I always get these comments about how cool it must be being a reporter. Yes, I get to do a lot of cool things, and rub shoulders with some pretty important people.
But people don't ask about the bad stuff. The hate mail. The angry politicians that black list you and refuse to acknowledge your existence after you wrote an article that miffed them.
To top it all off, reporters can be in the middle of (and create) the most awkward situations.
Case in point: primary election night (last night). Two incumbents lost, and of course I had to write about it. My boss tells me to call the losers. First thought: what the heck do I say to them? Then without thinking too hard about it, I started dialing. Luckily the first loser shunned all phone calls. That made me feel a little better, thinking Loser No. 2 wouldn't answer when I called.
Yeah, things didn't work out that way. Loser No. 2 answers, and is mad. So I stumble through a sentence about the rough election night, and asked if he would share his thoughts and if he had anything to tell his constituents.
"What do you think," Loser No. 2 shouted. Then, after an abrupt "thank you," he quickly hung up on me.
That was fun. I immediately called my editor to ask if I could use that tantrum quote. Luckily for him, Loser No. 2 then called right back, to tell me I "misunderstood." He said he was upset, but he wanted to thank his constituents.
In the end, Loser No. 2 got a pretty decent quote in the paper, but it took two seriously awkward conversations to get there.
(interviewing the winner, however, is awesome, especially first-timers. One guy was so happy he barely knew what to say, other than a really PC comment about his opponent. The other had just found out she won right before I called, and she was just so excited. Definitely a change from interviewing Loser No. 2)
Thanksgiving 2018
4 years ago
4 comments:
WOW. You're my hero! I could never be a reporter!
...awkward.
Yeah, I think the movies and TVs make reporter life 10 times cooler than it really is. And, seriously, they WAY over exaggerate the paycheck because in practically every show with a reporter, the reporter has got a plush apartment, hot clothes and money to burn.
(Just re-read what I wrote and the first line in that paragraph is just full of grammar errors. Eh, and I'm over it.)
Yeah, I can relate to that. But my biggest pet peeve is when people ask how old I am and it isn't relevant to the interview. It's like they are trying to figure out if I am an intern or not. Sometimes I tell my age (it depends if I know the person from doing more than one interview with them) and other times I just say "I'm older than I look" or "I don't see how that is relevant" and then they usually back off.
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