Electric Fishwrap

I just saw a link to this from Slashdot. Apparently a CNN producer, Chez Paziena, got fired from his job for having a blog. More specifically the opinions he expressed on his blog, even though he never wrote about his job.

He started a blog, Deus Ex Malcontent, to keep himself busy after surgery to remove a brain tumor. Chez had not seen an HR book until a month before he was approached to be fired:

I said that they can’t possibly expect CNN employees, en masse, to not engage in something as popular and timely as blogging if they don’t make themselves perfectly clear.

My HR rep’s response: “Well, as far as we know, you’re the only CNN employee who’s blogging under his own name.”

It took self-control I didn’t know I had to keep from laughing, considering that I could’ve named five people off the top of my head who blog without hiding their identities.

I really wonder how many smaller news orgs actually have rules on outside blogging. I’m pretty sure my bosses know I blog but they haven’t said anything. It’s not like I hide it. Other than that, I blog almost daily for a World of Warcraft guild site that I run. (but that’s not connected to my real name and if anything people would think know I’m weird instead of dangerous if they saw it).

Journalists are quick to point out the perks of their job. For me, that includes knowing things before others do, talking with high-profile people and poking my nose where it doesn’t belong.

But what about the bad side of journalism? Well… most people tend to sweep it under the rug. Now, thankfully there is a web site to vent our anger: AngryJournalist.com. You get to hear complaining from every angle: editors about reporters, reporters about editors, crappy pay, hours and benefits.

It’s all there in black and white. Even if you don’t post there, it’s good therapy to just read and know that other people have bad experiences too.

Tons of trades have had websites where they can vent their bad experiences, like tipthepizzaguy.com, bitterwaittress.com and any number of other groups if you just add “sucks” to the end of a search string.

Thought I’d toss a story on here that I wrote for the features section about Valentine’s Day. To get this, I went to the local college cafeteria and talked with students about their V-Day experiences. That was a hoot, and I wish I could’ve included them all. Everyone has such horrible memories about Valentine’s Day.

Enjoy the read. 

Also, I think this is the first time I’ve used first person that wasn’t in a column. Kudos to Bev Crichfield for help in brainstorming this story and for her editing suggestions.

The Spokesman Review is a paper that I’ve been watching closely because of it’s radical shift toward online media. They didn’t disappoint when a recent snowstorm hit the state. (Interstate 90, the main east-west drag, has been closed on and off for almost a week due to avalanche danger.) Among other things, they made a map for residents to post if they needed help or wanted to offer help.

I know from living in a few snowbound areas that communities really pull together to help their immediate neighbors. Even Loveland, Colo., where I used to live and report, had a volunteer snow shoveling squad who would get up in the wee hours and help people on a predetermined list to shovel out. The map brings this to new heights.

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Several journalism blogs have been buzzing about the latest social networking tool for journalists interested in multimedia: Wired Journalists. Of course I joined a few discussion groups after signing up. We’ll see how useful it is in the coming months.

Reporters at my paper spent a few grueling months last year looking into how global warming will impact our small corner of the world. The result was the Skagit Warming, an eight-part series (my contribution here).

The series won first place in the Pioneer Newspapers’ annual Recognizing Excellence award. I love group projects, so it was a lot of fun diving into this issue. My only regret is I didn’t produce multimedia for this project. I can’t complain, though, because right after I had concluded the reporting on this series, the editors started having me do audio for other stories I worked on. We’ll be ready for the next project.

Thank you to Meranda Watling for telling me the commenting was broken on my site. I’ve hopefully fixed it now and people should be able to post something without the hassle of registration. Time for me to catch up on my backed-up topics!