Sep 05
Off the Hook
Forgive a telephone-related pun, but it does double duty in this case.
Just when I couldn’t stall around any longer about heading to our newsroom to answer calls from angry viewers who wanted to watch their shows instead of severe weather coverage, I was told that news had it covered! Sweet.
I had already had enough attitude just reading a few incoming emails. I never cease to be amazed — although after 17+ years in television, I shouldn’t be surprised anymore — by the level of rudeness people display when they have something to say.
They’re quick to tell us what we do wrong, and even quicker to tell us what “idiots” we are. (And that’s the kind of term the more polite ones say.) And of course, they can’t seem to resist adding that they’re “never watching our station again.”
I’m not unsympathetic at all. I appreciate the fact that they like something we have to offer enough that they’d get passionate about it.
But I also suspect that they wouldn’t stand still for someone talking to them that way for one second, and that if there was severe weather threatening their specific street and we weren’t on the air alerting them about it, they’d be raising hell about why we were “asleep at the switch.” (Believe me, I’ve worked at other stations where we missed something and received exactly that kind of response.)
So I wonder what gives them the audacity to take that kind of attitude with someone else. There is a right way and a wrong way to complain. Some know how to do it effectively. Most, unfortunately, don’t seem to get it.
September 8th, 2008 at 8:09 am
Oh man…just like students! First they blame you for everything they do not like with the college. They will find anything wrong they can with you but if they are late, absent, have typos etc there is always an “acceptable” excuse. HA!