Dear dimwit on the phone

For so long I've pushed for a one-column broadsheet format, ragged-right text with no hyphenation. Everything else just looks ridiculous.

 

If he changed to the competitor, why is he reading your paper? And he also need's an apostrophe after the e in the last name. Doosh.

 

Of course he doesn't get the paper, he just picked it up in the lunchroom ... yeah, that's it ...

 

Unless there is some other issue you haven't mentioned here, run the quote, attribute it to opposing coach. YOU don't have to take a side. You are simply running what another person --- an adult, no less --- said.

If we're going to treat these 17-year-olds like heros every time they score a touchdown, we should also hold them accountable for their actions. Maybe the kid needs to grow up a little bit. Maybe he doesn't realize how his actions are perceived. Maybe he doesn't care. Either way, maybe seeing that in print will help him.

Regardless, it's not our job as reporters to protect anyone or show favoritism.

Heck, I would have relished the opportunity to speak with his mom and told her what a jackass her little darling had become. (I wouldn't print that, but I wouldn't hesitate to say it to her one-on-one.)

 

Really? I've done that forever.

Caused a major shitstorm a few years back when one kid missed a routine PAT that would have sent a state semifinal game to a third overtime. Didn't use the word "choke", wish I had because that's exactly what it was (kid had missed one kick all year). It's just reporting the news. Don't like it? Tough shit. Plenty of stuff I don't like about the world, either.

 

Like I said, it's kind of out paper's policy, but not written in stone. And I totally disagree with it because 95 percent of the people who care about the kid -- and whose opinions the kid would give a crap about -- probably saw him miss that PAT anyway. But letting a coach call a kid classless in print wouldn't fly if it was my decision.

 

Why does sports get held to a different standard than news?

Had a lady call me up one night (outside line rang to my desk on weekends, so I'd get all sorts of non-sports calls) complaining that we ran her arrest in the police report that day. I spent about 20 minutes trying to explain to her that an arrest is not a conviction and that we were not making a guilt/innocent judgment, but merely quoting the police report. She sobbed and sobbed and went on and on about how unfair it was, how she was going to lose her job, her boyfriend might ditch her, the sky was falling, etc.

Now, if that had been some high school parent, would we have reacted differently? I've had to report on high school athletes who got suspended and/or arrested for bad judgment things they did. Not fun. But it's news. We report the news, for better or worse. If you don't, you lose all credibility.

 

Sometimes you can't avoid playing up a kid's failure. I covered a playoff game last year in which the visiting team, down by one, drove the length of the field in the final two minutes, got down to the 2-yard-line with 7 seconds to play and lined up for a chip-shot field goal to win the game. And the kicker missed it. At first it looked like a clean miss, but after talking with his coach and the players from the winning team, it turned out that a defender may have gotten a hand on the kick. Losing coach was very gracious when I asked him about his decision to kick rather than go for the TD. Said he had confidence in his kicker and he'd make the same decision every time.

 

Dear lady who called to complain I had incorrect information about MLB scores and schedule in today's paper:

I'm not the least bit sorry for using my 11-month-old son's leukemia and my resulting 10-hour days so I can be at the hospital with him 300 km away one extra day a week as an excuse. Fuck you.

 

Funny, the city editor basically told someone the same thing when she called to complain about the article. CE told the lady "In news, sometimes bad things are said, that's life." I don't blame the mom at all for being pissed. She has every right to defend her kid, but do it in public with a tersely worded letter to the principle or in a letter to the editor and then slap your son upside the head for being a dimwit out of site of everyone. The kid was being a bit of a jerk, but short of the kid going minor-league-baseball-coach on the officials, I don't know if I ever call a kid out. And even then, it might be more of a "I feel pity for this kid" than actual "this kid is a moron" quote.

Honestly, if it was a passing comment, I might have let it go, but he kind of when out of his way to attack the kid. Although I think the kid needs to be taking down a peg or five, I don't know if I'd call the kid out if I were a coach. At the same time, I don't know how I can back down from reporting it. The ironic thing about this whole situation is, if no one called to complain, I would have taken the quote out of the print version for the simple fact I had to seriously cut the story for space.

 

Gomer,

Best wishes for your little one. Yeah...and fuck off lady.

 

Because sports isn't news.