Orlando

Guys, Steve Elling here. Since I suddenly have plenty of free time, and a friend of mine told me that the Sports Journalists gossip grapevine is bearing fruit with my name, I thought I'd explain what happened. Be forewarned. Some of you are going to crap your diapers, because a version of this could happen to you.

A few days ago, the publisher of the local Orlando Magazine used his monthly column to fire a few broadsides at the paper. The Sentinel is an easy target, since it's a pretty mediocre paper and makes plenty of mistakes.

In his diatribe, the magazine publisher noted several instances (naming names, in some cases) in which the paper had not fired reporters who made some galling mistakes over the years. He also mentioned that there was somebody on the current staff who was drawing a check from a source.

The paper had its attorney call the magazine publisher and ask for more info. All the former would say was that it was a sports staffer. At that point, they began hauling writers into the office to ask if hwe had done any work for websites like nascar.com, nba.com, pgatour.com or anything that would be an obvious conflict of interest. I listed a few of the magazines I'd written for over the past years -- every story was a rewrite of a story that had already appeared in the paper first, per my verbal arrangement with Van McKenzie.

Well, Van died. They had changed the freelance rules sometime over the past couple of years and I had never bothered to study it (and I sure as hell never signed it). All outside freelance work must first be cleared by a managing editor or the editor herself. Not the sports editor.

Ridiculous. Ask anybody on staff -- Van never wanted to be bothered with this stuff. Once, when I told him that Golfworld magazine had offered me $3,000 to rewrite a feature I'd done for the paper, Van said, "You'd be crazy not to do it." Another staffer told me a few days ago that he had also written freelance stories without first securing permission. They didn't do anything to him.

OK, so that's one reason why they fried me. Here is the second. Another magazine I wrote for on occasion was an in-house, limited-circulation publication produced for a local real-estate developer, Bobby Ginn. His people had seen a review of a new golf course that had opened at his Orlando-area resort that I wrote for the paper and asked me to rewrite a version for their magazine. No problem. It was all of 750 words, maybe. That was 3-4 years ago.

CONTINUED ...

 

PART TWO:

I have re-written perhaps two stories a year for the Ginn magazine since then, always stuff that had appeared in the Sentinel first and had been reworked or padded. The problem, which I admittedly should have noticed, came when Ginn began sponsoring an LPGA event in town last April.

At that point, the editors ruled that I had created a conflict of interest and decided I had accepted a check from a source. Nevermind that the publication is produced by a third party, IMI Resort Sales of South Carolina. Nevermind that I had a pre-existing relationship with those people and swore it was an oversight, a mea culpa, my bad.

Stupidly, I freely GAVE them all the ammo to shoot me. I should have lied. This time, the paper seemed hellbent on meting out punishment.

In a span of 36 hours, I was fired. I never spoke with anybody above the level of acting sports editor Lynn Hoppes, who has since been promoted. I received one day of vacation time as severance. My medical benefits were halted, and my 2-year-old son is on my coverage. They walked me out the back door last Friday before I cleaned out my desk.

The best part: My parents were in town from California for a week-long visit. They must have been so proud.

Two major footnotes to add. The Human Resources lady admited when they were kikcing me out the back door that the Sentinel is not sure I was the guy to whom the magazine publisher was referring (but I was a pretty convenient target, I guess, since I made it easy for them) in his column.

Secondly, the twisted part is, I had turned down PLENTY of freelance opportunities in the past because of a potential conflict of interest with events and people I cover, including chances to write for the Bay Hill tournanemt program, the Tavistock Cup program and PGAtour.com.

I mean, ask around, I know right from wrong. The Ginn thing, I just never thought about how the relationship had changed once they started staging an event. It never occurred to me. I was fired for $1,200 in stories that I offered to donate to charity as a means of making amends. The company did not seem interested in my explanation or penance.

I wish I had a saucier story for you. I was not sleeping with anybody's wife. I was not on any type of probation. I had no disciplinary issues. I was given no warning or suspension. I was not derelict in my duties. I had over 300 bylines last year.

The most agonizing part is that the paper, in the past decade, has had a sports staffer arrested at an Orlando Magic practice (in front of every TV camera in town) for allegedly beating a woman, had another caught dead-to-rights for plagiarism, had a former columnist recently write an R-rated story on the pros and cons of oral sex on her personal blog site, and none of them were fired.

I got sacked for this? Was my salary too high? Did they want to pare the staff (who covers golf anymore, right)? Was somebody trying to make political hay with editors upstairs by making a public sacrifice? I have no answers.

This is the second time I've ever been on this site, so I'm not much for industry gossip. But I'd like to thanks those of you who are defending and cheerleading for me from afar, whoever you crazy SOBs are.

Steve Elling

 

Damn.

That sucks, Steve.

 

Sounds like all sides handled this poorly. Life is gray except in areas of conscience.

 

Good luck with whatever's next, man.

 

Wow. Seems like the Senitel is overreacting ever so slightly.

 

So there's an opening at the Orlando Sentinel?

Just kidding. That totally sucks. And as has been pointed out earlier, there's golf writers taking all sorts of stuff from sponsors/events. A friend's friend told me that you could have an entire wardrobe comprised of golf event shirts and never have to pay for golf again if you really wanted.

Sounds like Steve won't have trouble finding work, though, which is good news. But health care would be my biggest scare. What if, God forbid, something happens between now and a new insurance plan kicks in? Yeesh.

 

I'm not sure what the rules are, but I'm pretty certain they have to provide insurance up to 6 weeks after termination, following which you can extend it under COBRA.

 

Yeah, you just have to sell a kidney to afford the fucking snake.

 

I think insurance after termination depends on the state.

And yes, COBRA is expensive as hell, but you have two months to decide if you want/need it and then 45 days from then to make the first payment. So if you have a catastrophic incident, you can elect coverage. If you don't, then you keep knocking on wood.

 

Steve admits he made a few mistakes. But based on his story -- I have no way of knowing if anything's left out -- this is an EXTREME overreaction on the part of the Sentinel. This unfortunately seems to be the way of the world these days. We're in a zero tolerance era -- but in a business where rarely are such things black and white.

Unfortunately, businesses are seeing gray -- and saying it's black.

Good luck, Steve. What has happened here seems really, really wrong -- again, based on your side of the story.