Story guilt?

Well, that fits. I'm a pain in the ass the rest of the time, too.

 

Not to totally threadjack here, but that's why farm-system minor league baseball is a complete fraud.

 

I have story guilt about a story I was not able to write. A few years back at my first job out of college as SE at a small weekly, I was doing a story on the summer workouts for area prep football teams. At one stop, I had the coach tell me his quarterback play would improve over last year because the booster club was paying a former college and CFL quarterback to work with his quarterbacks over the summer. Did some checking and this sorta of thing was not allowed in the state I'm in. Starting doing research and working on a story, about three weeks later I show the story to my ME, who tells me they can't run it. I'm told, "We don't want to be a fly in the ointment, we want to report positive news."
I still feel guilty I never got to inform the public about this. Later that fall, the team which had three straight losing seasons, makes the state playoffs, wins two playoff games before being eliminated and the starting QB makes HM All-State by the state's largest newspaper.
I'm sure, after learning what the state rules are on this, that the team would have been put on probation and not eligible for the state playoffs that season. Not that I want to see anyone get hurt, but if someone breaks the rules, I think it's my job to let the public know.
I'm glad I no longer work for that paper, and I just wonder how many other stories have been swept under the rug by the ME there.

 

Wow. I hope he doesn't call himself a journalist.

 

Excellent point, chazp. I think the stories I feel most guilty about are the ones I didn't write, whatever the reason.

 

Which is why I never run stories by the ME in the first place, unless it's to pitch it to news. It's easier to get forgiveness than permission, and besides, it's my sports shop and anyone who bitches about it can call me.