Being Fired for Posting on SJ

I discuss everything under the sun here, including what my cock smells like (Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts, because I know you wanted to know).

The intracacies of my job is the one thing I will not discuss.

 

We've noticed.

 

Something Jemele posted on the Saban/Darlington thread (Version 2.0) made me think today: Do people really grasp how much stuff posted here resonates throughout the industry? I don't think for a second that they do. I think too many people assume this is some tiny corner of the internet where disgruntled prep writers and gossipy bitches swap stories about the most recent episode of LOST. And while it's those things too, it's also a really popular site for people you'd never imagine would check it out. I've lost count of how many times people have asked me if they saw the Van McKenzie thread, people I had no idea would ever have any interest in posting here. It's funny that whenever someone gets busted for putting something on their personal blog, their response is almost always, "I didn't think anyone was reading. It was more like my personal diary for me and my friends." I think a lot of people think SportsJournalists.com is their personal diary and a gab session for their friends, when in reality, it carries a lot more weight than that. Jemele is right that everyone thinks it's compelling and interesting when someone fucks up, and we have a 10-page thread about it where people weigh in with all kinds of emotion and chest-thumping, acting like they'd never do such a thing, but it would feel a hell of a lot different if that 10-page thread were about you. Personally, I'd want to crawl under my couch and cry if people ever blasted me and debated my worth as a journalist for 200 posts. It doesn't surprise me that people have been fired for posting things here. But I think it would surprise a lot of people at how easily it is to get tagged with a label or a reputation in the business based on one thread here where the Chorus Of The Rightious condems you for being a fuck up, when 99 percent of them have never met you and don't know the full story about you.

I hope I can remember that next time I see something or someone I want to launch stones at with my catapult from the roof of my 10-story glass house.

 

Amen DD. Amen.

This is my rule of thumb as well. I would never bash my employer on here.
Now, in PMs - those are a whole nother ball of wax.

 

Um, sxy, you need to come to my office first thing in the morning.

 

Not if you're dating the girl...

 

The perfect cover-up -- carve yourself up on this site so you can say, "hey, this asshole is talking about me, too!! Why would ever you think that poster is me?!"

 

The thing I find most shocking is that while a lot of people may know others through networking, I might know the names, but not usernames, of three people who post on here -- and supposedly, that's supposed to be enough to be so dangerous. Seriously, how many people in the US (and Canada, too, now that I think of it) have this job? And how many people post on here that don't? There are supposedly 6,846 members as of right now, and I'd say very conservatively that 3,000 of those usernames are individual people, in which case maybe 2,700 are in sports journalism. Sure, it's a public forum, but unless I'm naive (which may be the case, I guess), I find it hard to be able to out someone without actually knowing their name.

 

Yeah, when posters start getting negative about specific people in the biz, I remember why I hate 90 percent of my fellow sports writers - most of them are assholes with no souls. Like everyone else, I have plenty of opinions about individuals. I keep it to myself, or to a few close friends, not on cyber space so everyone in the damn world can read it.

 

I agree with this wholeheartedly. I can totally understand when the desk is getting all antsy at the end of the night when I'm still writing the last story of the day after a game and taking my sweet time. They have lives too. So I make it a point to ...

what? ...

FUCK, what time is it?!?!

 

There were some outing attempts at SEC Media Daze two summers ago. Now that shit conceivably could have gotten people fired. Far as I know, it did not.

 

I prefer doofices. (Like the plural of matrix.)