"Under intense pressure from Chiquita," McWhirter writes in a new Columbia Journalism Review piece, "Gannett fired Gallagher, paid $14 million to Chiquita, and published a disturbing front-page apology that implied that Gallagher’s misdeeds had negated the entire series."Yet, as I wrote when another Enquirer reporter left the paper earlier this year, an enduring mystery remains: What did Corporate know about Gallagher's shenanigans in advance -- and why was then-editor Larry Beaupre apparently the only top Gannett executive to lose his job? As McWhirter writes: "Gallagher had lied to us about having a source within Chiquita who had provided him information. Instead, he had illegally accessed Chiquita’s voicemail system himself, hundreds of times, despite being warned repeatedly not to do so by editors and lawyers."
Note the plural on "editors" and "lawyers." Your thoughts, in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, use this link from a non-work computer; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
Related: GCI orphans united: Beaupre, Virgin Islands daily
Larry, I believe, had filed a lawsuit against Gannett...but never heard the outcome. The fall-guy.
ReplyDeleteCurrie didn't fall on the sword.
Good soldier that he is.
Just one great company.
Larry reached a settlement with Gannett that was in excess of $300K
ReplyDeleteplus they paid his legal fees.
The amount Gannett paid to Chiquita
was in excess of $20 million.
Harry Whipple, the publisher at the time 'retired' at age 55 after the
last Chiquita suit was resolved.
A lot of heads rolled needlessly,
and everything went to GCI BEFORE
it was published. Basically Curley and others at GCI signed off before anything was published.
The apology ran as full Page 1
for two days basically repudiating the expose.
However, the facts in the expose were correct.
Harry Whipple is now President and CEO of the Denver Newspaper Agency. Since his appointment was announced May 3, 2006, he has hired two top echelon Gannett employees in Dave Licko (Indianapolis; V.P. Finance for the Interstate Group and former V.P. Finance for the Newspaper Division) and Bernie Szachara (V.P. of Operations in Rochester and former director for Gannett Production).
ReplyDeleteWhipple is an idiot and ran more good people out of cincinnati and gannett than can be counted.
ReplyDeleteIt was well known in gannett what an ineffective bully he was, using his finance vp henchman to do the dirty work. Shame on gannett for not removing him immediately after the chiquita story. Beaupre was the best editor cinci ever had. It was criminal and sinful what happend to him. I hope Larry reads this blog and knows that he has many friends still in the 'nati.