I know there are some (past and present) reporters on here. I'll pose the following "hypothetical" question...

Let's say you are on-air talent for a television news station, and were told to pursue an interview. Would you think it appropriate and/or professional to contact the potential interviewee from an anonymous yahoo e-mail address? After being told that there was no interest in the interview, would you then suggest coming over to meet the potential interviewee at the person's house for a "brief and painless" visit?

I hope this isn't too vague. Hopefully, in a day or so, I can tell the whole story.

I would say that if being contacted in this form, I would probably regard it as a hoax and would have probably just deleted the request out of hand without ever replying.

Then again, I'm an unusually crass individual who figures that if they can't have a business e-mail address, that's not a good starting point. As for the bried and painless visit, if they're willing to take me out to a nice place to eat and foot the bill, I'd consider it, eat quickly, and judge from there the validity of the person. Odds are "I'd go to the bathroom" only never to reappear, but again, I'm not your typical nice Canadian ;)

Of course, if this is setting up a good gag piece, I'm all for it.

Contacting the person from an anonymous yahoo e-mail address is sketchy as heck...and then following up after being told that there was no interest is totally inappropriate.

Sounds fishy to me. After all, you don't know whether they're really a reporter or not.

And now, the rest of the story...

The media has been hounding my step-mother for follow-up/closure interviews about my dad and brother. For obvious reasons, she is not ready to give an interview, and honestly, she may never be ready. Nevertheless, the media persists. Recently, I've asked her to start forwarding all media requests to me.

Anyway, back to this story. A reporter from a television station in Atlanta contacted her via e-mail. She is not the most e-mail savvy person and failed to notice that his e-mail had come from an anonymous yahoo account. She responded that she was not yet ready for interviews, but she appreciated his interest in our family. He replied with the following e-mail:


Though I cannot (and hope I never will) fully

understand your situation, I appreciate the fact that

you need time to heal.

My employers have asked me to vigorously pursue an

interview with you. I'd like to be able to tell them

that we had a conversation about it.

Any chance I can come by after school, without camera

or notebook or anything, and say hi? Or visit before

school starts? It would be brief and painless.

I'd appreciate it. Please let me know.
(I should note that, at this point, she forwarded the e-mail to me, and we talked about her sending all future inquiries my way.)

I looked up his station on the internet and sent him a cordial e-mail to his business e-mail address, asking him to confirm that the e-mail had been from him (because I found it a bit odd that communication would come through a yahoo account) and explaining that I didn't think a meeting was appropriate at this time. I got his response this morning where he simply thanked me for responding and acknowledged that he had sent the prior e-mails.

So, no elaborate prank. Just a bit of sketchiness that raised my antennae a bit. Hopefully, at least this guy will back off for now.

It does seem very odd that he would contact your mother-in-law via an anonymous Yahoo email account and not his business email address, especially because he is doing so in an official capacity and is not a friend who had an email address you might ordinarily recognize. I would definately feel that something was not quite right if placed in a similar situation, but I'm glad that everything turned out to just be a misunderstanding and not a hoax.

digamma - If you need any of us ATL boys to go over and kick his ass, I volunteer. Bloodthirsty reporters REALLY piss me off.

As someone who has worked in the media for about 13 years now I think this is just wrong. THen again I am someone who is also disgusted by the media and only still in it in a supportive capacity while I work toward a degree that will help me in conquering the world!

digamma - If you need any of us ATL boys to go over and kick his ass, I volunteer. Bloodthirsty reporters REALLY piss me off.
Right there with BB.

Could be a freelance writer/journalist. That *might* explain the lack of a more established address. Nonetheless, I can't blame you for the skepticism.

So, no elaborate prank. Just a bit of sketchiness that raised my antennae a bit. Hopefully, at least this guy will back off for now.
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FWIW, I probably wasn't too suspicious about the contacts based on the Yahoo email (that's not unheard of, especially if a media-type happens to be working from home/away from the office).

The other stuff (both the apparently immediate pursuit after being told "no interest" and the wording of the email) would put this particular reporter on the bottom of my list of possibilities _if and when_ I chose to grant an interview request.

My experience & my instincts are both having their "this is not the right person to conduct this sort of interview" buzzers set off. Just strikes me as being too self-centered I guess.

And while I'm running off at the mouth, I may as well offer my other two cents worth too -- If the time ever comes that your step-mother indicates she's ready to grant an interview, consider choosing the reporter you believe you'd be most comfortable with & initiate the contact yourselves. And don't feel that you're limited to just those individuals who've made previous attempts -- if there's someone else in their organization that you feel, for whatever reason(s), is a better fit then I don't believe it's inappropriate to give them the opportunity.

Basically, this old reporter believes this is something you have the right to control however you see fit, including timing, location, and person.

Jon

digamma - If you need any of us ATL boys to go over and kick his ass, I volunteer. Bloodthirsty reporters REALLY piss me off.After the awful incident with Channel 2 on the morning after the murders (for those that missed that tidbit, a reporter informed two very young teachers of the deaths, then photographed them through the window of the school after they ran inside crying, and after the principal had told the reporters to leave), you know how I feel about this.