Reporter fired for reporting

[PaperClip529]

This thread seems to have generated some buzz on Twitter. I hate to see anybody lose a job, but am I the only person who thinks that this newspaper in Iowa had a legitimate reason to fire this reporter?

 

[DanOregon]

It might have been a situation that they needed him to stay local to be available for something else. But yeah, seems like he was insubordinate.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Not sure what he thinks those tweets are going to accomplish.

 

[FileNotFound]

I mean, maybe they could have suspended him or something, but he was told to cover it remotely, and the way it's written in his tweets, it wasn't like "Hey, if you can find a place to stay for free, go ahead and go." Maybe it's because of COVID or maybe they needed him to stay local, but either way, he didn't follow directions, so some sort of repercussion was gonna happen.

 

[ChrisLong]

I think Petaros is wrong for a couple of reasons.
Boss tells you to do something, you do something else. That is bad. It might have been different had he asked the boss if he could go if it didn't cost the paper anything.
You should NEVER do anything on your own dime. What happens when the next guy is in the same situation and the boss says that last year, they covered it at no cost to the paper. So Petaros is screwing the guy who follows him on the job.

 

[The Big Ragu]

You shouldn't do it on your own dime because work expenses should be covered by. ... well, work. It has nothing to do with the next guy. If they aren't going to pay for it, I personally don't get using your own money.

That said. ... if that is how he wants to spend his money, that's his choice. Even if I don't get it. I'm just wondering if his tweet narrative is the real story or the whole story or if the person who fired him might have a different spin or reason for it. Them calling him to cover something else, for example, and him not being local.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

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.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Lee sucks ass, there's no disputing that.

But he forked up big-time. He went straight against what he was told to do by the people who sign his paycheck. Zero sympathy.

A couple of other things come to mind ...

1. Being fired for subordination means the paper could contest any unemployment claims, no? That could really screw him.

2. Going public like this and admitting he went straight against his bosses' wishes probably isn't going to make him seem as attractive to other employers as he thinks it will.

3. From a Google search, the state track meet in Iowa was a month ago. It probably shouldn't take that long for this to shake out the way it did. I'm wondering if there's (a lot) more to this story than he included in these tweets?

 

[playthrough]

Raise your hand if you covered something off the clock or on a discount or whatever, when you were just starting out and you wanted a clip. I covered a couple SEC football games for nothing at my first paper, because the gig sounded awesome and I wanted to say I did. Would I do it now for free? Of course not. The twist here is that supposedly his employer specifically told him not to, but we all know that a lot of them would just shrug their shoulders and take the stories. I also agree that there could be something more to this that we're not getting.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Valid point.

Not sure what story would qualify for wanting a clip bad enough to go against your boss' directions, out of the first 2 days of state track and field, for a guy with (at least) 13 years experience there.

But that may be Monday Morning Quarterbacking.

 

[mpcincal]

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.