Sunday, May 04, 2008

FAQs About Me: Why are you so soft on USAT?

One in an occasional series of Q&As about yours truly.

Q. Why don't you write more critically about USA Today? You worked there for nearly eight years. But you've given more grief to The Arizona Republic than you have to the nation's No. 1 printed newspaper.
A. I promised myself that I'd wait at least three months after getting my buyout before I weighed in on USAT. That was so my immediately raw feelings about the circumstances of my leaving wouldn't color my view too much. I've decided that I better wait a little longer.

Got a question? Use this link to e-mail FAQs About Me; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

3 comments:

  1. Please note: My close San Francisco co-workers were wonderful to me in the final weeks leading up to USA Today's throwing me and 42 other staffers overboard. Their kindnesses continued after, even when they learned on Jan. 11 -- along with virtually everyone else in the world -- that I'd been keeping this blog anonymously, while still employed at the paper.

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  2. The Arizona Republic deserves all the grief you give it and much more. The paper is a shell of what it once was, all because of what Gannett has done to it. Granted, new editor Randy Lovely at least has some news sense compared with Ward Bushee, who left for the Chronicle. But he still is a gannettoid through and through. In the past couple of years, many talented people have left after being treated badly by new managers who come in and in effect say, "There's a new sheriff in town" even if they are from podunk. The recent story on the county hospital, while good, is an anomoly. The paper still is in the pocket of the real estate industry, won't ruffule business leaders' feathers and has consistently been afraid to take on John McCain (check out the piece of puff on his wife, Cindy, and a recent story that actually had "bold" in the lede. The paper has done a huge disservice to Arizona readers, and national readers, too. If, god forbid, McCain becomes president, the paper is partly to blame.

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  3. "The paper is a shell of what it once was"

    Come on... every single damn paper out there is a shell of what it once was. The LA Times, NY Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Cleveland Plain Dealer, STrib, Mercury News, we could go on and on forever...

    They're all shells... doing less of the meaningful stuff... doing more of the popular stuff... with less people.

    It's especially Gannett, but not just Gannett.

    ReplyDelete

Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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