Stories you can't do

[Stitch]

Anyone think of any stories you can't do?

I've thought of one, the local Chamber of Commerce's undemocratic method of selecting a board. Board members have to be nominated by a committee of current board members and then voted on in an up-and-down vote.

Not a big hitter news item, but I don't think it could get published.

 

[forever_town]

I was thinking of pitching a story to a local paper about the local community college holding a viewing of the Michael Jackson funeral in its movie theater. However, I never saw more than about 20-some people in that room at any one time.

I couldn't justify it as a story even if I tried.

 

[Fredrick]

Stories that criticize your own editors, publishers, parent company. Those would get ya fired.

 

[Karl Hungus]

I was thinking of pitching a story to a local paper about the local community college holding a viewing of the Michael Jackson funeral in its movie theater. However, I never saw more than about 20-some people in that room at any one time.

I couldn't justify it as a story even if I tried.

Funny you say that: this story was about the five people who showed up at a local movie theater to watch Michael Jackson's funeral.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/211023

 

[silvercharm]

Comparing prices at local grocery stores.

Sell-it yourself real estate tips

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Anything that may be seen as unflattering to a car dealer.

 

[crimsonace]

Stories that criticize your own editors, publishers, parent company. Those would get ya fired.

Or major sponsors.
Or potential sponsors.

 

[rpmmutant]

I was working at newspaper that couldn't run a story about two car dealers shooting at each other on the lot. The newspaper happened to be on the same street as the car dealership. Everyone in the newsroom heard the gunshots. But since the car dealership was an advertiser, nothing every happened on Creekside Road. Move along. Nothing to see here.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Sports guy at my station once said "Car dealers are so sleazy..." on the air, as he was chatting with the news anchor as they began the sports segment.

If I recall the chain of events properly, the GM suspended him, then ordered him to write personal letters of apology to every single car dealer that advertised on our air.

Once he had written all of the letters and mailed them off... the GM fired him.

 

[crusoes]

Radio station GMs. The talk about sleaze begins there.

 

[gutenberg]

A college women's assistant basketball coach turning down a head job at a D-I program because she was "married" to the high-powered women's basketball coach she was working under and the high-powered coach nixed it, not wanting her "spouse" several hundred miles away.

 

[Rockbottom]

Once wanted to write a profile of a hugely successful D-2 volleyball coach, who was "married" to his male assistant - who both lived in my complex.

RB

 

[big green wahoo]

The proliferation of same-sex coaching couples (on the same team) that came with the hiring of a gay AD at a high-profile school. But I'm gonna work on that one.

 

[slappy4428]

Gannett layoffs at a Gannett paper

 

[crimsonace]

The proliferation of same-sex coaching couples (on the same team) that came with the hiring of a gay AD at a high-profile school. But I'm gonna work on that one.

Or the proliferation of gay coaches at a local high school when it had a gay AD ... and how, after the gay AD was relieved of her duties, every single gay coach was gone within a year.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

Sports guy at my station once said "Car dealers are so sleazy..." on the air, as he was chatting with the news anchor as they began the sports segment.

If I recall the chain of events properly, the GM suspended him, then ordered him to write personal letters of apology to every single car dealer that advertised on our air.

Once he had written all of the letters and mailed them off... the GM fired him.

Pretty ****ing stupid on his part.

 

[Some Guy]

Sports guy at my station once said "Car dealers are so sleazy..." on the air, as he was chatting with the news anchor as they began the sports segment.

If I recall the chain of events properly, the GM suspended him, then ordered him to write personal letters of apology to every single car dealer that advertised on our air.

Once he had written all of the letters and mailed them off... the GM fired him.

Pretty ****ing stupid on his part.

Maybe somebody wrote it on the teleprompter [/ronburgundy]

 

[Gold]

Anything that may be seen as unflattering to a car dealer.

Not necessarily so. I recall an investigative dealer about a car dealer who was selling new cars with rebuilt motors and a whole bunch of other things.

I was covering a city council meeting where they were talking about building an auto mall because the dealers needed more space. Two dealers came up to me and when they found out what paper I wrote for, told me the article (I didn't have anything to do with it) was great and the story needed to be told. This was in the 1980s, and one dealer told me, "I can compete with prices with are $200 or $300 lower than mine (on a midsize car costing $9,000), but I can't compete with someone selling it for almost $700 or $800 less when he (the crooked dealer) is selling refurbished engines as new."