East Carolina fires student media adviser after paper ran photos of streaker

Sigh. I'll probably regret wading further into this debate, but I want to at least be fair and hold up my end of the conversation since I got into this in the first place, so here goes.

The problem with this country isn't that employers check Facebook profiles of their prospective employees. The problem is that some prospective employees are clueless about what is appropriate and what is not appropriate to say publicly. Whether it's his personal Facebook account or not, it's still something he is saying to a wide group of people. Essentially, what Isom is doing is walking into a room full of people and yelling, "Hey! Look what happened to me! Look how bad this all sucks! Look how good I am and how railroaded I got!" Etcetera.

Of course he's upset. Anyone who loses a job right now will be. But nobody wants to hear all that, even if it's true. It's fine if he wants to vent to friends and family. But he needs to just vent to friends and family, not to his hundreds of Facebook "friends." Do you really not see the difference there?

By now, you also have to know that if you put something, anything, on the Internet, it can come back to bite you. Hard.

He has every right to say what he wants to say wherever he wants to say it. He has chosen to say these things in a place where potential employers can read them. Those potential employers also have every right to choose another candidate.

That's not a problem with America. That's just the way the world works now.

 

And do you not think somebody's going to hire him, at least just for the good PR hiring him will bring?

 

How soon will that PR fade away if/when he does something stupid at his new job, if/when he has to be disciplined/fired at his new job, and if/when that reflects badly on the place that hires him? And for all the First Amendment atta-boys, how many employers are going to be thrilled that he didn't have any problems putting a big cock on the front page of the paper?

On the "problems with America" angle, that's garbage. What I consider to be a problem with America is that (mostly young) people these days think they should be able to do whatever they want to do and say whatever they want to say, and make sure everyone they've ever met knows all the sordid details, yet it shouldn't affect them in any way.

You know who else can easily find stuff on a person's public Facebook profile? Their co-workers, supervisors and subordinates, people they deal with in a professional work environment from other places of business. If you're fine with someone you're annually spending $100K-plus on (including benefits, retirement, everything) broadcasting to anyone within about 10 key strokes about how fucked up they got the other night, how they love to get high, how many guys they blew last month, whatever, then you probably shouldn't be involved in the hiring process to begin with. I think Facebook is another way of checking references.

To think that's off-limits and unfair for some reason is to be incredibly naive.

 

Is that you, Isom?

I don't know what kind of good PR you're talking about, to be honest. The guy let student editors believe it was a good idea to run a front page photo of full-frontal nudity. That's not defensive of freedom of the press or whatever. That's disrespect for your readers and poor judgement. Professors on campus bring their young children into the office sometimes. Some parents don't want their young children seeing an idiot's junk in the campus newspaper.

You want to run the full-frontal nudity, run it inside the paper, with a disclaimer on the front page. That way you maintain the integrity of the photo while still making sure those who wish not to be offended are protected.

I realize that some of this has to do with the editor's decision-making, not the adviser's advising. But Isom made it clear he signed off on the photo. It just blows my mind that a student paper adviser gave the clear go-ahead on something like this.

That said, I have a really hard time believing that he got fired solely for the photo. Reprimanded? Maybe even suspended? Sure. But not fired. There's more going on here. Got to be.

 

He didn't "let them." He had no choice in the matter. He is an adviser. And after the matter, he refused to take it off the website b/c that's bad journalism ethics.

 

That's not what the story said.

He maintains that the only reason he was given for his firing was a vague "we want to go in another direction."

 

What good PR would hiring him bring? Maybe college kids are all up in arms about this, but in the real world he looks like a simp who isn't being honest about what happened.

 

There's a lot to take issue with in your post, but I just want to concentrate on that ridiculous example above.

So student journalists working for a student paper should base their decisions based on what a professor's small child *might* see when perusing the campus paper.

I think that's an awful thing to counsel young journalists and I'm glad you weren't my adviser in college.

Look, I wouldn't have run the photos if I were editor. Although if I were adviser, I would have told them, 'It's your paper, not mine.'

But to suggest that all journalists-in-training must adhere to the same old stodgy standards of traditional newspapering is ridiculous and unwise. Print newspapers -- like the one for which I work -- will be dead very, very soon. No journalism student with half a brain is preparing for a long-term career in the traditional newspaper field like we were only a few years ago.

So to suggest that a college paper geared toward college kids ought to not take risks, not be daring, not do something different because gosh-darn they might not get job at the Palookaville Gazette after graduation...To that I say, so what?

 

Many prominent college media/free press/academic rights organizations have written on his behalf.

I doubt he's going to get his job back at ECU, but I'd be willing to bet he'll end up with a nice settlement and perhaps be able to affect some institutional changes at his old school.

And no, he probably won't be able to get a job at a school like ECU that has an unfortunate and illegal view of the adviser-student media relationship, but I bet he'll be able to get a job somewhere.

 

Are we still going with the idea that he was fired for the photo? Seems pretty clear that wasn't the case.

 

No it doesn't. That's just what the school is saying. I don't buy it.

 

From the various threads on here, you seem young. Probably still in college. I would advise you to get to the career center and ask what the current hiring practices are regarding background checks on social media. I just heard one anecdote about a major organization where one part of the interview process is to hand the person a computer DURING THE INTERVIEW, have the person log on to Facebook right there in front of the interviewer, and check that person's wall, photos and post history before the person has a chance to clean it up.

Facebook as your private domain? Consider that idea at your peril.