Suggestion from a publisher

[Mr. X]

I e-mailed our publisher that a graduate of the high school we cover was chosen in the baseball draft. I had mentioned to him earlier about the possibility of the player being drafted, which is a big deal, because a player from the school gets drafted once about ever five years.

The publisher e-mailed me back and wrote that if I liked, I could mention that his mother and sister both teach at one of the elementary schools in our city.

I'm not going to write that, because I think that is ridiculous. The paper, a weekly, likes to try to make "rock stars" out of teachers and school administrators, but I think the fact that the player is the son and brother of teachers has nothing to do with his being draft. I also fear this sets a bad precedent, because the next time a player is drafted, or signs with a Division I college or university, their parents will complain that their names weren't mentioned.

Part of me doesn't want to do this because of my hatred for the publisher. His product is terrible, knows little about journalism, but thinks he knows a lot, gets richer and richer as he dramatically reduces the staff size and is so out of touch with the public because he hangs out with billionaires and near-billionaires and not the public.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[friend of a friend]

Tell your publisher to **** off.

 

[anonymousprick]

Go ahead and ignore a relatively harmless suggestion from your publisher. Then you can come back after you get your review and start a thread about how you didn't get the raise or promotion you were looking for.

 

[FuturaBold]

good grief, why the workup .... it's a simple request to drop a few names into your story that might help a reader better associate who you're writing about ("Oh, that's Mrs. Smith's son/Sarah Smith's brother who got drafted, how cool." ... We're supposed to put things in context for the reader, and this in my opinion, helps with that some...

relax already, and if you only have players drafted once every five years in your area, then you've got until 2012 to worry about this coming up again... plus, the publisher said "if you like" you can do include these extra names ...

 

[donaugust]

You may have a reason to talk about his parents anyway. His mom's a school teacher. High draft pick, he can help make their life easier with a signing bonus. Low pick, then he has to make the majors and stick in order to make his parents' life more comfortable.

(Assuming dad isn't an investment banker or something that brings down the big bucks.)

While I agree your negative knee-jerk reaction is probably the right one, you shouldn't discount it automatically just b/c you don't like your publisher.

 

[chazp]

It's not that big of a deal, add something in there about the parents. You don't want to **** off the publisher. Pissing off the publisher is NEVER a good idea.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Why are you emailing the publisher about it? Why not tell your sports editor? And if you are the sports editor, why not the managing editor? And while the fact that his mother and sister are both schoolteachers isn't totally relevent to the story, it's not entirely irrelevent either.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Why are you emailing the publisher about it? Why not tell your sports editor? And if you are the sports editor, why not the managing editor? And while the fact that his mother and sister are both schoolteachers isn't totally relevent to the story, it's not entirely irrelevent either.

That's kind of what I was thinking. Just write the story. If the publisher asks later why you didn't mention his parents, tell hm it wasn't relevant.

Why even give him a chance to have an influence on the story knowing how he is.

For the record, unless it's a real small town and you want to mention the parents, why is it relevant who they are? If he's a bonus baby ask him what he's going to do with the money. If he mentions his folks, put it in. Or you can interview them I suupose.

Otherwise, they aren't really needed.

 

[printdust]

Go ahead and ignore a relatively harmless suggestion from your publisher. Then you can come back after you get your review and start a thread about how you didn't get the raise or promotion you were looking for.

Exactly. By now th epublisher is probably all consumed with the next dip**** idea on his desk.

 

[slappy4428]

Yeah, you shouldn't have skipped steps in the ladder.
And if you mention the parents by name, the pubs next question will be "why couldn't you have mentioned they are teachers..." and if you mention Mom and sister, you have to mention dad, brother Jimmy.... all or nothing, slick, since you painted yourself in the corner.

 

[Starman]

Tell your publisher to **** off.

Yeah, that always works.

 

[shotglass]

Just use the names. If that makes you lose any sleep, rationalize that SportsJournalists.com made you do it.

Tell your publisher to **** off.

Yeah, that always works.

Stick to character, please. That would have been your suggestion 97 out of 100 times.

 

[Ace]

Here is my suggestion, if you don't want to hear an answer you may not like then don't ask the question.

As it is you are stuck.

But why not actually call them mom or sister and get a quote from them and make the most of it? They may have something to add to the story.

 

[Starman]

Just use the names. If that makes you lose any sleep, rationalize that SportsJournalists.com made you do it.

Tell your publisher to **** off.

Yeah, that always works.

Stick to character, please. That would have been your suggestion 97 out of 100 times.

I tell people to **** off when I have the hammer in hand to back it up, not when I'm staring down the barrel of Harry Callahan's .44 Magnum, the Most Powerful Handgun In The World.

 

[RedSmithClone]

What's wrong with teachers anyway? Aside from their city salary and pensions. And their nice medical and retirement packages. And their two and a half months of vacation. Oh wait and their 10 weeks during the school year worth of holidays and vacation weeks. And their doing it for the love of teaching children, unless they don't get more vacation or a bump up in pay.

Screw the draft pick. Write about the mom and sis who are part of a union that wants to rule the world.

 

[forever_town]

I'm with Bob Slydell: The publisher said "if you like," am I right? If so, what's the BFD? If it's really irrelevant to the story, don't print their names. Having said that, I'm sure there IS relevance. Perhaps momma would be able to shed some insights into her son the ballplayer that might spice up your profile peace.

If one of my reporters went straight to my publisher like you did without consulting me on the story, I'd have a serious chat with him or her about doing that. If you're a reporter, go to your sports editor. If you're the sports editor, go to your ME. If you're the managing editor, go to the editor in chief or whatever you call the boss editor. If you're the boss editor, isn't it your call to begin with?

If he said "you HAVE to put it in or the piece doesn't run," then you *****. Or do what I do: Roll my eyes and do what I was planning to do anyway. And just in case you're wondering: I got a $3,000 raise this year...

 

[friend of a friend]

I guess I should have used the blue font.

Since you initiated the note to the publisher, then it would probably be in your best interest to include the suggestion the publisher sent back.

 

[shotglass]

See, this is something else I don't get. Maybe it's the weekly thing.

Why would you E-mail the publisher about this in the first place? Do you E-mail him with the score of last Thursday's teener game?

 

[Central-KY-Kid]

I'm having trouble finding the score of last Thursday's teener game through the site's archives, FWIW. Do you have to have an all-access pass to acquire that stuff?

 

[printdust]

Maybe the publisher is a lot like some EEs, who on occasion bounce through your department pointing to some obscure **** in yesterday's paper, or to make it even better, a paper from two weeks ago, and asks some question beginning with "WTF did you....