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Sunday, July 03, 2011
25 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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ReplyDeleteHappy fourth everyone. Vow for your own independence day this year. From the tyranny of gannett
ReplyDeleteMy post disappeared. If it was killed, that's cool. If it's a re-post, I apologize. I'll repost with some clarifications.
ReplyDeleteSo.
It seems if one posts anonymously, one opens one's self up to snarky accusations of having something to hide, inherently dishonest.
So, if one counters such by using one's own name, one opens one's self to personally degrading and self-serving vitriol.
To these folks, I stress that I never said I was the "best" at anything; I said I knew what I was doing and I excelled at it.
I did say that my work with many others was rarely appreciated by people in positions of authority who couldn't tell the difference between an apostrophe and a comma, a copy typo or an expired "expiration date" in a client's expensive ad.
I'm just making that up, right? I'm some egomaniac to note it.
This is not some "ego trip." It's an accurate appraisal expressed to me, received by me, by appreciative salespeople and other artists -- the people in the trenches, not some closed-door office -- co-workers across several departments.
Ask them? Gee, oddly, one can't anymore. They're laid-off with the same one-size-fits-all guillotine -- or hasn't anyone noticed?
Isn't that an issue?
Moreover, one does not hold down a job for 25 effing years where anyone wants that person gone, coming in early, staying late, known for thoroughness and having the least amount of financial errors.
This is not some bragging claim; it was a statistic which again I was given, cited. That is all.
Indeed, my only agenda here, a blog that I think makes a mockery of how much Gannett gives a rat's ass about anybody (even those who deride me) is to occasionally note the kind of arrogance that creates the assumptions which surface on Gannettblog from time to time, all in the name of putting someone down personally with whom they had no direct experience, maybe only prejudice.
Name-calling is their only weapon, and frankly it's embarrassing, snarky crap, when I no longer post "anonymously," such the rage for libel.
I think the highlight of my career, though, for recognition, once the local nature of the RGJ was completely reamed?
"That was the silly birthday card I got from its latest publisher, things I always found annoying for their lack of sincerity on the given occasion, tossed on my desk, six months after the event.
Sure, it's meaningless. But symptomatic of a company that became something else in record time where even the facade was fast gone.
So attack away. If these silly rabbits knew me, or ever even spoke with me, they'd know I am hardly the puffed up braggart imagined (and admittedly I could write better, but I don't spend a lot of time here).
More accurately I am chagrined to the hilt. I saw the disconnect first hand. Even at work, praised one day for some statistic (always in private, rarely in public) in public), reamed the next for some completely unresearched assumption on their part(always in public, and rarely in private).
Just like on this Jim's blog.
Fairly sure where these other posts deriding me come from. And I'm sorry anyone's lives are that messed up.
Great. A double post. I hope Jim deletes the earlier. I posted hours later, the first never appearing. Apologies to all around, except to those who'd prefer I STFU.
ReplyDeleteFor that, you can google me, find my address, come over and have a couple of beers with me.
Craig, are you serving up some tainted crackers? That would bring back memories for some of the people here.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what to do about the damn troll(s). I once thought of posting a lengthy and complicated post about Mario Biaggi and the Wedtech scandal, but I don't think Jim would think it fair singling out children for the mistakes of their parents. I think we all know who the troll(s) is/are, so my suggestionn is just go with the flow, hit back when you see it before Jim discovers it and kills it.
ReplyDeleteI would imagine some people here had to sign non disparagement agreements, so they cannot publicly criticize the mothership.
ReplyDeleteI've said this before, but i contend these agreements are worthless legally. What trade secrets do you have that they want you to keep, and doesn't a non-disparagement agreement violate your free speech rights? It's just another one of those annoying efforts used by Corporate to control people even after they leave the company. It's clear from the posts on this blog that these agreements aren't preventing former employees from posting here.
ReplyDeletep.s. I do know someone who says she can't speak about her years at Gannett because she signed one of these agreements. And she left GCI about 15 years ago, but has a vested claim on a GCI pension.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't have me sign anything when they laid me off in June. Subsequent paperwork from the TPP administrator listed reasons why the payments can be ended ahead of schedule, but speaking out publicly or criticizing your former employer wasn't listed among them.
ReplyDelete7:22, you don't know squat. The only thing you know is that your nickname was Ritz in the locker room, and that you couldn't "hold" your cracker for very long.
ReplyDelete8:12 Oh, no, I know everything about Bernard and the magic bullet. I'm no cracker.
ReplyDeleteI just love Gannett's latest cost-cutting maneuver. In Des Moines, they fire a Pulitzer-winning reporter and hire a college dropout as VP News/Eecutive editor. Yes, Rick Green, in charge of the Des Moines Register, never finished his degree. Nice move.
ReplyDelete@9:25 PM... Didn't you read the earlier posts by the "Our poop don't stink" crowd? Journalism awards are like little league trophies. Even a Pulitzer. Everyone gets one- right guys? Now if only he would have had great attitude like those guys he'd still be around to "pick his battles" and "just do his damn job!"
ReplyDeleteHeh 9:25 why would you ever post something like this. Green is a thousand times more compassionate than your last editor and this is your way to protest the termination of the Ag writer? Shame on you. Life is about choices and you just decided to lie down in the gutter.
ReplyDelete10:00 many journalists present an elitist attitude. You can protest all you want but it has always been that way. Your collective worst day was the introduction of Citizen Journalists. All of a sudden the emperor has no clothes and the collective you are beside your self with rage. Let's not get started on Bloggers.
ReplyDelete10:09, it's the combination of the elitist attitude and the idiot mentality that frustrates many.
ReplyDeleteYou have half of those qualities. I'll let you ponder which half.
Would like to know which top editors have left the company in the last 3 years. Have they replaced all of the dissenters with drones? Callinan finally left. Rumor is a few editors that lead top operations are finally willing to say good buy to their dream jobs at Louisville and Jackson, only because the company that helped them get there is no longer the company they love.
ReplyDeleteAgain with the Pulitzer winner. I've posted before about it and Jim deletes. I was there; I know. And everyone who knows (from Barb down) knows it wasn't her Pulitzer. She just answered the phone. Her work since returning to the DMR spoke volumes about the lack of credibility.
ReplyDeleteRick Green is a great editor. Carolyn was the worst of Gannett. The Pulitzer winner should never have been rehired. I had a hand in it, and I do penance regularly.
11:04...Which editors in Jackson?
ReplyDeleteMonty Python had "Spam spam spam spam". At GM we have "trolls trolls trolls trolls Lemming trolls."
ReplyDeleteI know plenty of degreed journos who are terrible at what they do. Same with advanced degrees. Let's not disparage dropouts.
ReplyDelete9:02 Great idea. Let's have operators of nuclear power plants who failed their science college courses, and military commanders who couldn't pass their English courses. What sort of society do you want to make?
ReplyDeleteWas college really that hard once you got into what it really was?
ReplyDeleteThere are exceptions to every rule: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg are all college dropouts.
ReplyDelete