Is what we do demeaning?

I know you hate to hear it, because it's already been said ... but I think your attitude ain't helping. If that's how coaches, SIDs and players make you feel, I don't know what to say other than ... find something to do that doesn't make you feel this way.

 

This job can be very demeaning... And most of us get no sympathy from anyone outside of the business because everybody else thinks we have the best and the easiest job out there... We also have one of the only jobs that everybody thinks they can do...

 

Dude, go sit in a cubicle eight hours a day filling out TPS reports for about 20 years, then come back here and tell us if interviewing college football players is demeaning.

 

Or, go cover a college team whose sports information department is called The Firm -- and then measure your present job against that hellish gig and the one with TPS reports.

 

I'll post something more thoughtful later, but for now, let's all take it down one notch and cut the noob some slack. Please.

I know there are times I've felt like what I was doing at any one time was utterly pointless, and there were times I interviewed HS kids who were surely looking at me going "Why the fuck are you here..."

That said, numerous people have given the correct answers. You're there for the readers and you're there for yourself.

 

If you can't "make a connection" with the people you cover, I can only offer this bit of advice: Work harder. Make an effort to talk to people on a personal level.

It's not tough. People want to talk. You have to ask the right questions.

 

In any profession you'll encounter people who are huge assholes. It's just a fact. It doesn't matter if you're a hedge fund manager or a burger flipper. You can't control how others are going to act, so you've just got to deal.

Anytime a coach acts like the question I asked was retarded, an athlete big leagues me, or an SID...well, acts like an SID, I keep in mind I could be covering little league.

 

I don't think I'll ever find this job demeaning. Sure, there are some hoops to jump through. Sure, some coaches and SIDs and athletes are total pricks. Sure, the corporate side of newspapers blows donkey balls.

But I get paid to write all day long. On top of that, I get paid to write about sports.

What more could i ask for?

 

Pulitzer,

Not long ago, you started a thread mulling a switch to news side. If you find interviewing pedestal-bound college athletes demeaning (and I can see how you might), that may be a decent switch for you. Calling the families of murder victims and fatal accidents will ground you in the real world pretty fast.
I think I know what you're trying to say with this thread. But don't expect a lot of sympathy around here.

 

I was 16 when I started interviewing athletes and 22 when I stopped, for the most part. I had some peculiar assignments -- including interviewing professional wrestlers five or six years before it became a campy "in" thing, when it was just regarded as entertainment for morons -- but I didn't really think it was demeaning until I started covering MLB. When they went on strike in 1981, I realized how much I disliked dealing with some of those people and I asked to work the desk.

It was a bad team with some sour players who took it out on us, and I was just inexperienced enough to believe that this was a sucky way to make a living, having to put up with bullshit from some cretin so I could write down his every mangled word in a notebook. I had made it to a good beat and I didn't enjoy it much, so I didn't see much point in doing it any longer. But since then I've worked with a number of people who covered sports for 30-40 years and managed to do it without losing their dignity or class -- or maybe they acquired progressively more dignity and class as they went along, I don't know. I suppose you're only demeaned if you let yourself be demeaned. I'm not sure it would be any better covering the White House, but I think I landed that beat a few years too soon.

 

I was about to shut down the computer and go to bed until I saw Frank had posted here, and I had to read his wise words first. We might as well lock all the threads after he posts, because he generally nails it as well as it's going to be nailed.

Well said, Frank.

 

Pulitzerwannabe, I could be wrong but the job might not be a good fit for you. i agree with one of the other posts in encouraging you -- if you aren't liking the job and aren't liking the money, or lack of money, do think about getting out.

It's not for everyone.

And you are dead-on about the jr. high antics of the posters on this board.

Two ways to think about career work: Are you working around like-minded people, are you around the people (co-workers, but also people you come into contact with and work with)? If not, you might not be in the right field.

Another way is to think about it is if you want to be in what is, by its design, an adversarial role or want to be more in a team, working with others toward something role. Being a journalist is being in an adversarial role. More so for news, less for sports of course. Nothing wrong with that. It's good we have such folks doing such work of course. But it's not for everyone.

The stuff about "any job is what you make it" is pablum. Some jobs aren't a good fit. You asked if anyone was feeling discouraged. I had my ups and downs as a reporter. I finally. It was a great move. Nights and weekends off and now I make about 5 times the amount of money I used to make. At the same time, I'm glad my foundation is made up of journalism experience -- good foundation for lots of careers.

So there are some thoughts for you. I have no idea if anything hits a cord but there you go