Be sure to silence all phones ... and reporters

Most of us grew up before cell phones. They are so recent that there is little etiquette about them. Our parents never taught us any manners. Cell phone users are like cigaret smokers used to be: They thought they could light up and poison your air any damn place they pleased. Cell phone people are similar. Watch them walk down a street or across an airport floor. They act as if YOU should get out of THEIR way because, hey, they've got a cell phone. Listen to them on a bus or a train taking away the peace and quiet of 20 or 30 other people with their noise pollution. I recall a sports writer who had "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" as his ring tone and he would let it ring during World Series news conferences, even when the manager was talking. One of my favorite bumper stickers (not on my car) said "Would you drive better if I shoved that cell phone up your ass?"

 

This is a terrible get-off-my-lawn excuse. This is more about common decency than about cell phones.

 

Joe doesn't get it. Etiquette doesn't change with technology. You don't answer a phone call during a presser, you silence it as soon as you can. ESPECIALLY a presser about a player who has died, and how a team is trying to deal with the loss. It's not why people dislike the media, it's why people dislike thoughtless morons.

 

Agreed. It would seem that most should have learned the lesson early on not to talk when the teacher is talking in front of
the class. I had some brutal nuns and I learned real fast. Cell phone etiquette does not seem much different.

 

Mora should have done this:

http://youtu.be/tzq8bfOgihA

 

I have asked someone "who died?" when they were taking a call at a very inappropriate time.

My wife knows to text if there is a real emergency.

 

Am I the only one that thinks this should not be about "cell phone etiquette" but rather don't use the phone while you're working????

You are working. You don't get to use the phone. Easy.

 

Given his position, I would bet very heavily it was a work call.

Doesn't excuse the way he acted, but taking calls is a constant part of the job.

 

I have a ringtone that I picked out specifically because it starts out with a low mumble that gives me time to kill it before anyone else would realize what was happening. It has saved me a couple times now.

 

"Common decency" and cell-phone etiquette should overlap.
That's common sense. Some people here don't seem to get that.

 

I thought for a minute Mora was going in this direction, but he ended up just pulling the plug, but I would have stopped my own statement in mid-sentence, and then stood there at the mike, arms folded, in stone cold dead silence, leveling an absolute death stare to focus all attention on him, until asshole boy was done with his phone call.

Then I'd say, "Oh, are you finished? Was it a productive call? Did you get a lot of things done? Did you accomplish all the objectives you set for the phone call? Well, I certainly hope you did, because everybody in this room and probably thousands of people on teevee saw YOU ARE A COMPLETE GODDAMN ASSHOLE. Now I don't know what kind of goddamn barnyard you were brought up in, but let me give you a basic lesson in etiquette, a lesson you apparently desperately need: When you are in a room where other people are going to be talking or conducting conversations which they need to be recorded accurately, PUT YOUR PHONE ON VIBRATE and if a call comes in you feel you must take, LEAVE THE ROOM. Got it? Maybe you ought to call your phone buddy too to make sure they get it as well. Dismissed. By the way, that means 'get out.' "

 

The bit about growing up without cell phones is just a lame excuse. I didn't have a cell phone until I was in my 20s and I certainly know better than to do what that asshole at the press conference did.

Much as I hate to agree with A_QB, he's right about this one. The guy's identity should be out there. Unprofessional behavior should be held up to ridicule and criticism.