Why I drink ... phone calls.

This local guy called a few weeks back asking if I was interested in writing a feature about him. He's mentally challenged, diabetic, on dialysis, and participates in local weightlifting competitions.

He referenced a story I'd done on a high school athlete with an insulin pump last season.

I tried to reach him to get more information, but no one ever answered the phone. I Googled his name and the limited information he'd given me, and discovered a complicated family history. I decided to stay far away from that story...

Until he called again today.

With weather forecast to be crap all week, we need local features. We'd actually shot one of the weightlifting competitions last weekend for a weekly. I'm more than a little creeped out by the whole thing, but I'm going to do the story anyway.

 

Mentally challenged? Diabetic? Dialysis? Sordid back story?
Son, that's all the ingredients for an award-winning feature story!
(Being sarcastic, of course. You write a story that includes any one of those things, it doesn't matter how it turns out. You can pretty much engrave your name the next day).

 

Had something similar happen. Guy was all hyped up because his freshman daughter was starting on the varsity basketball team. Three games into the season, he can't believe we haven't had a poster-sized pic of her and a feature about it.

We did, in fact, talk about her in a feature that covered just how young that year's team was, but that's beside the point ...

Guy called me. I told him it was early in the season, be patient. He offered to pay for a story. As poor as I was, I said no, it doesn't work that way.

Guy called out advertising department manager and asked how much he'd have to pay to get a story and pic in. I stopped said manager three words into his request and politely but forefully suggested he focus on his job while I focused on mine.

Guy called my boss, and my boss' boss, and railed on how horrible it was that his prodigy wasn't being given the coverage she deserved. Then he called me to tell me he had tap-danced on my head and was waiting for the proper response.

My response? I told my reporters, desk people and photogs that under no circumstances was the young lady's pic to appear in my section. Not until the point was made. Mug shot after a decent game? Fine. Nothing more.

For the next 4 years, dad was a sarcastic idiot to me, coaches, the AD, everyone. Any pics? Nope.

Before her last game in her senior season, the mother of the "super frosh" -- who had a decent but not remarkable career -- called and said the dad was an a$$ and please could she get her pic in the paper once before she went on to dental hygiene school.

Ran a 4-column color shot of her in mid-air, diving while trying to grab a loose ball -- a great shot that was well composed, showed the girl hustling and fit the story.

Next day, dad calls and says: "That's the best shot you had? We walked out to midcourt with her pre-game -- you couldn't use that?"

You can't win ... but you can have fun trying ...

 

MrBSquared: That is a great and classic story. Thank you for sharing!

I do, however, want to politely disagree with this:

*****
My response? I told my reporters, desk people and photogs that under no circumstances was the young lady's pic to appear in my section. Not until the point was made. Mug shot after a decent game? Fine. Nothing more.
*****

Personally, I see that as just as bad as taking money from to *to* run a story.

I think it's better to let things take their own course. I don't think you dictate coverage based on not liking someone or being angry at them.

(I do understand this from the guy who was offered money publicly, though that is still a tough one).

I am curious -- and you don't have to answer -- but how big is your shop? I run a group of weeklies, and I have had some situations like that, but I never encountered anything close at the 40,000 dailies I worked at in the past.

 

This. I had a smiliar deal with a kid who was one of two freshmen on the varsity at one of the rural schools. One was a starter and went on to play D-II at Pittsburg State. Started there his last 2 years.

The other was coming off the bench and when I got the box scores, I'd see he was putting up about 5-6 points, a couple of assists. Not bad for not starting.

The mother calls one day. How come I write all these things about the starting freshman and not her kid? Well it stems from that fact that I'd take FG, FTM-FTM and total points over the phone for all the players but only the leaders for the other things. If her kid wasn't a leader in assists or steals that night, coach didn't say anything.

Not good enough in her mind. We should be writing about her freshman kid in the exact same way as we're writing about the one who starts. And the daughter calls, even throwing in that it "embarasses" him that he's not in the paper. And the father calls.

After the next game, coach calls and I ask him about the parents. Turns out, when the parents didn't get their way, they went to the AD ... then the principal ... then the superintendent. And then they aired their grievance at the school board meeting.

"The kid is embarassed," Coach said. "But it's over his own family."

So we all put up with two months of parent whining. Then comes regionals. The "super" freshman's team is the No. 8 seed playing at the No. 1 seed. In the final 7 seconds, the kid makes the free throws that put his team ahead and tips away the inbound pass, which forces the No. 1 team to put up a desperation shot, which bounced away.

The next morning, phone rings. It's the father. "Did coach tell you anything about what my kid did last night?"

After I told dad I was there, I read the first three paragraphs of the story. Introduction, what the kid did, coach's quote.

"Um, K, thanks," was the only response.

Never heard from them again.

 

I feel sorry for the kids... I can't imagine how embarrassing that stuff is.

 

I just shake my head when parents/PR people demand their stand-and-grins get big run in the paper. At my shop those pics get no run. I'll take submitted photos, but it had better be of someone competing in their judo tournament...not just standing there holding up a silver medal.

 

I'm shocked he didn't say. "Oh. Can you tell me where the nearest newspaper rack is so I can get mine?"

Those of you who deal with the person who doesn't buy a subscription calling and asking when a team photo of the Podunk Nose Pickers that she/he sent in will run should be able to line them up on a wall and hit them with a mud ball.

 

Actually, it's been my experience that douchenozzles like that usually say, "Can you send me a copy?"

 

Coupled in the wagering with "Is it on your website?"

 

I think he was too stunned. He must have had his "You suck! My kid is awesome!" diatribe ready to go and didn't have a Plan B when my story noted what his kid did at the end of the game.

But it's the example I use whenever someone's going through a similar thing. Just wait. If the kid is really that good, he'll get his moment and then you can shut mom and dad up.

 

I just had a homeschool parent asking for us to do a story on his kid's basketball team that did well in the national tournament ... in mid-March.

I declined since it happened two months ago. I held off on telling him the earliest I could get it in the paper would be May 22, and since that's after the predicted rapture it wouldn't do him any good anyway.