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| Zidich |
"The Republic has been a longtime sponsor of the bowl, and Republic CEO and Publisher John Zidich is on the bowl's executive committee."
-- paragraph No. 14 in an Arizona Republic story today, revealing details of an investigation into spending irregularities at the Fiesta Bowl, one of college football's most prestigious championship events. Investigators found "a culture of excessive spending on bowl employees, politicians and business associates despite rules barring it from using its money to benefit individuals; a system of campaign contributions that could run afoul of state and federal campaign laws; and accounts of efforts by bowl staffers to mislead government investigators."
[Updated at 1:37 p.m. ET March 31. Arizona State University journalism professor Tim McGuire has now called on Zidich to either quit the Fiesta Bow -- or the Republic.]
If you saw the 10th floor executive suites at the Republic building at 200 E. Van Buren, you would understand that Zidich would not settle for anything less than luxurious and plush as a board member of the Fiesta Bowl as well. If guilty I hope he gets nailed and tossed aside.
ReplyDeleteHe is such a smug a-hole and always has been.
ReplyDeleteCome on Zidich isn't part of this. Great journalism however. Way to go AZR newsroom!
ReplyDeleterut row!!!
ReplyDeleteJohn is an honest, ethical person. Jim you should be ashamed trying to align John this way. IS the news relevant? Sure. But taking the next step to try and get employees to post negative comments about him is in poor taste.
ReplyDelete"malign" ? Unless there's a chiropractic angle.
ReplyDeleteI worked at the Arizona Republic and can say that John is sneaky and manipulative at best.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.espressopundit.com/
ReplyDeleteThis story gets curiouser and curiouser!
Someone should check on how many of those free junkets to college football games around the country John Zidich attended.
ReplyDeleteAs for professional character, I knew Zidich from his stint in another function at another paper. The idea was to solicit the worker bees to identify problems and submit suggestions about how to improve quality. Good stuff! I filled out my form with facts, well-known problems and several suggestions for practical solutions... made an appointment to see him... and got a guy who couldn't believe I was naive enough to take the whole thing seriously. That was my first and last contact.
ReplyDeleteWow, 9:01 p.m., sounds like a classic Gannett executive. Let's poll the readers and then ignore the results. Let's tell everyone what great watchdogs we are and layoff half the newsroom.
ReplyDeleteHow about a new marketing campaign: G A N N E T T - Where Bullshit Counts.