A board favorite gets ripped by the ombudsman

What he did was clearly wrong, and clearly a conflict of interest. And he is an egotistical old cur.

But it's also nice to see him basically tell management to GFY.

 

No, it's not.

No one else would get away with it.

Fuck Sid.

 

That's because Sid sells newspapers, and the MST realizes this. Fire him, and the ensuing shitstorm would dwarf any Minnesota blizzard. You may not like him; few in our profession do because he does things the way they used to be done back in the day, not the way we've been taught. He has disdain for most younger reporters (anyone under 60) and is used to getting his way.

But he's an employee with some actual juice, some cache, and he's not afraid to use it. He's old enough not to care one little bit about what some bean-counting suit thinks. The paper needs him, not vice-versa. And while he has slowed down considerably, he still generates news and gets some news items no one else can because there's a certain faction out there that trusts him implicitly.

Having an ombudsman or a "public editor" is a wonderful concept. Many of such columns I've read, however, they never back the reporter/edutor/photographer and basically (CLICHE ALERT!) throw them under the bus.

 

If by beloved you mean left outside to rot, wither and turn to dust, yes...

But management needs to do something to him... he's still an employee.
And as I said on a previous thread: Fuck Sid. Fuck Sid. Fuck him. Fuck Sid.

 

Well, MG, strictly from the standpoint of what an ombudsman is supposed to do -- aside from the unique situation with Sid -- that's exactly what should be happening here.

 

I can't imagine there's an ombudsman in the country who has had to grin and bear it with an usual, frustrating situation more than the Star-Tribune's has.

 

Just got done reading the article.
Don't know nothing about the situation, but my take was that Sid told the ombudswoman to fuck off.
And, honest to God, who in their right minds would see an ad with the sports columnist and connect the dots to believe that the paper would have biased coverage against the company doing the ad.
It's pretty obvious that some on this board have strong feelings against the guy, but he's got a big stick and used it.

 

The objection is not that he did an ad -- Sid is Sid and will do what he wants. The objection is that he didn't approach his superiors with a courtesy question, since he represents the Strib.
And yeah, Sid pretty much told her to fuck off. But it's also not a great deal of people in MSP who love Sid. But there are a great deal of VOCAL people who love Sid. My 75 year-old father absolutely hates the bastard. But he is who he is.

 

And that number is 612-673-4450.

 

So, Jay, you're saying just let newspaper people do advertising for whoever they want, screw the appearance of a conflict of interest and forget about it?

Sid wielded a hammer he shouldn't have, but it's too late to take it away from him now. Wish management would just say, "Sorry, Sid, see ya," but that isn't going to happen.