New SE in Oregon

[gravehunter]

Here is the story that I was given....This new SE, who thought running a sports department had more to do with fan-writers and fan blogs than what it actually involves, tried to set up some kind of flash mob to coincide with the start with the start of the Trail Blazers' season. It turned out to be a complete bust. But rather than admit to the stupidity of the idea, he told his bosses that his wife decided that she didn't want to move to Oregon.

 

[steveu]

So basically it was that one event that turned him into an SE that wouldn't work out in Oregon. Niiiiiice.

 

[DanOregon]

A flash mob or a "news mob" - if the O didn't want a news mob for the Blazers season opener I have no idea why he was hired. It isn't like his new bosses didn't work with him before.

 

[SnarkShark]

He did the "news mob" thing again?! God damn, what an idiot.

 

[JRoyal]

What the heck is a "news mob"?

 

[SoCalDude]

What the heck is a "news mob"?

When he was a Team Leader (Angels, Lakers) for OCR, he ordered up the "news mob" for Angels opening day and the editor swallowed it. Everybody on the staff, not just sports, every writer and photographer, did some sort of coverage, ranging from the game to ... well, it was all too ridiculous to remember. One newsside writer wanted to get the home addresses of every player and hang out at their houses. One staffer was assigned to do a feature on the pregame talk-show host, who happened to be Sharon's neighbor or high school buddy or something like that.
Even after this failed, they ordered it up again a few months later for the opening of Cars Land at Disneyland. Equal failure.
How did he get the Oregonian job? Well, it's the OCR way to promote the friends/ass-kissers of the editors. The Oregonian publisher and editor came from the OCR. Over the past decade, there were at least five newssiders who were given sports Team Leader positions who had no idea what they were doing. One was co-sports editor.

 

[LongTimeListener]

The Oregonian leadership is a bunch of foofs who can be swayed by any big journalism talker. They fail time and again in the execution of journalism, but man can they talk the **** out of it.

It's the kind of place where Robert California could have become the boss. Which he kind of did, it sounds like.

 

[ChrisLong]

And I thought Oregon folks hated Californians. A friend of mine from Southern California got hired to be assistant fire chief in Salem. When he came into town, he stopped for gas. The guy refused to sell to him when he saw the California license plate. My friend backed the guy up against a wall, got in his face and said, "Listen, if your ****ing gas station catches on fire, I'm going to be the one here trying to put the fire out, so sell me some ****ing gas."

 

[RustyHampton]

Don't Californicate Oregon. I grew up there. Tom McCall was governor when I was in grade school.
http://www.opb.org/artsandlife/article/former-governor-tom-mccall-message-visitors/

 

[DanOregon]

Most Oregon folks came from California. Same thing happened to me at a gas station when I tried to pump my own gas. I realized I had been "Oregon-ized" when I was visiting my folks in California and sat in my car for a good five minutes waiting for the attendant before remembering it's all pretty much self-serve in California.
The odd thing is - for a state very much known for do it yourselfers, Oregon is one of only two states that bans self-serve gas stations. I guess we need to save some jobs for the Native Oregonians.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I don't know about "most" -- but this NY Times graphic shows 14 percent of Oregon residents were born in California. The only state with a higher percentage of Californicators is Nevada.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/upshot/mapping-migration-in-the-united-states-since-1900.html?abt=0002&abg=1

 

[I Should Coco]

Only 12 percent of Idahoans born in California? Surprised it's that low.

Up here in the Panhandle, just about every obit I put on the page is: 1. a veteran, and 2. someone who was born in/grew up in California.

And needless to say, once all those Californians move here, they immediately begin to bash on Californians for moving here.

 

[DanOregon]

We're getting another "wave" here now with many tech outfits and techies heading up here from SF for some elbow room.

 

[Walter Lippmann]

What the heck is a "news mob"?

When he was a Team Leader (Angels, Lakers) for OCR, he ordered up the "news mob" for Angels opening day and the editor swallowed it. Everybody on the staff, not just sports, every writer and photographer, did some sort of coverage, ranging from the game to ... well, it was all too ridiculous to remember. One newsside writer wanted to get the home addresses of every player and hang out at their houses. One staffer was assigned to do a feature on the pregame talk-show host, who happened to be Sharon's neighbor or high school buddy or something like that.
Even after this failed, they ordered it up again a few months later for the opening of Cars Land at Disneyland. Equal failure.
How did he get the Oregonian job? Well, it's the OCR way to promote the friends/ass-kissers of the editors. The Oregonian publisher and editor came from the OCR. Over the past decade, there were at least five newssiders who were given sports Team Leader positions who had no idea what they were doing. One was co-sports editor.

Thought "flooding the zone" was going to ensure all of those hires made by tbe Wunderkind would still gave jobs.

 

[gravehunter]

When he was a Team Leader (Angels, Lakers) for OCR, he ordered up the "news mob" for Angels opening day and the editor swallowed it. Everybody on the staff, not just sports, every writer and photographer, did some sort of coverage, ranging from the game to ... well, it was all too ridiculous to remember. One newsside writer wanted to get the home addresses of every player and hang out at their houses. One staffer was assigned to do a feature on the pregame talk-show host, who happened to be Sharon's neighbor or high school buddy or something like that.
Even after this failed, they ordered it up again a few months later for the opening of Cars Land at Disneyland. Equal failure.
How did he get the Oregonian job? Well, it's the OCR way to promote the friends/ass-kissers of the editors. The Oregonian publisher and editor came from the OCR. Over the past decade, there were at least five newssiders who were given sports Team Leader positions who had no idea what they were doing. One was co-sports editor.

The likely reason that the editor at the OCR thought it was a good idea was because the deputy editor who oversaw the sports department was equally as clueless. He probably couldn't tell the difference between a football and a hockey puck if his life depended on it. He's the one who put this guy in as sports ed, and not knowing any better, agreed to everything that was suggested by Sharon. He probably still thinks he made a good decision in making the hire and destroying what was once a good sports department.

 

[SoCalDude]

The likely reason that the editor at the OCR thought it was a good idea was because the deputy editor who oversaw the sports department was equally as clueless. He probably couldn't tell the difference between a football and a hockey puck if his life depended on it. He's the one who put this guy in as sports ed, and not knowing any better, agreed to everything that was suggested by Sharon. He probably still thinks he made a good decision in making the hire and destroying what was once a good sports department.

This is all true. But to clarify, at that time Sharon wasn't the OCR Sports Editor. He was a Team Leader and there were three other teams leaders who -- supposedly -- had equal authority. The above description of the Deputy Editor overseeing it all -- John Fabris -- is accurate. During this time, Fabris/Sharon gave an official OCR staff blog to a former high school classmate of Fabris. She called herself Afternoon Angel and she posted fangirl stuff, mostly about her kids. There were photos of her family's trip to Arizona for spring training. The next year she posted the exact same photos. It was a disaster. PS -- Fabris was nailed in the September layoffs.

 

[MileHigh]

Sharon has landed on his feet ... back at the OCR. His fourth "first day."




So ... I've always told people I'm the luckiest man in the world because when I was in 8th grade at Carmenita Jr. High School in Cerritos I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was a newspaper reporter then (1976), and, as it turns out, I am a newspaper reporter now. Tomorrow, I'll arrive for my fourth first day at the Orange County Register. I started at that newspaper in 1985, moved to New Jersey, started again in 1997, left to chase Hollywood, started again in 2000, left last year to work at great places including the Oregonian and Cornerstone Communications that, for various reasons, I couldn't make work. So I'll start again at the Orange County Register on March 18, 2015. Newspapers are in my DNA. I'm happy I have the chance to reclaim my career doing what I love -- what I was born to do. I guess you don't know how much you appreciate something until it is gone. Here's to never looking for another job.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

The Billy Martin of the OCR

 

[Ace]

The Billy Martin of the OCR

You can smell the insincerity on that post.

"This is my true dream job -- except for those 3-4 jobs that I really wanted more."

Wonder how many compromising photos he has to keep getting hired back.

 

[SnarkShark]

I don't know if you guys got this sense before, but... Keith thinks very highly of himself.