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Former Tampa Trib sports writer suing Media General

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by playthrough, Feb 10, 2010.

  1. writingump

    writingump Member

    If any company deserves to have its feet grilled over the coals, it's this one.
     
  2. leo1

    leo1 Active Member

    at what level, and in what state, are judges evaluated based on their cases which go to trial? federal judges have life tenure. no one evaluates them. state court judges are elected so they're "evaluated" by the voters. judges enjoy trials. it's far more interesting than the mundane day to day squabbling between bitter adversaries and their lawyers.
     
  3. Bruhman

    Bruhman Active Member

    Assuming that Brett is telling the truth, MG's first line of defense would be denying his claims. Wouldn't they prefer to settle, rather than telling bald-face lies in court? That could lead to a whole lot more trouble.
     
  4. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    I just saw an ad on TV. One of the area's ambulance chasers - "We turn red into GREEN!" - is running it, soliciting uncompensated overtime cases.
     
  5. I absolutely promise you that judges do not like trials and are under tremendous pressure to limit them. I promise. I can go try to dig up some of my Civil Procedure notes and textbooks if you want further proof.

    "A trial is a failure" is a common saying, and any civil litigator will tell you that there is constant pressure to settle, settle, settle.
     
  6. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    I find it hard to believe that most college football writers aren't being dragged into GA work in the era of layoffs and cutbacks.

    And when do you think big enterprise pieces get written?
     
  7. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    Did I work as many hours after spring football as I did from the start of preseason practice through spring football? No.
    But you're talking about a three-month period. In-season, the hours are long and days off are rare.
    During my "offseason," I helped out with a variety of things. I did some races. We had a pretty big Cup race here in early May. I helped with some spring prep playoffs. Later, I started doing desk work during the "offseason" to learn that side of the operation.
    Wasn't like I was on the golf course every day.
    And this was BEFORE staff cuts, before the explosion of Internet-related duties like blogging and constant updates.
    Now it's even worse.

    This is going to be an interesting case. There's no question that anybody doing the job right is working more than 40 hours a week for most (but not all) of the year. It is not a traditional 9-5, nights and weekend off job. Race weeks? Jeez. I put in a ton of hours and didn't touch what our lead racing writers put in.
    If I could get a dollar for every hour over 40 I worked during my career, y'all could kiss my fat ass good-bye and find me in Tahiti.

    But here's the other side: Don't you know that going on? Does anyone get involved with this and then say, "Whoa, that's a lot of hours!"
     
  8. I would work 70-plus hour weeks routinely when I was first starting out, and that was just covering preps full-time and nothing else at a fairly big suburban newspaper. And I'd still feel like I wasn't doing enough. I thought I was "getting ahead." So ridiculous in hindsight. The only thing that slowed me down was getting into a serious relationship that I had to carve out time for.

    Remarkably, my work and my career got much better once I took my foot off the gas a little bit. I mean, I didn't retire from the No. 1 columnist job at the L.A. Times or anything, but taking the time to cultivate a personal life outside the office didn't negatively affect my work or my career.
     
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