'Black Wednesday' in Tampa

I rest my case. These snippits say it all. "... people are out on depressing layoff lunches. I wanted to go ..." You have got to be kidding me. Why, to rubber-neck as if you were driving past a car wreck?!?

Yet people are still defending her. And I noticed on her blog that she has pretty much chosen only to respond to her supporters. She still has not answered Andy Staples' post or others like Ms. Place and myself who have offered up constructive criticism on her blog without any name-calling.

 

OK, I know her comments are repulsive. But not since Monica Lewinsky has a bimbo received this much attention for going down on someone in a position of power.

Please ... let's focus on the real villains in this story. The clowns who fired a good reporter because they wanted to close their Tallahassee bureau, and instead of having the decency to offer him the UF job, turned around and tried to move others into that spot.

 

Good call Ira. In fact, I believe one of her fellow UF students started another thread titled "Fixing this mess" where the running commentary on her blog comments and similar issues shoulde be directed.

I am still waiting to hear exactly what kind of bogus explanation Scott received when he was back at the Tampa offices. I continue to lose sleep over his dismissal.

 

A couple things, after I urge everyone here to actually click on that link to Paul Conley's blog, which says, in part:

"It's obviously too early to tell how this will work out. And although the details on the plan are few and far between, it is clear that some people will lose their jobs.

Given that, I would have anticipated the usual doom and gloom from the staff.

So it was with great pleasure that I read an optimistic piece from an intern at the Tampa paper. I don't want to paraphrase what Jessica DaSilva had to say.

Rather, I'd urge you to read her entire blog post. But suffice it to say that there are young people entering the workforce today who are every bit as excited about journalism and their careers as I was when I was in my early 20s. They can see past the problems of any single medium and imagine a time when the audience comes first.

And that thrills me."

Oh, god.

This is, in large part, exactly what we're all so upset about, when we look to the future and when we read stuff like DaSilva's, and now, Paul Conley's: People actually see no problem with any of this.

Cadet's point about the internet is a valid one, in that, just when there is more need for care, restraint and editing/management of what is written and put out for the world -- even more of it than ever -- to see, there is none.

That much is obvious, not only in what DaSilva wrote on her blog entry/article concerning the newsroom layoffs/changes but also in her Twitter diary (very apropos reference, IMO, because she really does sound like a twit).

I'd guess that if any copy editor had looked at her entries, at all, they would not have gotten put up with the managing editor of the paper's name not just spelled wrong, but just, plain wrong.

In addition, no copy desk of any repute would have allowed a blog on the paper's site that read, "Shit, I meant..." to be posted, especially if it was a quote from the writer, and not part of a source's quote.

(And even then, it probably would not have been allowed, if any standards for blogging were in place).

The worst part of this, again, is that a lot of people have no problem with any of this.

I haven't looked again -- I refuse to add to her clicks -- but when I see the link to Conley's blog, I have to wonder, has this thread been linked to there, too?

I wonder what her response would be to all this. Would she be going, "Gasp!...is that me on SportsJournalists.com? YES!"?

I'm almost afraid of the answer.

 

Whatever you were feeling, I don't think you were the only one feeling it after reading that. Wow.

 

Well, the editor's name was Weaver. Then she became Janet Coats. So it's a screwup but somewhat understandable.

http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/politicalwhore/2007/04/17/janet-weaver-is-no-longer-editor-of-the-trib/

 

Shit. I should have known that.

 

You know what the answer is.

The sad part is this will probably end up helping her career.

 

Of course the intern should know that ol' Janet might not have her back when it's inconvenient to do so:

http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=2599

 

Oh, Dear God...Miss Blonde Intern went to Florida?

I feel so not proud of my school at this moment. Ew.

 

I've got to echo Ira's sentiments here.

Scott Carter was asked to move from Tampa to Tallahassee. He didn't want to, but did so to help out his newspaper. Then a year later, he's "layed" off, not even given a chance to come back to the home base because apparently they didn't want to pay for his moving expenses.

Yet, a 21-year-old intern has somehow turned into the villian of this story?

 

I, too, don't feel so proud of the "journalist" that my alma mater has produced. She needs a harsh reality check in life. And it will happen. I don't wish it on her, but somewhere, sometime, karma will get her.