Gannett stomps on employees' rights to free speech

Whether it's hypocritical or not, or applied differently, it still doesn't rise to the level of violation of freedom of speech. Again, only the government is prohibited from doing that. Your employer can do it all he wants. If you don't like, feel free to find another employer.

 

Jack Shafer makes a similar point:
http://blogs.reuters.com/jackshafer/2012/03/27/free-the-gannett-25/

 

I have mixed feelings on this one. The people who run Gannett are a bunch of soulless fucks, but when people complain about the liberal media and the paper claims to be unbiased and then someone can point to a signature showing that you want the current governor recalled, that just plays into the point that is frequently trying to be made.

I wonder where the line is drawn. My wife always put candidate's signs in our yard. That freaked me out when I still worked in journalism. Her reaction was, "You cover the NFL, give me a break..." which is a valid argument.

If you're a NFL writer, don't be seen around town in a sweatshirt or hat of a NFL team. If you cover news or politics, you probably shouldn't put your name on a recall poll.

 

Why is appearance so important? The journalists hold these views whether they disclose them or not. If you want to gain readers' trust, why are you hiding them?

 

I worked at a paper where during the 2000 recount, wrote an editorial about how papers need to be partial during the process so as not to sway the public's view, blah, blah, blah... but on the day Bush was declared as the winner, she was standing in the newsroom swearing loudly at the TV.

We're human, I get it.

I can understand where if your government writer, or a ME, or a publisher was found to have signed a recall petition, it might be an issue.

But what if it was a sports agate clerk? Should the rules be different for him? I would think they should be.

As a former NFL beat writer, if I walked into the office wearing NFL garb, it would raise eyebrows. If a copy editor was wearing the same thing, nobody would think anything about it.

Different rules for different people/jobs.

 

It's not just that the meeting is mandatory. It's that the company is attempting to coerce employees into donating to a charity, with the implication that if they don't, they'll be punished.

That's harassment.

 

Which is the point I made earlier about how if it's OK for the brass to hold season tickets to the local pro team, it ought to be OK for a sports reporter to attend a political rally.

But Gannett doesn't differentiate with that. Or care.

 

In this case, it's signing a petition, which falls under the First Amendment right to petition for a redress of grieveances.

 

Has anyone heard how serious the discipline is expected to be?

I've heard everything from a short suspension to just having to go through ethics training.

 

I guess you can add Lee Enterprises to the list of those "stomping on employees' rights to free speech" ...

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/state-journal-staffers-signed-recall-petitions-all-but-not-involved/article_0f28272c-7865-11e1-a779-001871e3ce6c.html