Did you ever deal with someone who, through their arrogance, rudeness and utter disregard for tact and professionalism absolutely ruined your day? Have you ever been screamed at by someone who was asking you for information, and instead of being appreciative and thankful that you were assisting them – was instead demanding and belittling as if you worked for them? Well unfortunately – that’s exactly what happened to me today.

Before I joined the Giuliani Administration, I was so proud to be a journalist. I always loved being regarded as a member of the press – now that I work with reporters instead of among them – my regard for the media is souring – and it’s no one’s fault but their own.

Don’t get me wrong, there are reporters I work with that I look forward to talking to. I have developed such a good repor with some reporters, that I even call them with some story ideas – and then there are those reporters who make a career out of hating the City, the Mayor, and anything to do with the Government. All they do is look under rocks, in dumpsters and speak to “sources” to find “dirt” for their next Anti-City story. And besides doing stories that have no journalistic merit except to promote that reporter as a City-Hater – they have an attitude that matches their stories – rude, obnoxious – and unnecessary.

When reporters call me, they are asking me to provide them with information, so you figure they would be nice to me, and most are. But then there are those few reporters that think that I am there to serve them and only them, and whoever or whatever else I have to attend to is insignificant until their needs are met – and met quickly. The “reporter” I dealt with today was one of the latter.

From the first time I spoke with this “reporter”, I knew there would be a problem. She called me and told me she had a series of questions to ask me for a story she was working on. When I asked her to fax me the list of questions, I realized right away what kind of person I was dealing with, because her response to my request that I make to every other reporter I deal with and never get a problem was, “Why! Isn’t it your job to write down what I say?!” Excuse me, but while I may be the Press Secretary – that does not make me her secretary. From that moment on, she treated me and everyone else I work with the same way.

Let me ask you a question. If you went into a McDonald’s, approached the person taking orders and said, “Hello, I would like a Big Mac please.” you would get served with a smile. But what if you walked up to the same person and said, “You! Big Mac – now!” How do you think you would be treated? That’s my point.

Today, this “reporter” spent the entire day screaming at me and my co-workers like we were her slaves and she was the master. “Where are my lists!” she ordered. “I need them today!” she demanded. “I’ll call you back in an hour and you better have what I asked for!” she screamed before hanging up on me. Now can you see why I had a bad day today?

I know all of us have yelled at people once in a while, and probably felt bad afterwards. But from dealing with this “reporter” for the last week – I can tell that feeling bad is not something she does very well.

Then again – neither is reporting.