An unjust dismissal

Like Baron, I read it as she sent the column to the publisher and staff at the same time. But you could be absolutely right that the editor created this appearance when in fact she sent it to her publisher, then rallied her staff around her cause after it was killed. Short of her offering up her sent e-mail showing that, or the publisher coming forward with her side of the story, I guess we'll never know for sure.

 

I think the folks here tend to think that their workplaces are incredibly unique. That newsrooms have politics, and other issues that don't happen in other industries.

I think their ignorance of how other businesses operate allows them to think this.

It's also unquestionable that the owners of newspapers -- and the publishers they hire, who are often family members -- have always had a say in the editorial positions of their newspapers.

Newspapers have long held political agendas. If that is on the increase, it's not a departure from the past, it's a return to it.

 

Thank you. The truth is we don't know what happened here and all we can do is speculate. Arguing one way or the other without knowing all the facts is pointless.

 

Strong owner/publisher influence is not a given, and there are competing agendas across many levels. You're right that agendas influence how every newsroom operates, but whose agenda (owner, publisher, executive editor, managing editor, etc.) varies by the paper. That's why "There is no liberal media, all publishers are Republicans" responses come almost exclusively from people who have no idea what goes on in a daily news meeting.

 

I understand that it's not the case at every paper.

But, there's also never been a time when it wasn't the case at some papers, including some of the biggest, most influential, in the nation.

 

I've worked in 3-4 other industries since leaving newspapers, so I think I'm far from "ignorant" in how other businesses operate. And I can say that, in my experience, the workplace of a newsroom was unique, at least in the near decade I was in one. Obviously all businesses have their own flavor of politics, but I haven't experienced the kind of relationship between employer and employee that I did between publisher and editor/writer.

But I can say that because I've actually worked in a newsroom. If you were to say your business was unique, I wouldn't instinctively call bullshit because I've never experienced your business.

Only one person is speaking from ignorance on this thread.

 

But who hires the publisher who hires the executive editor who hires the managing editor who hires the reporters, etc.? I think publishers' agendas are most often carried out through hiring practices. Rupert Murdoch doesn't have to blackmail his people into writing the crap they do.

 

I've worked at a diverse group of papers and the decision-making at even small papers is so far removed from the publisher that any direct influence he/she might want is lost by the time the decisions are actually made/carried out.

 

None of that change sthe point that publishers often carry out agenda through hiring practices. If you hire people who have a similar ideology to your own, you don't have to micromanage them.

 

That's not true. Many publishers are more conservative than the majority of people in the average newsroom. If publishers hire only yes people, how does that happen? I've also been hired by more papers than your average journalist. In all my interviews, I met one publisher, and that was by my request.

 

You'd be hard pressed to find an industry like publishing that has a similar combination of white and blue collar employees with the wide range of education along with a virtually 24 hour a day, seven day a week, 365 days a year operation that almost all daily newspapers are.

Hospitals also never close. But that would be about the only industry I can think of that comes close.

But that's what makes newspapers unique.

 

Airline industry.