The press was worse than fly paper--we couldn't even go outside without a camera & microphone stuck in our faces about how we FEEL (and you're going to get that, too, until they get bored).L. Neil Smith described a good way to deal with this....flip off their cameras and curse creatively.
-Eric
Oh, if we did that (and some did) we were described as "hostile" and "angry."
My fave is what one of my neighbors did: he agreed to an interview, even invited them into his living room. They got him all wired up with the mike, he sat in his recliner, they turned on the camera, and as the reporter anxiously leaned towards him and asked him, "how do you FEEL about the murder," he said, "I dunno. What murder ya talkin' 'bout? I jest moved here last week from Da Yoopee, ya know," with him acting dumb as a box of rocks. They huffed out of there.
He was able to waste their time, use up their tape & get a good chuckle about it.