Monday, August 05, 2013

Aug. 5-11 | Your News & Comments: Part 1

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108 comments:

  1. Good morning. How are you?

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    1. You suck, Jim.

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    2. Get up on the wrong side of the bed, 4:26?

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  2. Replies
    1. You must be in Nashville..

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  3. Remember when Carolyn Washburn told readers in one of her many columns that readers would notice nothing different in their paper even though it would be printed in Columbus? Well, the Reds played their biggest game of the season Saturday night against STL. Great game, SRO crowd, energetic night...and what was the lead story in the Sunday sports page? The Reds monthly report card!! That's right folks, not even a mention that the Reds played Saturday. It was considered a "late" game because it ended at 10:15pm. An EDT home game, biggest of the year for the team, and the Enquirer calls it late. No, nothing has changed Carolyn. The paper still sucks.

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    1. The final page deadline for the Sunday paper is 9 p.m.

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    2. Cincy covers a major league team, huge generator of online hits and "engagement", but can't adjust the page deadline for ONE night? My site manages that for the biggest high school games of local interest despite sharing a press. No wonder Cincy is hurting.

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    3. Do the local tv stations go late because of a big game? We are a 24 hour media company, we report news as it happens. We should not hold the paper for a game. You will upset more customers for being late. The vast majority of people wil read about it online of it is that important to them.

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    4. You missed the point 6:29. Washburn said readers would see no change. Deadlines were never 9pm. Now they are. As a result, readers of the paper don't get the scores and stories of local games.

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  4. It's time again to thank Jim for this blog, since it is the only (usually) credible source we have about news on GCI.
    The execs will protect their sorry selves and come up with desperate gimmicks - remember passion topics, Real Life Real News, five graphs, News 2000, and all the other programs designed to keep the attention away from their failure to come up with a viable business plan to not only help the company survive but thrive? The community papers have become as much of a joke as USAT and the Crystal Palace folks have nobody to blame but themselves.
    Sure, there are rumors and falsehoods on this blog, but there is more information than corporate has ever given us.
    Thanks for the outlet Jim.

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    1. And don't forget the newest gimmick - the sophomoric videos people don't watch.

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    2. I walked away from Gannett years ago, but I still laugh every time I remember "News 2000" or "Real Life, Real News." Easily the dumbest and hollowest corporate journalism gimmicks I've encountered in my career. The corporate weirdos and their gold Gannett rings were also pretty funny! I'm sorry, but those rings are straight-up weird.

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  5. Donating to Jim in Protest of Lay-offs8/05/2013 9:07 AM

    With more layoffs coming, I decided to do something as a gesture to show my dissatisfaction with corporate. I gave money to Jim. I lost close friends and co-workers in this round and started thinking "what could I do to show my displeasure and anger?" The thought came to me-donate to Jim to keep the blog going and anger corporate.
    What I'm suggesting is everyone who posts give Jim $5. Lets make this his best quarter ever. Let's make it a demonstration of our disgust with Gannetts upper management and their poor decisions resulting in the latest round of lay offs. Vote with your wallet.
    Be smart about it- do it from your own computer and on your own time. Corporate will never know who you are and it is the ultimate gesture which we all know will frustrate them because they can't retaliate.
    We all Corporate hates Jim and the blog to the point of paying people to post insulting and harassing comments. People have publicly admitted this on the blog. Donate to Jim today and stick it to the people who are sticking it to us.
    For the record, I am not Jim, but I am a current Gannett Info center employee who had had it with the poor decisions of management. Donating to the blog is a sign of your displeasure with the lays off. Do it to show solidarity with your former co-workers who got sacked or just do it so you can imagine the angry red faces of Gracia and Dickey as they see Jim's quarterly donation total rise. Solidarity!!!

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  6. Donating to Jim in Protest of lay-offs8/05/2013 9:09 AM

    Next to last graph should start out "We all know corporate hates Jim and the blog...

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    1. I agree ... great idea. Done.

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  7. Judging by the mess in the bathroom stall today there must be more layoffs at the APP

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    1. Was it Cornyoucrapia? That upset of Curling Giant must still be reverberating!

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  8. what happened 10:01?

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    1. Apparently someone stuffed loads of toilet paper in the bowl and jammed the papers magazine on top. Obviously on purpose.

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    2. Almost an upper decker

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  9. The massive layoffs by Gannett are to pretty up the books to pay for purchasing Belo Broadcasting.

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  10. Today's best headline award goes to the Newark Advocate.

    Finding Faces: Chuga Chuga

    http://ohne.ws/1cCMmcw @newarkadvocate

    The meaning of Chuga from Urban Dictionary:

    When a man puts his two fingers down his pants and wipes the ball sweat under another person's nose. The desired effect being the other person smells his balls.
    "Why'd you rub your finger under my nose? Do I smell balls?"

    "I just gave you a chuga."

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  11. I just made a $10 donation to the Gannett Blog. I'm a current newsroom employee actively seeking employment elsewhere.

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  12. The threat must be over.No further reports.So everyone can just relax.

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  13. Laying people off on the last day of the month is pretty cold. No benefits after today, keep in touch, Sayonara.

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    1. You're wrong. And dumb. Health coverage is based on enrollment date, not the start of the month.

      If you don't know what you're talking about, don't post.

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    2. Wrong genius. Health care benefits follow a calendar month and are on the same cycle for every employee. Take a dose of your own medicine, "if you don't know what you're talking about, don't post".

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    3. You are wrong 12:06! Health coverage ends the last day of the month. My last day was on the 30th, and that was the last day of coverage. For anyone leaving, make sure you know.

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    4. The benefits at my last paper were based on enrollment date. It's not always the 1st or last day of the month.

      Also, the company is required to offer COBRA, so your coverage changes but doesn't necessarily end.

      People here always leave out that part. Always. I blame Jim.

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  14. 10:44 ,You might want to grow up before you post here.

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    1. No sense of humor? FYI, it should be Chugga Chugga.

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  15. Nashville, 1 news Manager, 1 sales Manager Today.

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  16. It took me five months but landed on my feet in a much better position, better pay, better benefits and far better working environment. The only thing that did not change was my distaste for Gannett and I am glad to now be one of the new "ambassadors" telling the truth about this declining company.

    It will happen for all those being laid off and just know there is going to be a light at the end of this tunnel. By the way, I am 60 and not a dinosaur as my managers would have led me to believe.



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    1. Way to go!
      My story is reflective of yours and I am much,much better off financially and the mental aspects of being away from Gannett are unbelievable.

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  17. Is there any impact coming to USA Weekend or the USA Today sports network (or whatever it's called these days).

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  18. And Jim's blog is off to a flying start! More scurrilous rumors. Crap stories! Ball sweat stories!

    Yes, it's obvious why people should donate. If you like lies and juvenile stories, this is the place to be! Send that check today!

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    1. Why do you come here to read the comments, then?

      You make yourself a laughingstock when you post something like this.

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    2. Thank you Jim for giving us insights and candor and addressing rumors, scurrilous or not. This is something our managers do not do, ever.

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    3. 2:43, I thought there might be some relevant news.

      Be sure to send your check.

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  19. To the 11:45 a.m. poster who wrote a comment using the name, "Randy Lovely -- enough of your ignorance":

    That comment was way too personal. But Lovely may have gotten a chance to see it already.

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  20. Music critic Steve Jones, whose USA Today career spanned nearly 28 years, died at his Herndon, Va., home Friday morning after a long illness. He was 57, the paper said in a story.

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  21. Does anyone know who got the ax in Westchester? Initials?

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  22. I wonder if they're waiting in Rochester for the PGA to be over.

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    1. They didn't wait in Oshkosh to lay off the best photographer, right in the middle of the EAA Airventure.

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  23. TJN lost 6 Sunday night. RR (photo), SM (news), AG, NC (both sports copy), RD, AHB (copy). PK was also in with a child in tow, no word on what transpired.

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  24. No Opinion page today in The Clarion-Ledger. Two of the people RIF'd last week were the primaries in handling Op-Ed copy, including letters to the editor.

    Going forward, the non-dailies will be handled by the team that produces VIP:
    http://www.vipjacksonmag.com/SECTION/VIP

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  25. No business or "conversations" section on my Shreveport Times yesterday only A, Sports and life - related - 5 copies of the Rite-Ad insert .,,,,,,, called - got a credit only.

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  26. I agree with 9:07 about donating to Jim. I got laid off 18 months ago and have been in my current job about 15 months. But I'm still interested in what's happening with ... or to ... my Gannett colleagues. This is the only place I can get at least what approaches a comprehensive look. If you can afford it, do it.

    BTW, when I got canned, my benefits were up at the end of that month. Then started COBRA -- for two somewhat inexpensive months, then an expensive month. If I'd been laid off at the end of a month, it just would have speeded up the time when I had to start paying more for coverage.

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  27. A comment on the Journal Sentinel's story on Gannett's layoff debacle in Wisconsin. People outside Gannett are seeing the light now too.

    Quality in newspapers? When's the last time you saw that? Print continues to die a slow death...Especially at Granite News where they're stuck in stone!

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  28. Well, it must be over.Looks like we dodged this round!

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  29. Well apx 15 in Nashville gone Today and I here a meeting planed for managers with the Publisher at 1:30

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    1. Initials for Nashville?

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    2. There's 3 gone from Nashville, 1 last week and 2 today - all three reporters. They say their done with news side layoffs, but they're having a meeting with all the employees at 3.

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    3. Some newsroom names in this article:

      http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/layoffs-continue-tennessean-three-more-newsroom-jobs-cut

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    4. 15 gone 2 Managers, Managers meeting was at 130 Employees at 3,from what I got More to come in 6 months..

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    5. 10 of those in Nashville were in Adv

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  30. I saw a mention of Gannett's latest layoffs and decided to check this blog for the first time in many months. I was the victim of a layoff a year and a half ago, and as a 55-year-old career journalist I was miserable and scared until this past June when I finally landed a new job in PR. Hours are better, benefits are MUCH better, and pay isn't bad. So to those being booted out now, I say you must keep plugging away if you need to find another job. Don't let initial disappointment turn to discouragement or despair. Eventually you'll find something, or it will find you. My new job came as the result of getting my resume "out there" and then politely following up on a regular basis. The offer came from someone to whom I'd never applied but who heard about me from two friends at shops where I did apply. Good luck to you all!

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    3. Absolutely, don't listen to words of encouragement or hope. By all means, listen to your words of derision and despair instead. Idiot.

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    4. Hey, 3:09, because I'm curious and this is strictly based on the condescending tone of your post, what do you do that makes Gannett (or whatever company you work for) a company that is better because of your presence there?

      Sincerely,

      An old, obsolete, impossible-to-work with person

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    5. Several things.

      First, I have multiple skills, unlike most of the obsolete Gannett employees.

      I also don't spend hours at work every day on some rant about how evil my company is.

      Unlike Jim, I am not totally obtuse. I can interpret details. Jim shows zero ability to do this.

      I don't have a Web site begging for people to post information that I am too lazy or stupid to get. I don't have a Web site urging people to send me money to exercise that privilege.

      Should I go on?

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    8. How can you complain about others posting here "hours at work every day" when you do the same damn thing?! Hypocrite much?!

      Also, some of us work nights, weekends and holidays. You sound like someone in a corner office. Everyone works 9 to 5!

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    10. Aw, Jim can't handle the response! Poor, little Jim.

      To answer this again: The statement was about people bitching at work for hours. If you ranters were silently venting at your keyboards for hours, I wouldn't care.

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  31. It's a sad time for many people. Most of us could do with out the rabid disgusting display shown here.

    To those shown the door today. Good luck.

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  32. Do you Gannett managers also judge your own publications by the reader posts you receive?
    If you think the reader posts here are worthless and offensive, may I suggest that you stop reading them?

    That seems so obvious, but it never seems to sink in.

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    1. Vile and disgusting are more appropriate words. And based on experience as a reader. Most internet posts are worthless.

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  33. Breaking news:(For $250 million in cash)The Washington Post Co. has agreed to sell its flagship newspaper to Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos, ending the Graham family’s stewardship of one of America’s leading news organizations after four generations.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/washington-post-to-be-sold-to-jeff-bezos/2013/08/05/ca537c9e-fe0c-11e2-9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html

    This just after the NYT Co. unloads The Boston Globe for $70 million in cash.

    Fire sales when you consider what these properties (and the real estate they sit on) were worth even a decade ago.

    So, how much do you think The Big G is worth if it were broken into pieces and sold off?

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  34. Judging by the posts of the day,everything is over.
    Unless the deadline was extended, people should calm down and stop worrying.

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  35. Wow. Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos is buying The Washington Post for $250 million, it was just announced moments ago.

    This puts more pressure on Corporate to consider/seek offers for any of its newspapers while this new window is still open.

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    1. Right, as long as your paper is sitting on some prime real estate in a huge market. RE prices are still astronomical in places like D.C. I'd be curious to know exactly how much the property that the Wash Post sits on is worth to Amazon. Anyone else think Bezos could be thinking really long term for a new Amazon HQ location? A lot easier to lobby for Govt favors from inside the beltway than Seattle.

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    2. Pressure on Gannett?

      One bets that Gannett would be embarrassed to sell any of its properties as the price they would get would be embarrassingly low.

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    3. The Post building is for sale and is not included in the sale to bezos.

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  36. ARE YOU F-ING KIDDING ME???

    Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com is buying the Washington Post? Is it April 1?

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/05/washington-post-sold-jeff-bezos_n_3709446.html

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  37. Gannett won't get any decent offers for their papers. They have been gutted. Maybe if they had kept putting out top newspapers with good delivery service.

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  38. Jeff Bezo's is a great CEO and knows what he is doing. Gannett's still stuck with Martore and Ray.

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  39. Binghamton, Ithaca and Elmira waiting for this weekend's NASCAR race to do their layoffs?

    Big weekend in upstate New York - NASCAR and the PGA tournament

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    1. Charles Everett8/05/2013 6:26 PM

      The PGA Championship is at Oak Hill in Pittsford, a suburb of Rochester. NASCAR pays its annual visit to Watkins Glen, just north of Elmira.

      Any news organization that would carry out layoffs amid a major event in its back yard can be correctly seen as heartless.

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  40. Jeff Bezos is a friend of mine but after I worked for Gannett then got laid off last year by GPS I couldn't recommend that he buy them.

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  41. Great job USAT news team


    Bodybuilding.com suspends sales of pre-workout Craze

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  42. In Westchester a total of 27 layoffs. Between 17-19 in the newsroom.

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  43. I don't know if this has already been reported:

    WHITE PLAINS — The Journal News Media Group reduced its staff by 26 positions on Monday as part of a series of personnel cuts at Gannett newspapers.

    Seventeen of the positions eliminated came from the newsroom, bringing the newspaper’s total employment roll from 232 to 206.

    “The reduction in our payroll is necessary as we adjust to the changing marketplace,” said Janet Hasson, publisher and president of the Journal News Media Group.

    Hasson said her priority was to preserve the media group’s ability to deliver on breaking local news and watchdog investigative journalism, both of which remain important to readers in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties.

    This is the paper that gave us that great interactive map showing the names and addresses on Goolglemaps of gun owners. I picked up the JN the other day, at best it was 10 pages. The people of Westchester are getting short changed big time.

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  44. A husband and wife left TJN staff Aug 4, the wife got a good job in Missouri, and TJN bosses are keeping the husband on the payroll and he will be telecommuting for The Journal News from Missouri.

    Does this make any sense after what went on today?

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  45. Those of us at the small Gannett sites who have been consolidated to nothing and don't have enough staff to do anything have little sympathy for those who might have to "make do" with 5 or 10 fewer jobs. That's our entire newsroom, where before content evolution and the huge pressures of digital, we were at least twice that.

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    1. Does anyone know if this is it, or will there be more this week? Did the papers that made their revenue projections not have layoffs?

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    2. 9:19 No, there are more to come. I'm just not sure when.

      Many, many of the newspapers missing from my list are all in the East Group, which is based in Rochester, N.Y., under Group President Michael Kane.

      I seriously doubt that all his newspapers were able to meet their cost-cutting targets solely through other means. That's why I'm convinced there are more to come.

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  46. Yeah, nothing was said today about the telecommuter, kind of ridiculous. There are still a few that are left that I cant figure out what they are doing with a full time position, like the guy that walks in with his guitar.

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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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