Good/bad journalism

Agreed, it happened so write about it. I once got chided by an angry parent who had a vested interest in a lengthy story I wrote not too long ago. She told me that "you need to go back to doing positive journalism."

I said, "There is no such thing as positive journalism."

End of story.

 

So, I'm not sure this is where this goes, but I had to tell someone.

At a legion game last night, first base ump blows a call (kid's foot came off the bag on the throw) goes to home for help and they get the call ultimately correct.
Opposing team dad on the rail goes nuts, starts calling the ump a "fat fucker."
I turn from where I'm shooting photos behind first and say, "Hey, calm down."
He says: "Don't tell me what to do, or I'll wrap that camera around your neck for you, too."
I got in the guy's face, still staying fairly calm, but asking him if he had serious issues or needed medical attention.

He got in my face later at the concession stand, as well, still arguing the same call I was never arguing to begin with. My point to him was that there was no need to curse or personally insult the umps.

My question: Anyone ever hit anyone while on the job. Because there's little doubt in my mind I could have hauled off and decked this fucker, and all I'd have gotten out of it would have been a raise. But I didn't want to stoop to his level, and I really can't justify it to myself. But I wanted to hit him bad. One of those lying in bed that night asking yourself why you didn't just nail the fucker deals.

 

Sorry, but being at work does not exempt one from the laws of human decency.

There's never any reason to call a kid (and he was a kid) working a HS game a "fat fucker".

 

That's an interesting debate. While on the job, do you tell a nutty fan to chill who is far out of line, or do you let someone else handle it?

 

Is the nutty fan bothering YOU while you're working? If so, then maybe so. I have, on more than one occasion, politely but firmly told a parent in the stands, please don't bother me. I'm trying to cover your crappy kid.

I attended a prep game with my sister on an off day and a parent was bothering me about her field-goal-kicking son (who frankly couldn't kick his way out of a wet paper bag) and the lack of coverage he gets. After a few minutes of "He can't get a scholarship because of you guys," my sister, not as politely as I would have, said, "It's his day off. How about you leave him alone?"

 

The worst argument a parent can make for more coverage. Not only does the parent look even dumber, but when was the last time a fucking college coach said, "Hmm ... his name isn't in the paper a lot. Can't recruit him."

 

Exactly. If Amanda Hugginkiss University is looking to my local community rag for "hot" prospects, they've got bigger problems and ought to try some, y'know, recruiting violations.

 

I don't disagree with your point, but we run a list of the top 10 or 20 college prospects in the area in our football tab every year, and a coach from a big-time I-AA football program called to get a copy of it. That's now my favorite I-AA team. I bought a T-shirt online.

 

I haven't covered preps for a couple years. I kind of miss that insane parent reaction. At least that tells you somebody's reading. Although to be fair, reading isn't exatcly accurate. It gooes like this: blah blah blah blah Johnny Smith did x blah blah blah etc. So no matter the context, all they look for is their kid's name. At least that's how the crazy ones are. And most of them are crazy.

 

Here's another related question: have any of you been hauled into the publisher's office because of such complaints?