12-11 IAN Kvetch

A day in the life of an Ag reporter. Believe me I’m out here trying to serve your needs but it ain’t easy. I’m David Sparks with the Ag Information Network. I’m doing this story today just to, as the speakers of Yiddish say,  kvetch.  I get press releases all the time on all kinds of agricultural issues. At the bottom of the press releases, we find contact  so and so for more information. There is some PR representative with a phone number. I am telling you this after many years on this job, I’ll bet you I don’t hit pay dirt more than one in 25 attempts. You always get a voicemail saying thank you for calling so and so, I’m not in right now so if you will… And you know how it goes. It even goes beyond that. If I call this commission or that commission regarding agriculture, I rarely can get through to the person of interest, even though they are listed as full-time employees. Where is everybody? Example. I had a question about a certain issue. I’m not getting personal because I don’t want to get anybody in trouble. But I called the main guy and was told he was out. I said how about the 2nd to the main guy? Nope he’s out too. okay can you help me out? Who else can I talk to? The receptionist says…(and by the way, you’ll hear a beep over parts where I want to protect the anonymity of the individual).

“ I’ll tell you what. You need to talk to ( Beep) she is probably the one that knows the most about ( Beep) in Idaho and Utah. I can transfer you over there to her if you would like. If you don’t get ( Beep)  and needless to say I didn’t get through. But what else is new? Just wanted to kvetch.