Another Management Shake-Up, This One At Sun-Sentinel
Sun-Sentinel Deputy Managing Editor Pat Thompson, who oversaw the features department, has left the newspaper.
Earl Maucker announced Thompson's departure in a staff-wide email today that also included news of a "restructuring" of the newsroom to create a "quicker and deeper alignment of print and digital journalism." It just looks like is a heavily bureaucratic reshuffling of the deck chairs, but that's just me. Here you go:
From: Thompson, Leesa O
Sent: Fri 3/20/2009 11:55 AM
To: zzSSC.Division.Editorial
Subject: An announcement from Earl
After a lot of careful thought, today we are announcing a restructuring of our newsroom to promote a quicker and deeper alignment of print and digital journalism, a transition that will set the course for the future and ensure a fully integrated operation.
Philip Ward, Deputy Managing Editor/News, will become our Print Platform Manager. He will oversee six department heads, four of whom will become Topic Managers. These topics will include Local News, (overseen by Dana Banker), Consumer/Business, (headed by Anne Vasquez), Entertainment/Going Out, (supervised by Gretchen Day-Bryant), and Sports, (overseen by Kathy Laughlin). Philip will report directly to me.
Arnie Rosenberg, Gail DeGeorge and Cyndi Metzger will remain in their current positions and report to Philip.
Joe Schwerdt, DME/Online, will be the Digital Platform Manager. Joe will continue to report both to me and to Jeff Levine, VP/Online Content-Florida. Joe and Philip will work closely together to ensure that all newsroom content is produced and appropriately targeted for all platforms.
Tim Frank, DME/Visuals and Creative Director, will continue to oversee design, graphics and visuals. He will report directly to me.
Willie Fernandez, DME/Chief of Copy Desks, will take on an expanded role as Production Manager and Night Supervisor, working closely with Philip, Joe and Tim to make sure all content is processed for all platforms. He will report to me.
Antonio Fins, Editorial Board Editor, will continue his role as supervisor of our institutional voice, but also will assume responsibility as Opinions Topics Manager for several additional areas of interest for all platforms. He will continue to report directly to me as well.
Research Center Manager/Training Editor Gail Bulfin will also report to me.
Unfortunately, I am saddened to tell you that Pat Thompson has left the company. For more than five years, Pat distinguished herself as a driving force for change at the Sun Sentinel. Her exceptional planning abilities and commitment to quality journalism will be missed.
In the weeks ahead we will be taking additional actions that will move us further into the digital world and enable us to continue responding quickly to the changing demands of an increasing competitive media market.
43 comment(s) / Post a Comment
I love it when "upper management" shakes up a newsroom or office by moving around people and then totally changing the titles to really goofy words they think sound "modern" or are filled with "changeability." Let me guess, I'd say that it took a handful of SS geniuses maybe two weeks to agree on these titles.
No wonder the newspaper business model is crumbling before our very eyes.
No loss with Pat Thompson, She was a cold, unfriendly meeting-goer who wouldn't even say hello to people in the elevator, let alone become part of the newsroom and lead from the front. Most reporters have no idea who she is, what her duties were and why she merited a six-figure salary for the last five years. I hope she accomplished more than serving to diversify upper mamanagement with her presence. Because, to many of us, that's all she did.
Posted On: Friday, Mar. 20 2009 @ 2:57PMRe: Earl's "Restructuring"
You'd have to be seriously drunk to diagram the Sentinel's new management cluster fuck the way the Duck of Earl's has it worked it out.
Especially challenging would be to chart the hierarchical positions of Schwerdt, Ward, Frank, Fernandez, Finns and Bulfin -- all of whom report directly to Earl, altho hopefully not all at once.
Finally, (like the ubiquitous cockroach and MRSA) that Bluffin' Bulfin's a real survivor, aint' she?
PS
And where's the Sentinel's Church Lady Lawyer on Earl's chart?
For shame, anonymous. The woman just lost her job. There are too many small, spiteful people throwing darts from behind the cloak of anonymity on this blog. Maybe you can stop being one of them next time around.
Posted On: Friday, Mar. 20 2009 @ 4:27PMSeriously, folks....It's way past time to stop cannibalizing each other. Sure, there are people here and there who you can argue are needed or superfluous and it changes in the eye of the beholder. But one of the terrific things about the business has been how we always had each other's back no matter the situation, especially when things were dark. Yes, we complain and carp about specific people (we, of course, are unassailable paragons), but this kind of public sniping does no one any credit. I'm no Pollyana. I'm as bitter and furious and depressed as anyone out there, but save it for Sam Zell, Tony Ridder, Dennis Fitzsimons, Bruce Sherman and their ilk.
Wonder if this "restructuring" will help prevent the rumored bloodletting on the copy/design desks. Yeah, I know ... dream on!
I didn't much care for Pat's management style -- it certainly wasn't warm-and-fuzzy -- but she was always at least civil with me and did express her regret when I left the Sentinel. My thoughts are with her.
Posted On: Friday, Mar. 20 2009 @ 5:17PMSo let me get this right: Just because times are tough, we aren't supposed to be critcal thinkers about our business and the people in it? Whatever.
Posted On: Friday, Mar. 20 2009 @ 7:30PMHi.
Pat also oversaw business, sports and projects.
Pat may have not been super social but she has high journalistic standards and cares deeply about the quality of the information we put out. This is a sad day for the Sun Sentinel.
It's also a huge loss for us because Pat was the only woman and African American in editorial's upper management. I think it's important to represent the community we cover in terms of our backgrounds, our socio-economic class, etc.
Julie Patel
Posted On: Friday, Mar. 20 2009 @ 7:43PMYeastClown, there is a pretty massive difference between being "critcal [sic] thinkers about our business and the people in it" and being mean-spirited vultures.
You'd do well to learn the difference, as Anon5:17pm has.
Posted On: Friday, Mar. 20 2009 @ 7:45PMI really don't care what Pat's race or heritage was, or her greater meaning to journalists of color. She was a first-class journalist and one of the most decent managers I've ever had the pleasure to work with. Whip-smart, honest, and with the highest standards.
Yes, she was quiet, and a bit reserved, but keep in mind who was running that newsroom for much of her tenure. Her door was always open and, unlike other bosses there, it wasn't because she wanted to slam it on against your head as you entered.
Consider the hand she was dealt coming in. First, she had Rosenhause one step above her. We're talking about someone who routinely demeaned people in news meetings while wrapping herself in the cloak of "diversity." Petty, empty and vindictive, she brought all the passion and grace and understanding that Bin Laden might to your son's Bar Mitzvah.
One more rung above her was kindly Uncle Earl, a hack with the intellectual depth and inspirational reach of a soda straw. He probably sees himself, emblazoned with the new single "S" on his chest, leaping from tall buildings to save journalists in a single bound. But you can't fly, Earl. And you're always getting tangled up in the cape. His career achievements can be summed up by a splat on the sidewalk.
At her side, the trustworthy Philip Ward, forever known for his Peter Principle motto: wear beige, shut up, and sit in the back of the room.
Damn, the rats really are the last to drown when the ship goes down.
Pat could have prospered at any top paper in the country, but she ended up in the management equivalent of one of those trailer park families where everyone's sister is also their wife.
Good luck Pat. You're lucky to be out of there.
What's wrong with beige? I just bought matching shoes and belt in beige.
Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 21 2009 @ 12:17AMYou can bet any memo from Earl "My Hands are Tied" Maucker will be a mush-mouth cluster signifying nothing. Thompson could have been sky blue pink and that wouldn't have helped. Look for more departures soon.
(Aren't too many left in features who remember hilarious laughter over Earl's wife's decorating skills -- bowling pin lamps and all. Illinois calls, Earl. Start packin'those lamps.)
Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 21 2009 @ 2:54AMHello. This is Pat Thompson. I rarely read this blog, and have never commented on it before, but heard my name had popped up.
Let me set the record straight about a few things: I was hired as a Deputy Managing Editor five and a half years ago. The main areas for which I was responsible as senior editor: business/consumer news, nation/world news, the Sunday paper, the Outlook section and planning newsroom enterprise. A year or so ago, features/entertainment coverage was added to my duties. Each DME supervises several departments, not just one.
I had a great team of editors and reporters. They were relatively small departments, but included some of the top talent in the newsroom, and we did amazing, award-winning work, even after newshole and travel budget cuts. I will miss them, and I wish them all the best.
To Anonymous above who found me cold and unfriendly: I apologize if I didn't speak to you in the elevator. That doesn't sound like me. I always speak to my colleagues whether in the elevator or anywhere else. Maybe I was consumed with trying to solve a problem that day, or frustrated about something, and didn't notice you; there are some metro staffers I don't know well, since I never worked directly with those folks. Or maybe you had done something that annoyed me and instead of smiling at you, I simply mumbled hi. Sorry it bothered you that much.
It's true I'm not fond of chit-chat, and that I like to make decisions quickly and move on, keeping the overall interests of the paper and readers in mind, not just the needs of one person or department. The Sun Sentinel is full of people who have been there for decades; I was hired into a top job from outside, and adjusted to the culture quite well. I loved working there.
The last couple of years have been really tough. We had to make some difficult and unpopular decisions. We lost outstanding journalists to buyouts and layoffs last year - the first layoffs ever in the Sun Sentinel newsroom. The loss of them is evident in the newspaper. More will lose their jobs this year.
Sharon and Earl and my colleagues were always extremely supportive of me and my work. I thank everyone for the kind words, the good wishes and outpouring of support.
Life goes on...
To "Still Around:"
I never posted a bad word about anyone. Ever. I was just posting a general thought.
Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 21 2009 @ 10:03AMI found Pat very difficult to talk to, as well, and never really knew what she was thinking. Her post above is the longest string of words I've ever gotten out of her, and for her to simply wave it off as "a bad day" is a misrepresentation. Leaders communicate: She didn't do it well, although Patel's remarks above about her journalism skills carry some positive weight.
If I remember right, she originally was going to be DME/News, and Ward was to be moved over. But they found out Ward was actually the stronger of the two, so he had to stay on to lead news.
IMO, if Earl was to let one person of his above list go, he got this one right.
Oh Dear Ms Patel:
I'm not sure what communities you think you guys are representing -- horny white men who click on slide shows? Celebrity hounds too stupid to find TMZ?. With the coverage you've got right now, sending a platoon of Klansmen to cover Lauderhill, Miramar or Riviera Beach would be more socially conscious.
Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 21 2009 @ 11:38AMJulie:
1.) Pat did not oversee sports. Ward did/does.
2.) The woman argument is a poor one. The Sun-Sentinel has a female city editor, features editor, business editor, sports editor, Sunday editor, photo editor, Outlook editor, reader editor and legal editor.
Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 21 2009 @ 4:43PMMe, too wrote: "If I remember right, [Pat Thompson] originally was going to be DME/News, and Ward was to be moved over. But they found out Ward was actually the stronger of the two, so he had to stay on to lead news."
Wow, a post that says something nice about Philip Ward. Has the temperature in hell dropped below 32 degrees Fahrenheit?
Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 21 2009 @ 7:04PMAgain....
These comments make me especially happy that I'm no longer in the vipers' nest on Las Olas. This popularity contest crap got tired in middle school.
Wanna know why your paper is totally and completely fucked? Spend less time sniping at each other and go out and do some journalism.
Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 21 2009 @ 7:14PMTo Former Floridian:
The problem here, if you haven't noticed, is that many journalists no longer have jobs that allow them to pursue their passion with some sort of financial remuneration. Thirty-six jobs in Orlando are about to be lost. Considering it has the same management as us, and is about the same size, you want to guess how many veteran S-S journalists are about to lose their jobs in a week or two? All newspapers are suffering in this economy. The ones with bad management, both editorial and business, are collapsing. The Sun-Sentinel, once among the most profitable newspapers in the U.S., is one of those doomed to fail. Who do you blame? The business side has to take a huge hit, of course, for resting on its laurels for many years and only catering to the easy advertisers of real estate, cars and department stores. But you also have to look at the stupendous decline of the newspaper under the stewardship of Earl Maucker. The Sun-Sentinel increased its circulation every year under Gene Cryer until he opposed publisher Scott Smith's budget-cutting plans and got fired for his efforts. Earl became editor by promising not to follow in the footsteps of Gene. As Smith cut back on costly community journalism, circulation leveled and then began to plunge. In the short term, it didn't matter because profits increased. Now, however, it turns out that community journalism would have been the saviour of the Sun-Sentinel. Only the extremely local newspapers are thriving these days. These senior editors are getting a deserved bashing because they did nothing to right the course of the ship, despite getting huge salaries to chart the course. I feel no sorrow for people who made 150K a year plus bonuses and did nothing but show up at meetings. Sure, maybe they checked the right boxes with gender and ethnic origin. Maybe they were even considered nice people by their friends. But they were paid that kind of money to be leaders who made a major difference. Did Pat Thompson do that? Judging by the comments here, no. Philp Ward? He learned early on that he could keep his job by being a henchman instead of a leader. Rosenhause? Her preference was to promote women, gays and minorities, in that order, and rid the newsroom of evil white men. People who lose their jobs have a right to be angry at those whose incompetence, complacency and bias helped bring on those layoffs.
Sun-Sentinel Employee Soap Opera Played Out in Public
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2009/03/22/sun-sentinel-employee-soap-opera-played-out-public
Thanks for reinforcing my beliefs, anonymous 9:55.
Posted On: Monday, Mar. 23 2009 @ 8:14AMI am not a writer; I’m one of those who told your telemarketers that I wouldn’t line my bird’s cage with your paper. Ditto for the even worse, Palm Beach Post.
It wasn’t always that way. My typical morning from 1987 on was to read the PB Post during breakfast. But I cancelled my subscription to that rag in 1999, and I haven’t paid for a newspaper since.
One of the reasons given in the above posts for the failure of newspapers is the economy. Hello, your product costs a whopping dollar; the homeless can afford that.
Seriously, if you want to know why you’re not selling newspapers, ask the people on the front, the telemarketers. Ask them what kind of comments they get. After all, their jobs should be pretty easy, when they say, “I’ll give you the entire month free if you’ll pay for the Sunday paper.” What’s that, $10 a month? Have any of you asked them why they can’t sell something for $10?
There isn’t ONE person out there that decided to save money by not buying your product; they are not buying it because they don’t want to READ it anymore.
I realize that very few of you shoot guns, but the reason you’re failing is that you took your eye off the target. You took your eye off the fact that your purpose in this world is to sell newspapers, and you forgot who buys your product. I can tell you that my 21 & 25 year old sons haven’t read a newspaper since they were forced to in high school; nor does my 39 year old daughter. Indeed, the people who BUY newspapers are probably 45 and up. They are the ones who did not have the internet when they were young.
You took your eye off the fact that in order to SELL newspapers to those who PAY for them, that you need to provide a product that appeals to them. Instead, you are providing a product that appeals to YOU.
You folks forgot a LONG time ago that the purpose of journalism is to report the news impartially. That means “report and be skeptical of what ANYONE” says to you. You have replaced that with “Report the news that will help advance our agenda, and destroy anyone we don’t like.”
So when your goal changed from selling newspapers to people like me, to pushing your agenda, we slowly started to drift away. And as your readership goes down and down, the local folks who advertise will also go the same way.
As long as you keep treating the symptoms instead of the real problem, eventually, someone will have to make the decision to pull the plug.
Dang, the truth hurts.
There was a certain publisher who showed employees in the middle of a South Florida newsroom two months ago a graph showing the number of FTEs at the end of 2009 would match the number at the end of 2008.
Said publisher, well know buddies with John Boener and George Hamilton, has not been seen since.
Since about the time this story hit the Web:
---------
Tanning bed catches fire, man escapes
By Shawn Cetrone
The (Rock Hill) Herald
Posted: Tuesday, Mar. 10, 2009
York County, S.C.
Lake Wylie
A man escaped from a tanning bed as it burst into flames, sparking a fire that evacuated a Lake Wylie shopping center and damaged several stores Monday, authorities said.
@ Bill Bowes,
Actually Bill,
Newspapers have pretty much left the job of catering to foil-hat yahoos to talk radio and fringe websites, all of which claim to be "impartial" and "unbiased" -- but are laughably far more slanted than the MSM.
Your agenda didn't match the paper's, so you chose to get your news elsewhere.
Posted On: Monday, Mar. 23 2009 @ 11:11AMI always enjoyed working with Pat. She is extremely smart and cared a great deal about the product. We served on the Core team together and I found her insightful and open to change and new ideas. I have to say that it's quite ironic that people who argue *against* comments on news stories due to mud-slinging, name-calling, vicious attacks and other atrocities, will come on this blog and do the same thing..protected under that same cloak of anonymity. Hypocrisy, anyone?
With this industry on it's head, the wise thing to do is refocus your energy on learning new skills or repackaging your current highly valuable skills so that you can survive another day. Innovate. Stop hating on a blog. It's ridiculous.
Anonymous, I suppose you served as the daily elevator greeter. Come on. Get a grip everyone. That's my .02 on the matter. I will not be back to engage in an argument with anyone here. My real name is above. Find me if you feel so inclined to argue the point.
And good luck to all of my friends at the Sun-Sentinel. I think of you often.
Pat, you and everyone else are welcome to stop by our displaced journalists support and networking group Wednesday night at Starbucks, just west of I-95 on Sheridan Street. The coffee has been donated by a kind working journalist. 7 p.m.
p.s. We may have something to spike the coffee with
Posted On: Monday, Mar. 23 2009 @ 1:14PMTo those who publicly complain about Pat's so-called icy persona: Are you kidding me? To air that she didn't greet you at the elevator or didn't really talk to you during her time at the SS doesn't make her look bad. It highlights how out-of-control your ego is.
Get a life.
In my 6+ years at the Sun-Sentinel, I have come to admire and respect Pat Thompson, and will always describe her as a kind and wonderful person, with a great sense of humor and a contagious laugh. She really showed her heart to my family when she sent my newborn son a Christmas present last year.
She also saved me by catching an embarrassing blunder on one of my graphics. And that is the point: Without someone of her caliber, her background and her expertise on the SENIOR level of management, this paper can be headed for some major embarrassments when covering minority issues. I've seen it before at other papers that I've worked at, and it isn't pretty.
Her departure at the Sun-Sentinel is a major blow, not only to diversity but to the overall quality of journalism that is so often touted within these walls. She will be greatly missed.
Posted On: Monday, Mar. 23 2009 @ 8:46PMIf Pat Thompson wasn't as social as some people in the newsroom felt she should have been, consider her circumstances at the Sun-Sentinel.
Sharon Rosenhaus and Co. lured her away from the San Jose Mercury-News to the Sun-Sentinel during the time that The Merc was still a major, superior newspaper.
But when Pat started her job here, Sharon Rosenhaus made immediately clear that her input was not necessary in any area, even in the areas in which she had guided The Merc to the type of excellence that the S-S couldn't even dream of. (The s-s has a long history of pulling that stunt.)
Ain't that a kick in the head?
So, Pat Thompson leaves a top tier newspaper, moves as far across the contiguous United States as you can possibly move and starts working at a paper that convinced her that they needed people like her to make the Sentinel better.
Then, the management at 200 Las Olas immediately marginalized her into oblivion until they had no choice but to put her in charge of something because the newsroom was descending into an inescapable maelstrom.
And they probably gave her zero direction and no goals for the leading desks over which she supervised.
If that were my story at the Sun-Sentinel, I might not be real chatty in the elevator, either.
And can you honestly blame the woman for not getting all chummy-chummy with the ass clowns in the newsroom who so ham-handedly pulled the middle management version of a bait-and-switch scam on her?
In the exchanges I had with Pat, I always found her input and ideas to be very on point. Her suggestions generally improved the quality of the content that passed through her hands.
I was constantly taken aback at the deliberate manner in which she was ignored and generally dismissed by the people who supposedly were running the place.
So, consider that the woman was totally screwed-over professionally by everyone from Earl Maucker on down the line and then ask yourself how eager you would have been to voluntarily subject yourself to any more exposure to those myopic dickheads than was absolutely necessary.
There's always another side to every story.
Posted On: Tuesday, Mar. 24 2009 @ 3:38AMPat is one of the nicest people I've known at the Sun Sentinel.
In fact, some of our nicest and funniest conversations were those we had on the elevator that seemed to spill over to the lobby or the 10th floor where we'd stand and talk.
She has always been friendly and easy to approach.
I wouldn't clap or jump up and down at her departure. Your day could come just as quickly.
Posted On: Tuesday, Mar. 24 2009 @ 1:41PMWOW...a bunch of babies on this thing. If you were respectable journalists you would publish your comments under your real name.
Addressing the previous post: Current Sun-Sentinel employees have tenuous job security already, and attaching a name to an uncomplimentary post can only make that worse.
As responders have pointed out a few times in recent weeks, former employees who have taken buyouts signed paperwork stating they would not criticize the Sentinel or Tribune Co. They need that money to stay afloat financially and fear the vindictiveness and corporate cruelty of Sam Zell and his squad of upper-management goons.
Not trying to defend the practice of anonymous posts, just telling it like it is.
Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 25 2009 @ 12:23PMRegarding Sarah's comment, and the one following it -- as an actual employee, willing to put my name out there, much as Sarah has, the idea that at this point whether we say anything "uncomplimentary" about the Sentinel is going to have any bearing on whether we remain employed or not is ... well, it's hilarious, frankly. Those decisions have been made. And as one of the 700 "Anonymous"es on here, in an earlier post, has already so sweetly stated, if the Sentinel were going to lay me off, that would have happened a long time ago. (Never mind that most of my co-workers, past and present, are utterly ignorant of the work I've done, and the responsibilities I've had, in the almost two years since my job as a film critic was eliminated. Stupidest career decision I've ever made, by the way, for those of you who should exult in such an admission. Last thing I've ever wanted to be is a writer.) Anyway, yeah, it would have happpened a long time ago, at least if the cause of my firing were due to statements I've made in public forums such as this one. Such as it is. (And don't any of y'all embittered assjackals, especially those with ego-driven axes to grind, worry -- still plenty of time for me to be shown the door yet!)
I understand that those who have been forced out of jobs, at least many of them, were made to sign contracts promising they wouldn't publicly "criticize" the paper or Tribune. That doesn't excuse random, vicious, gobsmackingly petty personal attacks such as those exhibited above, which I believe was Sarah's point. (Sarah. Again. My co-worker. Who is also putting her name out there.)
Pat Thompson was, indirectly, my supervisor. I did not know her well at all. What I did know, and do know, is that she's a human being, and getting ripped apart in a mostly anonymously penned bitchfest on a regional blog that is of interest to approximately 50 people in the world -- myself among them, most admittedly -- is not something any person deserves. If you were so deeply wounded that Pat Thompson wasn't adequately solicitous of you during some random elevator ride one time, and believe that is somehow emblematic of her ability as a manager, then suck it up and use your name. If it's just THAT important for you to impart such information. Otherwise, just suck it up, and shut up.
Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 26 2009 @ 2:36AMOnce again, we have a thread where cowards have to throw darts from the shadows of anonymity.
To the person whining about the incident in the elevator: Grow the fuck up. Either post with your full name, or STFU. No one cares about your feelings being hurt because you didn't get the acknowledgment you thought you were entitled to.
And to the peanut gallery idiots who are sure to respond with the usual witless comments:
(1) Good, bad, and mediocre people are getting cut from newsrooms. If your sole argument is still something like: "People who left of their own accord didn't fit," then it's time to get a clue. Some of us are very happy we bailed before this round of nonsense began.
(2) Don't bother saying I post anonymously. I don't. If you can't figure this out, then you need a muscle relaxant to remove your head from your posterior.
(3) Why do people even bother to respond to the anonymous cowards?
(4) This one to Bob: Spare me any lectures. Either moderate the blog and establish credibility, or admit it's a lawless frontier. Selective moderation only shows you lack some of the following: Brains, guts, spine. If you can't improve yourself, then don't bring the tablets down from the mountain.
Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 26 2009 @ 3:30AM"Addressing the previous post: Current Sun-Sentinel employees have tenuous job security already, and attaching a name to an uncomplimentary post can only make that worse."
Translation: I lack guts and a spine, so I defend anonymous posts.
Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 26 2009 @ 3:33AMPhoebe, thanks for providing my readership numbers. I'm just wondering how those 50 people make up the 700 anonymouses you also cited. And they've been apparently very busy on this thing; last week they clicked on the blog about 34,000 times.
Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 26 2009 @ 9:37AMBob, I'm sorry; yesterday was, to say the least, a bad day in a lot of ways. And -- oh, this is at least an Alanis Morrisette kind of "ironic" -- I wasn't aiming any phrases such as "mostly anonymously penned bitchfest" at you; that was ire directed at petty commenters. I also understand that anonymous sources are of great value to anyone doing a job such as yours. My issue was with the likes of the Great Elevator Anecdote.
And as far as the "regional" thing and the hyperbolically low (and clearly false) readership numbers I threw up there -- that wasn't intended to insult you or your work. My issue, again, was simply with the venom people are willing to unleash for no clear purpose, anonymously. I apologize sincerely to you for any perceived insult.
Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 26 2009 @ 11:43AMPhoebe, you never need to apologize to me! Tom got it right about you in the thread on the Sentinel layoffs post above.
Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 26 2009 @ 12:17PM"I also understand that anonymous sources are of great value to anyone doing a job such as yours."
Sources, yes. Cowards throwing stones, no.
Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 26 2009 @ 3:53PMYes, Wenalway. I was attempting to draw a distinction between the two.
Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 26 2009 @ 5:44PMSorry, Phoebe. I just thought I needed to make my point again since so many failing/alleged journalists still think throwing stones from the cover of anonymity is a cool thing to do.
Once they finally start grasping the point, I'll stop making it. I'm not holding my breath, though.
Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 26 2009 @ 11:06PM
