If This Guy Wasn't Safe, Then How Can Anyone Be These Days?

This guy is just one symbol of the ills that plague our industry and have plagued our industry on some level for years.

There is no justice in this world if someone who literally took a bullet for his job got laid off, but there are thousands of talented journalists who don't have a job, and some who have no means of providing for their family.

Life ain't never been fair.

 

I'll break it down for y'all. When the guillotine appears, the bean counters are looking for the most- and least-tenured employees. They don't give a shit what awards you've won, how many hours off the clock you work, how dedicated you are, or what your job description is. Period. If you're next on the list, no amount of innovation will save you.

 

I understand that. And every single time a particularly egregious example comes up to prove it, I intend to wail and gnash my teeth.

 

And do nothing else.

 

Nothing else to be done.

 

This in the same week a couple of layoff victims won Pulitzers. Face it, the industry is like taking Omaha Beach on D-Day. Even if you survive, your reward is to face additional threats to your well-being.
I guess my biggest surprise is how the industry has been able to survive thanks largely to the employees goodwill. How much does it have left? Both of these stories (Pulitzer winners and shooting victim), would have found themselves on A1 at a lot of papers if it happened in another industry (a teacher, a park ranger, a commercial airline pilot), wondering how apparently dedicated employees could be shown the door. There would be outrage, columns, editorials and letters to the editor.

 

Exactly. Which is why when something like this does happen and we find the link to the story we post it here and then we rant. The fact that to some of us stories like this no longer elicit shock and outrage is another scary example of just how far far things have fallen.

 

Only in St. Louis:

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/15/Cop-honored-then-laid-off/UPI-32561239813452/

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill., April 15 (UPI) -- The city council in East St. Louis, Ill. voted to lay off a police officer just minutes after they honored him for apprehending a slaying suspect.

 

To answer your original question, Andy, NOBODY'S safe. There's too much grisly evidence to believe otherwise.