The Busch Light guy and the Des Moines Register

I don't agree that ignoring it doesn't work. Not in most cases, at least. Having a knee-jerk reaction and responding immediately from a place of anger is what leads to the big-time blowups. It's exactly what the trolls of the world want, for you to step on your dick in the heat of the moment so they can grab a screenshot before cooler heads prevail and you delete the tweet.

IMO, the best way to handle these situations is to NEVER fly off the handle, keep your cool and recognize that you're never (or very rarely) going to convince the other party that you are right and they are wrong. Let them have their say and get on with your life. You've got to have a thick skin if you're in journalism (or on social media, frankly), and people are out there being dicks just for the sake of being dicks.

 

A former ME I respected a lot once told me, regarding angry phone calls, "They're just lonely and angry and want someone to listen to their ranting." He was the best at letting people yell at him about the paper, local issues, whatever was pissing them off and not taking it personally. "Like it or not, that's part of the job."

I do think the internet has made this "ranting" worse because it's so impersonal. Even on the phone, at least there's a real person and you hear their voice.

Here, all you see is a fake name and obscure 1990s Brit pop album cover ...

 

And on social media, there's ego involved on both sides. From the trolls who want their followers to see how big and bad they are, calling someone out. And on the other side, people being called out who don't want their followers to see them being weak and shamed for everyone to see.

At least on the phone, it's a one-on-one encounter.

 

Appreciate the response.

For the younger journos, how does one develop a thicker skin? Is that a truly skill that can be taught?

 

Nope ...

 

As for developing a thicker skin... ask yourself why you care what @trumpboi928672 says, and why you feel the need to respond to someone who's trying to goad you into saying something stupid. I don't think it's a skill so much as a shift in perspective.

There is absolutely no winning a debate with a troll, so why do it?

The idea of "losing your cool" on social media and saying something that will get you into trouble is just so foreign to me. Blaming the medium is a really terrible dodge. I do not care what anonymous people think. If you do, social media is not for you.

 

I am genuinely surprised that no news org has faced legal consequences from using an unconfirmed quote from a twitter source.

 

If this is true, then why are you here?

 

What do you mean? I don't understand. You mean a quote to you personally via direct message? Or just taking a quote from somebody they sent to everybody on Twitter and running it? You mean it might not be that person? If it's their official twitter account?

 

Because there is frequently intelligent discussion here.

There are also trolling idiots who post moronic stuff to try to rile people up. I don't get riled up by the trolling idiots.

 

The best way to deal with the calls is to let the talk themselves out, no matter how long it takes sometimes. Best advice I got from a ME on those was don't hang up unless they start swearing.
Bitchy emails? I always replied and made the first sentence "Thank you for writing."
[/threadjack]

 

Tipping off the "kid" (a 24-year-old") hurts no one but logistically you've had to probably do it face-to-face. Not by email and maybe not even on a phone call. Certainly not texting.

I suppose you say "meet here at X in 20 minutes. We need to talk about something, face-to-face. Please don't talk to anyone else."

Then you meet him and say "I found these tweets. These are the dates. I'll give you 30 minutes to delete this, otherwise it becomes part of the story."

The risk is you have to hope to hell he doesn't ever mention THAT contact to anyone.