Dear dimwit on the phone

Dear swim mom,
Thanks for the inquiry about little Billy and seeking a feature about him. I'm actually quite eager to do something now that the fall prep season is about over. I just have a couple of questions, one, where are you from? Your email tag says you work in Coastal City an hour away, is that where you are or are you actually in the same city as my paper's distribution? Two, you say you want me to come down to "the pool" during practice, which pool? We only have a few hundred in a 45 mile radius. You say you want me to do a story on "his national ranking." What is his national ranking? Is this one of those things where he signed up to be ranked is is No. 24,378 in the US or is it actually worth noting?
Again, I don't mind doing the feature, but these minor details will actually go a long way in letting me know what the f*** is going on.

 

Reminds me of a time many moons ago when I worked in Springfield and lived in Shelbyville, both about 20 minutes apart, but in different markets. In Springfield, a popular team was not selling out so was blacked out, but since Shelbyville was outside the blackout zone, they'd get home games. Readers would call the sports guys often wondering why they couldn't be switched to the Shelbyville market. I think we ended up suggesting getting rabbit ears.

 

Come on, guys. I know what you are saying, but this was not a playoff basketball or football game. It was a GIRLS SOCCER match, which means about 100 people in attendance probably. BN's fat, POS AD should have been glad-handing him and making him feel like the most special guy in the world for showing up. Sounds like he was just trying to throw his weight around a bit.

 

Years ago when Ross Perot was running for president he did an hour long interview with Larry King on CNN. I was working at a local ABC affiliate. I took a call from a woman who wanted to know if we could just switch over to CNN for an hour, because she didn't have cable.

 

No, sir, this Lord of the Rings Lego set does not qualify for the coupon for 20 percent off one regularly-priced BABY item. What is a BABY item? On the coupon, it expressly states that the coupon is for baby food, formula, diapers, wipes, etc., not Legos or Legolas.

 

Baby item?! Hell, my 29-year-old son may be getting that for Christmas.

 

I've got my eye on the Lego Millennium Falcon, and I've got a 10 percent employee discount. Score!

 

It wasn't even an AD; it was some representative from the state athletic association. If it had been a regular playoff game on campus I most likely would have called ahead to shore everything up, but it was at a neutral site. The fact that there was seven press people there just pissed me off even more.

 

Was this a state playoff game? In any case, I guess I still don't get it. Sounds like there was some sort of process to get credentialed, whether it be through a physical form or at least a phone call, you and the paper you were stringing for ignored that, and yet they still allowed you to cover it (albeit, with some drama thrown in). Seems you should be very grateful to this guy. I've seen some pretty decent-sized media outlets show up at the door to cover something they need to be credentialed for beforehand, and get turned away.

I also don't understand the angst over the seven press people who were there. Is that a lot? Not a lot? Why does that piss you off? Did they go through the credential process?

As an aside, and you probably don't care about my opinion in the least, but your attitude toward this guy here - where your first words were about the "fat, POS rep" - makes it very easy to take his side. If that's any reflection on your behavior at this event and I was in charge of it, you wouldn't have been getting special favors like you did. You wouldn't have made it through the gate and I would have been on the phone with the paper's SE explaining why.

 

Was it the best choice of verbiage? No. However, what set me off was the fact that I, and my paper, have dealt with this organization for years and even when properly credentialed they give us an incredibly hard time. If he had said "Look, I can't let you in. Why don't you call your editor and we can figure this out." I'd have been at least ok with the fact that he was trying to work it out, I'd have called my editor, and it would have been a minor inconvenience. However, he chose the smug, townie, passive-aggressive road. That's what set me off.

 

Good points but I also get where BN is coming from, too. Some of biggest jerks I've ever dealt with were with state high school athletic associations.

 

Definitely, and I've had that experience, too. I just question why he's the bad guy for expecting people to follow the procedures set forth. God knows people at newspapers are pretty much sticklers for making sure things are done a very particular way. So if others take a similar tack, you can't fault them for doing that.

If the correct things were done, would this rep have been an insufferable assbag? Maybe, but we'll never know. The first step down this path of a bad interaction was taken by the paper/writer, but the state association guy.