Rob Parker controversy

350... right down the stripe...

 

God, I miss him. I really, truly do.

 

Then you aren't looking hard enough...

 

OK, first of all the Detroit guild is an open shop, like most newspaper unions and it's incumbent upon the members and their morals to join and support the union. There is no requirement to join. However, all nonmembers enjoy all the benefits of the unions such as the raises and (in the not-so-distant-past) the free health care. Also, representation in grievances against management. I don't understand all the hate for union officials on here. They have gone to bat for many in the Detroit Guild and right now I think the guild has won three or four straight grievances against management, with at least one requiring the paper to rehire the person. And yes, the Guild will represent Rob if he wants them to. I do not understand how anyone could not join the union at a paper or cross a line during a strike but I guess that's their personal ethics and morals and they have to live with themselves. From what I understand, since I wasn't here then, most of the sports departments crossed the line during the strike here, including a board not-so-favorite, who I guess made some heartfelt speech about how he supported the Guild but just felt an obligation to his readers not to deprive them or some such. My guess about Rob, having only had brief conversations with him many years ago, is he'll land on his feet and forgo the grievance. It is interesting how some of the people who flaunt the rules and good behavior in this biz always manage to find someone else to hire them.

 

I don't have a problem with union officials, since once upon a time I was a member of that very Guild.
That Guild's leader, on the other hand, doesn't hold a candle to his predecessor, had to improve to be an average reporter and is one of the most annoying f-tards on the planet

 

He came off like a first-class asshole on Mike and Mike this morning.

He basically glorified himself for seven or eight minutes then said he wasn't sorry for asking Marinelli that question.

 

What he doesn't understand is that it's not just about the question. It's about a series of moronic and (in some cases like the MSU quarterback) slanderous statements or columns that his bosses said enough is enough.

 

Magic, that is exactly my point. For all the awful things he has done, people keep hiring him. I just don't understand it.

 

I agree.

I just found it incredibly insulting how he basically began describing what his professors at Columbia told him and made it seem as if the Detroit News was some shady, two-bit paper that was well below his journalistic standard to begin with.

 

Now, this is just stupid. Your journalistic ethics should be your own and you should carry them with you no matter where you work. That's why I think these newspaper ethics policies are so dumb. If you're a great journalist with great ethics, you shouldn't need a checklist provided by the newspaper to tell you what to do or what not to do. That's why the Mitch situation was so appalling. Someone who had been so honored and glorified by people who should know better in this business would CHOOSE to do something like that and then act like it was nothing. And that's why Rob should be forced to learn a lesson that there are some things in journalism that are just wrong and you shouldn't do them and people in this business should not hire him again. There are plenty of great journalists out there now looking for jobs. Hire one of them!

 

Angry Young Black Columnist. For a while, many papers felt they had to have one.