We get complaints, everybody in media does. In fact, if you’re not getting complaints, you’re not making enough of an impact on your market. Some are funny, some are puzzling and some are downright ridiculous, as if the writer is brand new to the planet and not yet familiar with how things work. This is just a grab-bag of some of the most recent ones.
I received a terse, angry email from a relative of a young person who had died in a collision. As is customary in news writing style, later in the story I referred to the deceased by their surname. This person accused me of being disrespectful and tore me a new one! In deference to their grief, I changed the sentence, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with what I did. I even checked the city’s other news sources to find that they had all done the same. However, I’m not about to argue with someone who has just lost their brother in a car crash. It was an unreasonable complaint, but their emotions were running high so I gave them a pass.
A new listener copied our boss on a hand-written letter to London’s Mayor, asking her to force us (and another radio station) to stop playing the song Signs by The Five Man Electrical Band. He reasoned that the tune’s message was out of date and played too often in this digital age. He went on to explain that he understood that our station’s budget probably didn’t allow them to hire morning show talent the calibre of what’s found on Toronto stations, but surely they could do better than Botten, Blair and Brandt! We found this incredibly amusing and it has become an inside joke where one of us or our boss will say, well, if only we could afford real talent. We don’t know if Mayor Baechler responded to the letter but so far we haven’t been asked to delete the precious classic rock, CanCon song from our library.
Just last week a very upset woman took to Facebook to tell us we were being offensive by posting a photo of a collision site. Â An 18-year-old Woodstock woman had lost control of her vehicle while trying to pass a transport, clipped the transport and then landed in the path of an oncoming dump truck. She died moments after impact. The front of her car looked like an accordion. Our reporter went to the scene and took photos. Now, it’s not as if they were interior shots of a blood-spattered dashboard or anything of that nature. The pictures showed the aftermath, where the vehicles all landed, and the destruction of the car. This Facebooker was outraged on behalf of the family whom she admitted she didn’t know and, as far as I know, have said nothing to any media outlet that posted similar photos. My News Director responded to her in a respectful way, left the photos up, and then endured similar comments from the friends she obviously rallied to her defense.
Where has this complainer been? Does she not know what news is? Personally, I was horrified by the huge, full-colour picture that a Toronto daily chose to run of an anguished Mother at her son’s funeral. How does that serve me as a news consumer? News is the unexpected, not the predictable. I find the shot of this distraught woman nearly collapsing with grief, her mouth open in an obviously painful cry, less newsworthy and more disrespectful than any photo I have ever taken, posted or approved. There are obvious questions about a car crash that takes a life but no one wonders if the Mother of a teen who was shot to death will be upset about it.
A week or so ago Target was the target of a social media frenzy over some baby-sized onesies it stocked that featured phrases about dating other babies and that kind of thing. People were freaking out but I just had to laugh. I had recently seen much worse on onesies in Sears and even though they struck me as a little odd, considering babies and dating aren’t exactly a theme you’d expect on infant clothes, I didn’t decide to get all up in arms about it on behalf of parents everywhere. That’s not my fight. Â Similar garments have been in stores for months, if not years, and there must be a market for them. If it’s so offensive, parents need to make phone calls and write letters, not just click “like” on social media.
Before complaining about a negative news story or deciding that something is offensive, the offended should ask themselves if what they’re really feeling is a strong negative reaction. Some photos and stories inspire a visceral, gut-level disgust and I believe it gets confused with feeling offended. The offended person doesn’t like it, so they assume it shouldn’t be available. It’s a nanny solution and I don’t want nannies deciding what I should see, good or bad, positive or negative. Thanks Mrs. Perpetually Offended but I’ll take reality every time.
As you so often say, in the wonderful words of Ricky Gervais, “Just because you’re offended, doesn’t mean you’re right.” Of course you’re taking a much more mature and analytical approach to these complaints (often we can learn from them, for sure), and good for you. As for “Toronto calibre talent”, I guess this nutjob doesn’t know you LEFT Toronto radio of your own volition, to grace the London airwaves. SO, to him I say “bow to the Garden City Morning Radio Queen – and get a life, buddy!”
Heehee. I actually wrote to John Derringer (whom this fool referred to as John Dillinger) to tell him we were being negatively compared to his calibre! He (Derringer/Dillinger) thought it was funny too. But hey, it was a compliment to him, and those of us in the industry know how rarely those come along!