Don't Read All About It
If you're a Seattle Times subscriber, you haven't read about this in the newspaper at your doorstep. But the Times itself has been making news on a popular media Website, Romenesko. Yesterday it was the overreaction to editor Dave Boardman's overreaction to a few staffers who happened to cheer out loud when word of Karl Rove's planned departure hit the newsroom: Boardman lectured them when a well-cocked eyebrow might have done the trick. (The modern Times envisions its newsroom as a temple of thoughtful ethics rather than a Big Top of human nature, and free-spirited outbursts are frowned upon; that's what makes the paper such a lively read, cough). Meanwhile, today on Romenesko, Times reporter Eric Pryne jumps all over Crosscut.com's Bill Richards for claiming the Blethen paper was ignoring a big story about its own finances. Richards (who earlier worked for the Times and SWeekly) reported Wednesday that the McClatchy Co.'s minority stake in the Times has lost 68% of its value in 18 months. Says Pryne in a letter to Romenesko: "his charge that the Times news staff is giving the company a pass is groundless and self-serving. Before we start throwing numbers around, we like to know what they mean." OK, sounds like a story. When will readers of the Times (where—full disclosure—I once worked) get to read it?
5 comment(s)
GoogleGirl says:
Aren\'t we just talking about human nature? Goodness, is the Times that overbearing that people can\'t good-naturedly express themselves?
Posted On: Thursday, Aug. 16 2007 @ 7:01PM
Crossreader says:
FYI, Richards answers Pryne on crosscut.com today, explaining his thinking and saying that whatever the story, it still hasn\'t been in the Times.
Posted On: Thursday, Aug. 16 2007 @ 7:51PM
Reader says:
Prepare to barf if you read Brodeur\'s column in the Times today. It\'s pitiful me-too-ism in which she tries to jump into the national light, outing herself as one who laughed in the newsroom - God forbid, a columnist reacting! - and then APOLOGIZES for it. In journalism\'s annuls, there\'ll be Woodward and Bernstein from the Washington Post and Brodeur and Boardman from the Weenieville Times.
Posted On: Friday, Aug. 17 2007 @ 7:57AM
Rick A says:
Well, she says she cheered, not laughed. It\'s P-I writers who are laughing, among others. A P-I reporter tells me \"Where else but the Times newsroom is it inappropriate to react to news?\"
Posted On: Friday, Aug. 17 2007 @ 8:18AM
Amen says:
Having worked for the Times, I believe half that newsroom is on Zoloft. So getting a \"cheer\" out of them? Now, that is worthy of all the attention this incident is getting. Zombies move, they react - who knew?
Posted On: Friday, Aug. 17 2007 @ 6:17PM