the-editor, I had to verify it before it ran, and she was just so wrong on a couple of things I felt she needed to know a little about what we do and how we do it. Should I follow up at all, given that I wasn't able to reach her on any level on the phone? I have a lengthy e-mail typed and ready to go, but I'm not sure it would help.
Sure felt good writing it, though.
