I'm Famous...Sort Of!
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (119027)
Gainesville, Florida
June 23, 2016 6:36am CST
I woke up to a very nice surprise this morning, to find a story on the front page of our local newspaper about a special event I'm running at our city's swimming pools this Friday! I'm quoted extensively throughout the article, and the reporter actually did the research I encouraged him to look up for source information and backup data.
I must admit, this reporter did an excellent job with the story, and so today I will contact him to let him know what a wonderful job he did! Usually, media reporters will find a way to completely mess up your quotes, or misquote you entirely, or even present a story that had absolutely nothing to do with the interview you gave. But in this case, this reporter got everything right, and so for once I am not cringing over the fact that I'm on the front page of the newspaper!
Tomorrow will be the fun day dealing with the media, as our special event takes place on Friday and I expect to give no less than five media interviews, including live interviews for the local news. Let's hope I get a good night's sleep tonight so I can be on "A" game tomorrow!
Have you ever been in the media spotlight?
15 people like this
16 responses
@paigea (35974)
• Canada
24 Jun 16
I hope your event went well. How wonderful that the media got the story right|! How rare is that?
About 55 years ago I was in our local paper falling off the sled that our dog was pulling. I did what I was asked but was not happy to "stage" that fall!
2 people like this
@moffittjc (119027)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Jun 16
I had to do a live media interview today with one of our local tv stations, and that wasn't very much fun! I don't mind doing interviews with newspaper reporters, but live tv news is such much worse! You only have one chance to get the story right! I think I did pretty well today, and I was definitely motivated by how pretty the news reporter was! Plus, she was so easy going that she made me feel right at east, so that helped as well! lol
1 person likes this
@paigea (35974)
• Canada
25 Jun 16
@moffittjc They should all be well trained to make you feel at ease.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (119027)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Jun 16
@paigea Our local stations are small-market stations, and with the University of Florida here in the city, they get all their new reporters from the College of Journalism at the University. So basically, every year they rotate new reporters in from the most recent graduating class, so it's like a continual training ground for new reporters. And since this is the first job for most of them, they often are fumbling their way through the interviews and news reports. It has its advantages and disadvantages. It usually works in my favor, because I can usually manipulate the rookie reporters (we'll call it sweet talking) into presenting the story in a way that looks good for me and my organization!
@silvermist (19702)
• India
28 Jun 16
@moffittjc You are famous.Did the event go well?As you said,it is very rare to find such genuine reporters these days.
1 person likes this
@silvermist (19702)
• India
28 Jun 16
@moffittjc Any other event like this one
planned in the near feature?
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (119027)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Jun 16
@silvermist Nothing like this again until next year! But my next special event at the swimming pool will be a "pop-up" museum. Our local natural history museum is trying to get more people to visit, so instead of making all the people come to the museum to see the exhibits, they are bringing the museum to the people! Because we have such high attendance numbers at our pools, they are going load up a couple of museum exhibits and bring them out and set them up at the pool for everyone to see! Should be a pretty fun event!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (119027)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Jun 16
The event went very well at all three of our locations! I was so impressed at how well my staff did in teaching hundreds of kids how to swim amongst such large groups. Usually our lessons are in small intimate groups where kids can get more individualized attention, so it was nice to see the staff able to handle such large groups at one time!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (119027)
• Gainesville, Florida
26 Jun 16
The event went very smoothly, and I gave a couple of live interviews with two of our local tv stations. We got a lot of media coverage from the event on Friday, and it resulted in a very busy Saturday for us as people flocked from all over to come visit our pools! We set an all-time attendance record at one of our pools on Saturday!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (119027)
• Gainesville, Florida
9 Jul 16
@just4him Wow, that's pretty cool! Looking back now, that's one thing I wish I would have done in college...run for a student government position. I had the connections (friends in high places), I just never had the ambition. Now, I wish I would have run in an election.
1 person likes this
@just4him (310129)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
8 Jul 16
@moffittjc I was Student Senate President in college so I was always in the college newspaper that year and the fact that I had to write an article every month for it as well.
1 person likes this
@VivaLaDani13 (60716)
• Perth, Australia
7 Aug 16
@moffittjc YAY! That's so fantastic! 
I have been on TV once because I was in a choir at school and we were filmed singing a christmas song. For some reason I feel like I've already told you this. Not sure. But anyway and me, my brother...or maybe both brothers ( can't remember ) and my nan had our photo taken for the newspaper. It was a story on my nans grandfather I think. He saved a lot of people from a fire....you know what I don't remember lol that's so horrible of me but it's a story I'm not totally familiar with. I was like 5 at the time too when the story was printed.
I have been on TV once because I was in a choir at school and we were filmed singing a christmas song. For some reason I feel like I've already told you this. Not sure. But anyway and me, my brother...or maybe both brothers ( can't remember ) and my nan had our photo taken for the newspaper. It was a story on my nans grandfather I think. He saved a lot of people from a fire....you know what I don't remember lol that's so horrible of me but it's a story I'm not totally familiar with. I was like 5 at the time too when the story was printed.1 person likes this
@moffittjc (119027)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Aug 16
I think you did mention it to me before! Did you save the newspaper clipping with the story/photo?
1 person likes this
@VivaLaDani13 (60716)
• Perth, Australia
7 Aug 16
@moffittjc Yeah I still have it. I will have to get it out and do a discussion about it one day!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (119027)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Aug 16
@VivaLaDani13 I bet you were really cute!
1 person likes this
@LovingMyBabies (85125)
• Valdosta, Georgia
23 Jun 16
That is so awesome, congrats! I have never been in the media spotlight and I have no desire to be either-Lol.
1 person likes this
@Marilynda1225 (80448)
• United States
23 Jun 16
It's nice that the media got the facts straight and wrote a good article especially if they put you on the front page!!! That sounds famous enough for me...can I get your autograph? 
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
24 Jun 16
Not that I can remember. I was well known in the city I helped found for a number of years, and when I wrote my first book (on how to create a large vibrant German program in a public school), I was well known to German teachers throughout the country.
But now, I am rather invisible, until I speak my mind (which happens fairly often. LOL).
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
24 Jun 16
Ooh, congrats on your fame! The reporter must have liked you. I've never been in the media spotlight, thank goodness. That is definitely a terrible nightmare for someone like me!
@Jeanniemaries (8237)
• United States
25 Jun 16
Wow congratulations! You are probably exhausted tonight! I hope it all went well.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (119027)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Jun 16
I'm wide awake now, unfortunately! I usually have Fridays off from work (I work four 10-hr days), but I worked today because of the special event. I finally got off work around 3pm today, and went home and took a nap. I only wanted to take a quick power nap, but I was exhausted and next thing I know...it was 7:30pm! So now I'll probably be up half the night because of that long nap!
@IvySaysHi (4467)
• United States
23 Jun 16
Congrats. I am pretty much a loser so no I have not been in the news
@JudyEv (328150)
• Rockingham, Australia
23 Jun 16
Are you having a facial and haircut before facing the media? Seriously though, hope it goes well.
