Dear dimwit on the phone

[jlee]

Most of them. Some of them, I recognize their names as former athletes. Some of the things they're saying I did -- and it's nothing sleazy, just "He was rude when he interviewed me," or "He wrote about A and B when C and D happened," that sort of thing -- I think they might be confusing me with some of our former writers and just swirling "the paper guy" into an amalgam character in their minds.
One guy, for example, was talking about stomping on my toes with his cleats on the sideline of a football game, which I do remember. Someone followed up about how I was mad he wouldn't help me move a table for an interview, which I don't remember and isn't something I would probably even ask for help with. I'd just do it.

It's just disturbing, I guess, because reading the comments is a little like eavesdropping on an unflattering conversation about yourself. I also hate it when people are mad at me and I don't know why, or they're mad at me for a stupid reason or a misunderstanding. Some of the stuff they're saying runs totally counter to how I've always tried to conduct myself and run our sports section, and it makes you wonder where the hell it's coming from. Are they confusing me with someone else? Is that how they perceive me or the paper, and my own perception of how I'm doing things is way off? Are they just feeding off the other comments?
You want to point out how full of ship they are or ask them when this or that happened to try and set things right, and there's just no way to do it.

FWIW, I had a good talk about it all with City High's coach on Wednesday when I finally caught up to him for our weekly interview. One of the people who posted something was his daughter, which he wasn't thrilled about. He graduated from City High in the 90s and explained it's a long-running inferiority complex the school has in regards to County High, especially when it comes to this game, and that filters through a lot of different aspects of life.
That was before the column came out, but he hasn't sent me any angry texts or called me today, so I guess we're still OK. I'll find out for sure tomorrow if I'm standing on their sideline during the game and they start running power sweeps in my direction.

Sorry for the long posts. I actively try to avoid situations like this and this is the first time I've ever really been here. It shakes you up a bit.

I hear ya, and I'm not trying to pretend to know the situation, just being someone in your corner. I'm sure I'm far from alone there.

But still, fork em. May they get all the rewards of being chronically butthurt by small perceived slights against their former high school.

 

[swingline]

At a former paper, our staff picked the weekly high school games and ran our pictures with the picks and our season total. Being a total contrarian, and not really understanding why I was picking when I was a desker, I always picked the underdog. After one Friday night game ended with the underdog winning, one of our writers came into the office and said the coach held up our paper and said, "Only us and swingline believed in us!"

Another time, I was eating lunch at the local bar we always went to and overheard people talking about our picks, specifically me picking the underdogs. I was maybe 10 feet away and in full view of this table, but no one noticed me. One old boy had his dander up a bit and said, "That swingline, he's just a deckhead." It was all I could do not to laugh.

 

[apeman33]

I participated in a Pick 'Em for a different paper when I was in radio. I had the extra disadvantage of not having been in the area before joining the radio station, so my first two, maybe three, weeks was all guess work. But at a prep rally before the Big Rivalry Game, the Sports Editor found himself having to explain why he picked Big Rival to beat Home Team.

So when I got to my paper the following season, one thing I knew I was never going to do was a Pick 'Em. To me, it was a no-win situation. Meanwhile, the Sports Editor at Paper 40 Miles West had a Pick 'Em and always picked 40 Miles West High, even in years it was obvious they were going 0-9.

 

[spikechiquet]

We had a writer that would try to pick the underdogs in all the games. He treated it like a joke. Just didn't care.

 

[Fredrick]

Well, I unwittingly stepped in it this week and angered the Dimwit Facebook Hordes.

County High and City High are playing their rivalry game this week. As usual, I wrote a preview story specific to each team, instead of a broader overview of the game. For a couple of reasons (biggest being I was having a hard time catching up to City High's coach), the County High preview ran on Wednesday. It was rather mundane. If anything, it dwelled on County High getting blown out last week. The thrust of the article was that playing a rivalry game was a good opportunity to snap out of the funk from that loss because the players would be more amped up and focused this week.
When the story was posted to our Facebook page, all hell broke loose.
Some City High fans -- one in particular, who riled up the mashes and turned into the Pitchfork and Torch Distribution Specialist -- started ripping the story as "biased" and seemed to think it was going to stand as the only preview for the game. When I tried to head it off quickly and point out that the City High preview was coming later in the week, it inspired conspiracy theories about how I personally have always hated City High, our paper has always had a bias toward them, how I "degraded" and was "disrespectful" toward City High in the County High preview story, how we weren't really going to run anything until people made a stink, etc.

Among the gems:
• Someone ending their post with "#ShameOnYouBatman"
• A person repeatedly insisting "he got his facts wrong" by citing facts that were in the story
• Someone insisting that I never planned to write a City High preview, even though we've done it this way for years and I write one about them every week.
• The usual "You should support both schools!" argument, even as they claim the story is overly biased toward one of them.
• Someone wondering why the picture with the story was from last week's game instead of, apparently, a game that hasn't been played yet.
• After I posted that the City High preview would be published on Friday, people asking why I would publish it on game day. We're in Week 3 of the season and have run at least one preview every Friday. I think last week or the week before it was even County High's preview.
• Long-held grievances about how I've been a jerk in interviews that, to the best of my recollection, have no basis in fact. I pride myself on professionalism and don't have any major problems that I know of with the coaches in town.
• A City High grad who worked as an ad rep at our paper for at least 10 years, a lot of them with me, claiming there is a long-running institutional bias against City High dating back to when he was in high school in the 1980s.
• Another person blaming me for bringing down the quality of the entire school district that both schools are a part of.
• Other general potshots at the quality of our paper.

Where I stepped in it was letting the social media rock hit me just right between the eyes. I should have just let it go, run the second story, and let it fade and I didn't.
My weekly column runs on Thursday, so as this was unfolding yesterday I took the opportunity yesterday to address it. I sarcastically mentioned that I must really hate City High if I've written hundreds of stories about them winning games and titles over the years (probably my biggest mistake; I'm not sure the snark came through clear enough in print), reiterated how and why we run two previews for this game, and wrapped it up with how social media is a wonder of modern evil.
As you can imagine, it went over like a loud, juicy fart during the quiet part of church.
Today people (including a couple of players from City High) are taking some personal shots at me and my appearance, calling my column childish (probably fair; I should have taken the high road in hindsight) and continuing on the other themes from yesterday.

Where this whole thing has really gotten under my skin is with how stupid and ignorant it all is. If I'd written something controversial, gotten something blatantly wrong, misquoted someone, I could understand it. If it's on me like that I'll suck it up and take the heat. But to have something blow up like this over a run of the mill football preview story is so asinine that it's infuriating.
I want to reach through the screen and strangle some of these people for being so stupid or, failing that, respond to all of them individually and point out their stupidity. I know that'll only make it worse, though. The mob has spoken. Twenty years of trying to build a solid reputation in this town and in 48 hours it feels like it's all been flushed away over something I still can't grasp how anyone could possibly have been upset about in any way, shape or form.

People suck.

Great post. I would like to say, hmmm I thought nobody read a newspaper anymore. Sounds to me like newspapers are still relevant, causing a stir.

 

[MNgremlin]

This probably sounds petty, but do any of you hold grudges against any of the previous frequent dimwits?

We had an area kid a few years back who was really talented but his dad was a real piece of work. To this day, he's the biggest dimwit we've dealt with in my 5+ years at the shop. We were glad once the kid's senior basketball season was over because it meant we didn't have to deal with the dad anymore. Anyways, the kid has been performing pretty well in college, almost to the point where I've thought I should run a feature on the kid. It's only D3 football, but it's somewhat popular around here and the kid is on the verge of records. But I really don't know if I want to reopen that can of worms. I'm the only guy around from when we dealt with this issue the last time (shocker), so I'm the only one who really understands the full situation. I haven't been told to pursue the story or not, but I basically have the green light to choose who I want to feature.

 

[ChrisLong]

This probably sounds petty, but do any of you hold grudges against any of the previous frequent dimwits?

We had an area kid a few years back who was really talented but his dad was a real piece of work. To this day, he's the biggest dimwit we've dealt with in my 5+ years at the shop. We were glad once the kid's senior basketball season was over because it meant we didn't have to deal with the dad anymore. Anyways, the kid has been performing pretty well in college, almost to the point where I've thought I should run a feature on the kid. It's only D3 football, but it's somewhat popular around here and the kid is on the verge of records. But I really don't know if I want to reopen that can of worms. I'm the only guy around from when we dealt with this issue the last time (shocker), so I'm the only one who really understands the full situation. I haven't been told to pursue the story or not, but I basically have the green light to choose who I want to feature.

Years ago we had a very prominent athlete -- football, volleyball -- who kept transferring. Sophomore year one school, junior year another. Senior year a third. Second semester of senior year, he went back to the original school. We got word of that and went to find him to make sure. We figured after the final bell, he would eventually work his way down to the PE department. We were having a casual talk with the athletic director as we waited. Asked him what he felt about the kid coming back. "He's a great kid, glad to have him. But his dad is an ashhole ... and you can quote me on that."

 

[apeman33]

This probably sounds petty, but do any of you hold grudges against any of the previous frequent dimwits?

We had an area kid a few years back who was really talented but his dad was a real piece of work. To this day, he's the biggest dimwit we've dealt with in my 5+ years at the shop. We were glad once the kid's senior basketball season was over because it meant we didn't have to deal with the dad anymore. Anyways, the kid has been performing pretty well in college, almost to the point where I've thought I should run a feature on the kid. It's only D3 football, but it's somewhat popular around here and the kid is on the verge of records. But I really don't know if I want to reopen that can of worms. I'm the only guy around from when we dealt with this issue the last time (shocker), so I'm the only one who really understands the full situation. I haven't been told to pursue the story or not, but I basically have the green light to choose who I want to feature.

Yes. The ashhole from this post:
#6362

I didn't care about him until he made it known he didn't like me. From that point on, I hated his guts. And even though I left the paper in December, he's the one guy from the whole 22-plus years in that town that if he was on fire, I'd pour gasoline on him.

 

[OscarMadison]

@Batman I can't speak specifically to your situation, but I have seen it happen to others and have been on the receiving end of fans fabricating all manner of stories about anyone with a pulse and a byline. Maybe it makes people feel like they can appear to be in the know or inside or something if they dish on reporters, columnists, etc. Swingline has it right. Best to laugh it off. I have to admit to being a little jealous of my evil twin. I'd love to meet her sometime. She sounds interesting.

 

[Batman]

@Batman I can't speak specifically to your situation, but I have seen it happen to others and have been on the receiving end of fans fabricating all manner of stories about anyone with a pulse and a byline. Maybe it makes people feel like they can appear to be in the know or inside or something if they dish on reporters, columnists, etc. Swingline has it right. Best to laugh it off. I have to admit to being a little jealous of my evil twin. I'd love to meet her sometime. She sounds interesting.

Thanks. I was a little worried about it that week, just because it seemed like there was some ugly stuff being said and the game was likely to be (and wound up being) a blowout in favor of County High. I knew the story I was going to have write afterward would not be favorable to City High. Fortunately, a lot of the people I talked to that actually matter saw it for the lunacy that it was. It's even been a little bit of a running joke around town the past couple of weeks, so I think I'm in the clear.

 

[Batman]

One of our local swim teams won the state title today. Huge accomplishment. The team they beat has four times as many students and has dominated this meet for decades because they send half the student body to compete and rack up stray points. Local school sends 20-25 good swimmers, compared to 50 or 60 for the bigger school, and has been knocking on the door for a few years before finally breaking through today. The coverage, of course, led our sports section and we had a picture on A1. Good story, good pictures, it's a good day.
Then I look at my e-mail right before calling it a day and see this from the publisher: "Do we have enough content from the swim team's big win for a 12-16 page sports tab?"
After the chill finished pashing down my spine, I replied, "Oh God, no." It was both a statement of fact and a plea for mercy.

 

[JBHawkEye]

One of our local swim teams won the state title today. Huge accomplishment. The team they beat has four times as many students and has dominated this meet for decades because they send half the student body to compete and rack up stray points. Local school sends 20-25 good swimmers, compared to 50 or 60 for the bigger school, and has been knocking on the door for a few years before finally breaking through today. The coverage, of course, led our sports section and we had a picture on A1. Good story, good pictures, it's a good day.
Then I look at my e-mail right before calling it a day and see this from the publisher: "Do we have enough content from the swim team's big win for a 12-16 page sports tab?"
After the chill finished pashing down my spine, I replied, "Oh God, no." It was both a statement of fact and a plea for mercy.

One of my former publishers wanted us to do a tab, with just two days to complete it because there was no room in the pressroom schedule, for the local Catholic school girls basketball team that was going to state. "I want photos and bios of every player on the team," he said. Why? His daughter was on the team (she maybe played three minutes a game) and "I want a keepsake for her." When I asked if he wanted us to do the same thing for one of our area schools (15 miles away) that was also going, he said, "Just give them a short preview."