Reporter fired for reporting

[WriteThinking]

I'd like to know what he meant by being told to cover it remotely? What was to be involved with that? And more importantly, why was he asked to do that? Was he supposed to be covering something else in person, and therefore, "remotely" was as good as his paper was going to do for the first couple days of the track meet? Or what?

Barring other responsibilities and not knowing anything else but what was tweeted, I would guess that this was more about doing the in-person coverage on the reporter's own time than it was about doing it on his own dime. Could the paper, like Walmart, not want you working when you're not on the clock -- or at least, you were not supposed to be on the clock?

And, like mpcincal, I'd like to know what just had to be covered in person in the first two days of a track meet? Been a while since I covered any track, and I never loved it like some real track fans do, so perhaps I'm not remembering things well. But wouldn't that have been likely to be just the qualifiers anyway?

I think we're missing something...

 

[HanSenSE]

If the company's not paying, I'm not going. I mean, I saved the Herald a tidy sum at Super Bowl 39 because I stayed at my parent's house in Ponte Vedra rather than one of the hotels, but I also put in for the per diem I wasn't totally spending because I was eating out of their refrigerator most of the time.

But you let the Herald know what you were doing beforehand, I'm guessing? Did this guy do that? Or at least mention to his editors the possibility? If he just did this without checking, dumb.

Was not at a Lee paper, but an earlier stop, had a reporter whose mother lived 30-40 miles from the site of the state American Legion tournament. Every year a local team made state, he'd stay there instead of making a last-minute hotel reservation for an indefinite stay. Worked out well.

 

[wicked]

I agree with the guy in theory about covering something in-person, but I don't think this was a hill worth dying on. Plus, I feel like this whole thing smacked of a "look-at-me" kind of stunt, like he did it willingly knowing he would get canned for it, but thought his narrative would garner a whole bunch of sympathy.

This. I wonder if he had a non-journo gig in his back pocket, or some sort of plan to go back to school, and he was hoping he'd get a few extra $$$ on the way out.

 

[Octave]

don't
shirt
where
you eat

 

[Michael_ Gee]

But you let the Herald know what you were doing beforehand, I'm guessing? Did this guy do that? Or at least mention to his editors the possibility? If he just did this without checking, dumb.

Was not at a Lee paper, but an earlier stop, had a reporter whose mother lived 30-40 miles from the site of the state American Legion tournament. Every year a local team made state, he'd stay there instead of making a last-minute hotel reservation for an indefinite stay. Worked out well.

heck, the Herald not only knew, they thought it was a terrific idea.

 

[Lt.Drebin]

Sign of the current state of the industry: I was a sportswriter at this paper as recently as a decade ago. There were 8 full-time guys in the sports department then. Now there is a grand total of…

One.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

The fact that they'd sack one of their two sports people makes me think they felt pretty strongly about the need to fire him.

Also - isn't this the place where they had a sports person working a desk shift who keeled over and died at his desk between editions?

 

[Batman]

I'd like to know what he meant by being told to cover it remotely? What was to be involved with that? And more importantly, why was he asked to do that? Was he supposed to be covering something else in person, and therefore, "remotely" was as good as his paper was going to do for the first couple days of the track meet? Or what?

Barring other responsibilities and not knowing anything else but what was tweeted, I would guess that this was more about doing the in-person coverage on the reporter's own time than it was about doing it on his own dime. Could the paper, like Walmart, not want you working when you're not on the clock -- or at least, you were not supposed to be on the clock?

And, like mpcincal, I'd like to know what just had to be covered in person in the first two days of a track meet? Been a while since I covered any track, and I never loved it like some real track fans do, so perhaps I'm not remembering things well. But wouldn't that have been likely to be just the qualifiers anyway?

I think we're missing something...

Our state splits the state meet into two days. The private school association does field events on Friday and running events on Saturday. The public school association does three of the six classifications on Friday and the other three on Saturday. The two meets are at schools about 10 minutes apart, which has led me to run some races of my own to try and leave one and get back to the other in time for an event. There aren't any preliminaries in either association, just eight finalists in each event that were determined during a couple of rounds of postseason meets.

I wonder if this guy was fired for an overtime situation. Track meets, especially state meets, are notoriously long and while it's nice to be there (especially for pictures) it's not wholly necessary. Even if you're efficient and productive, the whole endeavor can be a giant time suck.
I can see them telling him not to go because they didn't want him to spend half of a 40-hour week driving a couple of hours to the meet and then sitting around doing nothing, when he could spend one or two hours at the office gathering the same information, making a few phone calls for quotes, and getting other work done. Then he goes anyway and turns in a 60-hour timecard that they're obligated to pay hundreds of dollars in overtime for.

 

[Songbird]

Plus, I feel like this whole thing smacked of a "look-at-me" kind of stunt, like he did it willingly knowing he would get canned for it, but thought his narrative would garner a whole bunch of sympathy.

I'd put 10 bucks on this theory.

 

[Col. Nathan R. Jessup]

I'd like to hear the newspaper's side of the story, but in the meantime, I'm pro-reporter here.

I get that he went against his employers' orders, as you've all pointed out, but if we are to believe him, then it was done in the best interest of the paper. Haven't we all gone above and beyond at some point to cover something? In an instance where we know better than our superiors? I know that when I've done something like that, I received a pat on the back and not my walking papers.

 

[Pilot]

It's not aggressively relevant to this exact scenario but I know a (small) newspaper guy who self-funds his way to both summer and Winter Olympics. I assume he has his boss's permission, though.

I paid my way to cover a BCS-level bowl game when I was still in school and stringing for a big local paper. They had a team there… I basically paid my way to be a part of it?

I don't know. I definitely developed that "if they won't pay for it, fork em. They don't get coverage" attitude but that bowl game was my first assignment for that paper. I got the shirt assignments but straight forking stumbled into a really big story. Never worked full time for them but the place was very important to the start of my career. Not sure I regret going.

I've covered the Olympics twice on the company dime from a smaller paper. I loved every second and it was very good for my career. Not sure I'd pay for that honor but I'm also not sure Id shirt on someone who did.

 

[Screwball]

UNIONIZE YOUR NEWSROOMS!

Management loves to say how unions can't guarantee you a raise. Maybe not. But, if this is as the OP states, with no other disciplinary history, a good union contract would have averted this outcome.