Gannett stomps on employees' rights to free speech

Genia Lovett, the author, was part of the process of hiring and then enabling Chris Schulte while she was in Wausau. Enough said.

 

I would never sign a petition to oust a politician while a journalist.

 

Almost?

 

I signed the petition to make Bully a PG-13 movie. Am I not allowed to sign it because the paper's entertainment department may run some features on it?

If a business wants to build a toxic waste dump next to my home, am I not allowed to sign it because the paper covers the issue? If anything, I can argue that I'm already involved in the issue because my property values would go down, as well as my quality of life and health. Heck, with my health, I could argue that the paper has a conflict of interest in the issue, because if I get sick from the dump, that costs the paper sick days.

In other words, where is the line with this company in terms of signing a petition, and also with the company interfering in one's personal life? That is not listed in their Principles of Ethics. There is no "You cannot sign a political petition" rule. There are just extremely vague principles, which, while laudable in some ways, and also public posturing, that in reality, almost everyone can break.

I cited the examples earlier. The publisher holding season tickets for a pro sports team. Lord knows we got calls accusing us of being biased for one team over the other. That comes down to credibilty. Should we disclose in every story that the publisher is a season-ticket holder?

Or, as pointed out on the paper's web site, the brass being members of the Chamber of Commerce. How is that not a conflict of interest in terms of "avoiding business relationships ..." that is listed in the Principles?

 

As I've written, ethics rules are formulated by those allowed to break them.

 

Have they been disciplined?

 

Yup.

I got told I couldn't vote, once.

Laughed in that dude's face.

 

The editor wrote that they would be disciplined and have to undergo more endoctrinating ... er... training.

 

The point about the United Way in the original post reminded me how the UW campaigns always pissed me off. At every paper I worked, we always had to go through the campaign crap. UW apparently is crafty in pulling in publishers to do their "civic duty." When the publisher rubs elbows down at the club over a tall Scotch, he can brag about much his paper donated, etc., blah, blah, blah.

The last place I worked, we had mandatory meetings. You had to show up and sit through the presentation. I finally asked the executive editor why. I told him giving to charities was my business, not the paper's. Did we allow the American Cancer Society to come in and ask for donations? He basically said he he could reassign me to a different beat (demote me) if I didn't attend the meetings. I asked him to point out where that was in the employee handbook regarding conduct that we all had to sign off as having read. I really felt like challenging him on it. I thought it was completely illegal and coercive.

Glad that place and newspapers are in the rear view mirror.

 

When I worked summers at Disneyland, we actually had to pick up our paychecks from the United Way reps during the pledge drive.

 

I would have told him that if I received any sort of demotion, my next two calls would be to the Department of Labor, and a lawyer.

 

You probably would have been laughed off the phone by both the lawyer and the Department of Labor. It's not out of line for an employer to have mandatory meetings for their staff. If you don't like the subject matter of the meeting (assuming it's not a mass showing of hardcore porn or something like that), you don't get to decide it's not mandatory or worth your time. And if you work in an at-will state, making those kinds of empty threats to your executive editor in the middle of this meeting probably would have gotten you fired and not just demoted.

Both during my newspaper time and since then, I've had dozens of mandatory meetings that I considered worthless and keeping me from actually doing my job. That's part of being an employee, and I doubt I'm alone in that experience.

For the record, I hated the annual United Way pledge drive crap. I probably would have considered donating if they didn't try and drive it down our throats.