Dear dimwit on the phone

Or better yet kid ... go to the state governing body's web site and check them yourself if you don't believe us. If you don't have a computer at home, you know where the library is, don't you?

 

Some random guy called three months ago and started talking about a local football team. He was saying how awesome so and so team played and then started talking about one linebacker. This is when I realized it was the kid's father, and he was bragging about his "amazing" stats. Silly rabbit.

 

Well, Mr. Athletic Director, the reason I ran inaccurate information about Senior Night tonight is because of what you had your public address announcer reading at the basketball game Tuesday night. You probably ought to make sure he has the right information, too. In other words, don't give him something that says "All senior athletes will be honored Thursday night" when you mean "just the wrestlers." And I know he was reading the announcement correctly because I was sitting next to him while he read it.

 

Along these same lines:

Dear Bumfuck "booster,"
Next time you call and leave an anonymous voicemail on my phone, you best make sure your number doesn't pop up on caller ID just so that, when I call you back, you're not stammering and saying it wasn't you who called. I know it was you. I talked to your son about it, and smoothed everything over with him. I don't have to do that with you.

Sincerely,
A disgruntled prep wrestling writer

 

I debated this with some folks in my newsroom and was originally appalled that you guys did that. Then I realized that putting things online is, well, kind of your entire business and, well, came to the conclusion that people are going to have to deal with it.

 

Eh, I generally don't have a ton of sympathy for people who get arrested. Like one kid who left comments saying that this would ruin his life and follow him forever. I then looked up the police report again, and he was arrested for flipping over a table and throwing his mom's cell phone against a wall, and only got the case expunged because his mom didn't want to press charges.

The most persistent complainer is the wife of a guy convicted by a jury for abusing his 1-year-old daughter. Good times, good times...

 

It's not just sites like Patch that are doing this. Some major metro newspapers are doing the same thing -- and running the mug shots from court records as well -- in the name of generating traffic.

 

Having been on the other side of this (not an arrest, but being the interesting part of an incident report) I'll say it is kind of a drag. I think it's fine to post in the short term, but leaving it there forever where future employers can google it, that seems uncool. At least for a kid who freaks out at his mom. He might mature from the experience, who knows.

That seconds guy, well that's a whole other deal...

 

I can definitely see that side of the argument, sure, and it wouldn't surprise me if eventually things do auto-archive. (Not that it matters anymore, given things like the Internet Wayback Machine.) However, then I think you get into slippery slope arguments with every Tom, Dick and Jane about why their police report shouldn't be on the site.

I've just always thought you should publish every arrest as a result. I even do things like suspended license arrests now, since a girl with a slew of them ran someone down in my area earlier this year. There's no way of knowing ahead of time who really is the "just one mistake" guy vs. a persistent arrest person.

 

Dear swimming parents:

We know your kids work just as hard as "those basketball players." So does my washing machine. Working hard is a not a prerequisite for getting in the paper

If Billy Bob works extra hard on his game, and shoots a 79 on the golf course, and his brother Jimbo is a slacker who happens to make two holes in one on the same 18 despite shooting a worse score, guess who's getting more ink?

I also love some of the strange phone calls at night. I had one guy chat my ear off about how Rush Limbaugh needs to be president. I was dumb enough to answer the phone before leaving work around midnight.

Another guy called on deadline and said he was a native american and there was a big conspiracy and that his native american aunt or someone was JFK's real mother, and they smuggled her to Canada because he wouldn't have been elected otherwise.

Oh the whoppers ...

 

I think court reports are fair game as long as you're consistently running them as there's a verdict and finality. Arrest reports, particularly when naming names, get dicey if you report then don't follow through court to see if the charges stick.

 

No sir, as far as I know access to our website will remain free. I realize you have to have a paid subscription to get access to the online edition in its "paper-looking" form. Well, no, I don't think it's "corporate greed" on our part, any more than it's corporate greed on the part of Home Depot to make me pay for the hammer I just picked up in their store.
Yes sir, I do know I'm a smart ass.
Thanks for calling.