Background: local Florida reporter for the News-Press goes to Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, says a lot of rude things about it on Facebook, gets canned for it. So, here’s how it looks to me, after the fact:
- On the one hand, when I say ‘rude things’ I mean ‘really rude things.’ The guy clearly came to the event spoiling for a fight, or at least for something that could be usefully filmed; and he didn’t seem to find any that could be documented. In fact, the guy’s accusations of racism and horrible behavior is not backed up by his former newspaper’s own reporting. Which is undoubtedly why the guy was fired by the News-Press; he was saying stuff in public that was actually calling into question the newspaper’s professional ethics.
- On the other hand: this isn’t really a story about reporters hating Chick-fil-A: it’s a story about whether the stuff that you post as a private individual should impact your employment status. In this case, there was sufficient provocation: the guy was essentially saying that his own paper was lying about the event, and he got caught doing it*. But what would have happened if the reporter hadn’t lied? If, instead, he had simply used his personal site to be a hate-ridden bigot who wasn’t making false accusations? Would he still have gotten fired? …Maybe; and I have to say, I have a certain inclination towards allowing people to be schmucks on their own time.
- On the gripping hand: if we’re firing people, can we somehow fire this godawful Lefty poet defending said schmuck? SCANSION. METER. RHYME. OUR ANCESTORS DEVELOPED THEM FOR A REASON, SPARKY. LEARN IT. LIVE IT. LOVE IT.
OK, I’ve now gotten that out my system.
Moe Lane
I think it depends on your job. Certain job depend on people having a personal trust in you (reporter, politician) or liking you personally (celebrities, salemen) and in some jobs this does not matter as much (electrician, engineer). What some people do or post during their off hours matters more than others. If I, as an engineer, have a blog filled with pictures of sexy cheerleaders, no one cares. If I were a high school english teacher, suddenly it gets more notice. Different careers have an implied great scrutiny over your personal life. I can be fill my spare time with hate filled rants if I choose; a trusted reporter does not have that freedom. No one cares how often I work out in my spare time; how much Paul Ryan works out is national news and has some odd effect on his ability to be employed as VP. Rules are not equally applied.
“the guy was essentially saying that his own paper was lying about the event, and he got caught doing it”
That pretty much explains the firing. He made his paper look bad, he lied about a story. Perhaps he thought he was too valuable to fire and now knows differently.
You want lefties to use classic english? Your rules for language and poetry are elitist in nature and therefore will not be followed. The only defense is that he was never taught proper english in school.
@Cameron – there are a lot of folks, currently employed, who somehow think they are too valuable too fire.
I used to work around more of them, but they were proved wrong….
In the larger discussion – I think it also depends on your status. For example the CFO of some company that got canned for his anti-CF video.
If I’m paying some guy the big bucks as an executive of my company, I expect better judgement than posting a personal rant video of himself demeaning an hourly employee.
Now if he was the hourly employee, ranting at a well-paid honcho…well, there’s often a reason someone is hourly.