Story concepts that need to die

That's stupid. Just take care of them in the fans story.

 

Gannett told us newspapers were irrelevant, that it was the writers' faults. Then we hear about balloon payments from mismanagement.

I don't believe a damn word Gannett tells anyone. My daughter is a better journalism expert than those boobs are at the top.

 

How about the lame-ass TV people going to the stores and checking out supplies being sold out when ice storms come about? Or those same people out showing video of wrecks and telling people "if you don't need to be out, don't."

 

And if you are out driving around, stop watching TV and pay attention, dammit!

 

Weather story is awful...I think I told to write a spring sports/weather postponement story every year I was at a former paper.
Guess what, it's north Iowa, it's going to snow in March and be cold in April

 

If it's the first day for a new school, it's definitely a story. Firsts are less of a story, IMO, after five years, i.e. first kid to medal at state meet, first team to beat highfalluin' district, first team to lead the chicken across the road ...

 

Anything about spaghetti dinners or pregame meals. Who cares? Fat kids eat, we know.

 

Would it change anyone's mind if these stories were done in video form? anyone, anyone?

 

OK. I'm a sucker for seeing a fat kid eating spaghetti. Got me.

 

There's a TV station in my town that has done a whole summer series on this for at least the last two years. It's awful. It's some fatter-than-you-realized-before-he-removed-the-suit anchor getting his ass handed to him in BMX racing or tennis, then coming on TV panting and sweating and reporting that it was "so tough."

 

I've read one good story in my life about the scribe playing an athlete for a day, and it was the guy -- memory fails -- who caught or tried to catch Todd Sauerbrun's punts for an afternoon. That was a unique thing.

 

As a tv veteran, I can speak to the sheer absurdity of two things we should never do:

1) traffic reports (are you watching tv in your car?);
2) tell people their power's out (good thing I'm running my tv on this portable generator, or better yet, this here battery)

As for the person who hates the "what do you want for Christmas story," I must disagree. One of the best one-word soundbites I ever got was in response to that question. Celtics center Robert Parish looked into the camera, and with his balls-deep voice said, "Sex."