"I've been in meetings where upper management will say, we can't say this publicly because
it'll end up on the Gannett Blog."
-- anonymous employee, speaking to Dow Jones news wire for a story about the blog and its editor, Jim Hopkins.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
What happens when the watchdog gets watched
-- anonymous employee, speaking to Dow Jones news wire for a story about the blog and its editor, Jim Hopkins.
19 comments:
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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So that's why we have to use Facebook to submit all our monthly reports now. I was wondering....
ReplyDeleteThat's hardly a surprise. I wouldn't tell people anything, either, if I knew that it'd be reposted all over the web.
ReplyDeleteI always found USA Today and other Gannett papers to be highly secretive with information, even before Gannett Blog. Let's face it, this is a company that hires journalists, but it is no more open or honorable in its various dealings than any other company outside of media. That's one of the problems this country has right now. Too many major media companies are in it just to turn a buck and do not hold themselves to the same standards they pretend to hold others to. In fact, they are so sleazy themselves that it's actually getting harder to play watchdog at all. The media, and companies like Gannett, are in bed with too many advertisers and other influential people. The line between advertising and editorial continues to get blurred. That is a bad thing for a democracy, yet it is condoned by Gannett.
ReplyDeleteThe joke at my site is that we're in the communication industry, and we rarely know what's going on in other departments, or our own. I see new faces all the time in advertising and I have no clue who these people are.
ReplyDeleteThe irony of not saying things publicly because you fear they'll be shared publicly....
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for the readers, Gannett isn't a watchdog. More like a lapdog.
ReplyDeleteBut you are doing great work by providing a necessary watchdog service, Jim.
If only Gannett had the balls to cover news the way you cover this company. Sigh.
Newspapers are the worst examples of (internal) communication IN THE WORLD.
ReplyDeleteGo Jim!! You are doing a great service to Gannett employees. I was laid off in December. But since then, I've run into many of my co-workers, still at the job, who tell me that they come to this blog to get information, even if they don't comment.
ReplyDeleteOne friend told me that is how she got wind of the week-long furlough enacted by Gannett.
Thank you!!
It's only a matter of time before a Facebook personnel anonymously leaks some information. We aren't exactly working for a quality company.
ReplyDeleteIf it's true about facebook being the new "meeting place" for the company's execs - well, shows what they know. Facebook is pretty easy to hack.
ReplyDelete"Ask NOT what Gannett can do for you, ask what YOU can do for Gannett."
ReplyDelete10:17 a.m. said "Let's face it, this is a company that hires journalists, but it is no more open or honorable in its various dealings than any other company outside of media."
ReplyDeleteYES. That is exactly correct. Gannett is a MARKETING company that just happens to operate within the milieu of journalism, not a journailsm company that also does some marketing. I've been saying this about them since a year after I began work for them in 1999 (took me a year to figure out the modus operandi). My employment ended in 2004, thankfully.
Gannett is as mendacious as any other U.S. corporation. Don't be confused by the presumption of truth-telling that accompanies their position within the journalism trade. And no--it's not the same at all other newspaper companies. Gannett is mendacious to the core. It's in their very DNA.
6:05 PM
ReplyDeleteYes. You nailed it. Perfect.
I guess the question becomes this: How many self-respecting journalists can work for a marketing company?
Our newspaper is a "Media Group"
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed one helluva resume, Hopk.
ReplyDeleteI find it amusing how many VPs and upper management have friended me on FB. What they don't know is I have tight controls where they can't read what is posted to my page. I find it extremely sad that corporate has resorted to sending messages through FB. Sure tells everyone they have a ton to hide from their employees. When will they ever understand that if they are honest they could be much more profitable and earn the respect of their employees.
ReplyDelete"The irony of not saying things publicly because you fear they'll be shared publicly...."
ReplyDeleteSo says yet another anonymous poster.
This one is anonymous only because Jimmy has a fantasy that posting with a name opens that person up to justifiable attacks. But, as we've seen, Jimmy is not too bright.
11:27 p.m. what does Jim have to do with it? Anyone who chooses may post their name here.
ReplyDeleteStop being so angry.
He has plenty to do with it. I'm not going to "agree to relinquish any claims" so that 20 gutless, anonymous pieces of crap who are too chicken to post their names can start tossing out insults.
ReplyDeleteThat policy is nonsense, anyway. Posting under a name gives anonymous posters the right to commit libel? I doubt that very much.