Retaliation? BANG's "Norma Rae" among 29 slashed

E & P story reports on Steffens case. Says she's mulling legal action:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003826774

 

I guess I missed this when it originally appeared before being quoted here. Mr. Dick Head really said this?
I hope he somehow winds up in court and at the very least gets sentenced to spend two days a week working in a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter.

 

No, he didn't really say it. The tip off should have been "Lean Dean Singleton said."

 

Looks like you just messed with the wrong woman, Lean Dean. What started with whispers is starting to get loud as the the story of Steffens' blatantly retaliatory firing generates more high-profile media coverage - just what Lean Dean wants, I'm sure. The story was covered on SF's local tv news (KTVU) Friday:

http://www.ktvu.com/video/16860686/index.html

 

Looks like Singleton's waterboys got some splainin to do as union files unfair labor practices charge with the NLRB against BANG for Steffens' firing. And turns out she wasn't the only one - 20 of the 29 reporters Armstrong canned (2 weeks after the union vote) were union supporters - none of the 13 openly antiunioners were chopped, E&P reports. Bet AC's cranking in corner offices from Walnut Creek to Denver!

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003827765

 

Nope, Lean Dean will draw it out and draw it out... It won't matter, no matter how obvious it is.

 

I just wish news execs could be a little more honest and not think they can get away with bs explanations. Any editor worth his or her salt would rip their reporters a new one if they let quotes like the one below go by unchallenged.



Here's the money quote:
"These layoffs were driven by the economy and nothing else. Instead of relying on job performance, we eliminated positions that we felt we could no longer afford in this economic environment or in those areas where we felt the work could be absorbed by others. Sara’s beat was poverty and social issues."
- Kevin Keane, BANG Exec. Editor.

So the positions eliminated were either very highly specialized, or ones that were very general.

 

good lord. The economy sucks so we laid off the poverty reporter.

 

Yeah, there's no poverty news in America now. Gas prices up through the roof, people struggling to pay mortgages, but hey, let's ax the reporter who covers these issues.

 

Sara Steffens probably deserved a raise. Her beat probably covers the entirety of what used to be the middle class, too.