Media: Firing and fisticuffs at local newspaper?
The following arrived in my inbox tonight. It’s unverified, so I’m running it as a blind item:
The [local GateHouse newspaper] is seeking a new editor. [Long-time local journalist's] tenure ended in a fistfight in the newsroom after he was fired for unknown reasons. [Police officers] were called after [the fired editor] was assaulted by another member of management after becoming belligerent. That place has plunged into unspeakable chaos.
I’ve been fired from five newspaper jobs, which actually is quite a lot. I’ve never been belligerent to the point of someone assaulting me. I did make one former boss cry.
And for those who are going to try to guess who and where in the comment section, all I ask if that you avoid libel.
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:39 am
Well, now I don’t feel so bad about being fired from ONE newspaper job.
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:03 am
DeWayne?
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:57 am
Nope, not me.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:00 am
One of the rules of blind items is that I can neither confirm nor deny. If I could … it wouldn’t be a blind item.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:47 am
Can we specify on which side of the river this incident occured?
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Well, we do know it’s a “HE” and not a “SHE”.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I know for a fact that it did not happen at the Journal Star.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
6¢ a share. That might make someone a bit angry….
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Dang, DeWayne! You were the FIRST one I thought of. You know how irrational you can be!
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:20 pm
It’s not the “biased journalist” that our new Congressman-elect mentions in his fund raising letter, is it?
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Who would that be Brian? Like Billy said he can’t confirm or deny but that doesn’t mean we can’t speculate.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Actual headline from the pjstar.com site:
O’Neill elected County Board vice chairman
What’s wrong with it? Well it could be that the entire article is about how O’Neill was elected the chairman.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:02 pm
The chaos ended yesterday. Things are peaceful, productive and orderly here now.
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:20 pm
BrianG, I read that to. Who is the “biased journalist” he refers to?
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:51 pm
“Unspeakable chaos?” hardly . . . and it wasn’t much of a fistfight seeing as all of one punch was thrown . . . whoever wrote that greatly exaggerated.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:57 pm
C’mon Actually and blahblablah, spill some details into our dreary little lives
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Well, Diane – it looks like you are hearing damage control from the folks at the paper. The publisher? The fisticuff thrower? Who knows? It’s ironic that they probably require anyone who posts a comment to their site to identify themselves, but are too cowardly to do so here. Bawhawhawhaw!
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:25 am
“The publisher? The fisticuff thrower?” nope . . . just a witness.
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:53 am
Diane,
How could you call me irrational?
Why I’m calm as a cucumber.
You know us guys with a calm exterior have calm deep waters inside too.
Why …
Excuse me a moment.
One of the voices in my head is saying something to me.
“You talkin’ to me?
“You talkin’ to me?
“You talkin’ to me?
“Then who the hell else are you talking… you talking to me? Well I’m the only one here.”
Pardon, that interruption. Like I was saying …
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:44 am
Location: Pekin Daily Times Person doing the firing: Publisher Greg – AKA “Ratfink” Person fired: Editor Rick Reason: UNK, could be bad firey personality, economic woes of Gatehouse, cut costs, employees going union Witness to firing: UNK, could be HR Mike After firing: Much cursing by Rick, object thrown, words to Rick by HR Mike, Mike struck by one punch by Rick, PJS HR person called in to sort things out and Pekin Police notified, witnesses questioned by police, etc.etc.etc. And a fun time was had by all.
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:54 am
The incident took place in the Tazewell County seat. The newspaper has its building for sale. This should offer real clues to where.
Sounds like someone may have to go to court for busting the ex-editor.
Plus the puncher (not the sissy publisher) broke his hand.
From what I hear, many wish the back stabbing female who will take over was the one punched.
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:07 am
OMG! I suspected it might be them all along. I wonder who got to write up the police brief on this…
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
My guess is, if the publisher’s thug is charged with battery, the publisher will withhold said brief from the paper.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I once led off the police blotter with an item about the wife of the former editor getting busted for somepetty crime. I didn’t bother to tip off the current editor OR the publisher. This way, they wouldn’;thave an opportunity to embarass themselveswith a bad decision.
Regarding, the CURRENT situation, I’m seeting nothing on the newspaper’s Website about any personnel changes, nor about any arrest within their own place of business.
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:54 pm
This is why blogging isn’t much more than faux-journalistic masturbation for guys who can’t get any of the real thing. I’m laughing at the way you made fun of the JS for its errors yet this blog’s accuracy standards are so low any real newspaper or even TV station would fire anybody with such lax standards. Wrong so far: 1. No chaos except during the incident. 2. Belligerent was the wrong word, baby. Maybe “psycho”. Yeah, psycho. 3. Punch went to fired individual; fired individual did not punch. 4. Puncher did not break his hand. 5. There were no back-stabbers at the paper, female or male, that I know of. There were, however, many who had reported more than once that the punchee had abused them. Some people quit because they couldn’t take his abuse. 6. There is not anybody designated to take over at this time. The job hasn’t been offered to anybody or even advertised that I know of. 7. There is no police brief to be written, because there have so far been no arrests. There has, however, been talk of everybody chipping in bail money for the puncher if that changes. 8. The thug in this case was not the puncher but the punchee. It might be nice if everybody could just sit down over a nice cup of tea and work things out like nice little ladies but like the song goes, “Sometimes you have to fight when you’re a man” and one of those times when a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do is when a whole roomfulla people are terrified because the guy they’re already scared of is more out of control than they’ve ever seen him, and they’ve seen him out of control pretty fookin’ often. Any of you little girls who have a problem with confronting a bully with a good punch better hope a less-civilized man is nearby if you’re ever in danger. Sometimes we are good for more than just one thing, you know. I only wish I’d been in the room. He’da been hit by two guys. And then it woulda been true that somebody broke his hand.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:06 pm
This blog might not live up to the standards of the Pekin Times, but at least I know how to use paragraphs.
Thanks for the input.
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Pete says “This whole blog thing is ridiculous and no one should put any weight to anything written on a low-life blog, but let me go ahead and spill my guts about what happened and add my 2 cents.”
Hmm, hypocrite maybe?
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Wow, Pete must work in the newsroom, then?? Or at least he used to? One thing is for sure, there’s all kinds of trouble a brewin’ between those four walls under the rule of the current publisher. How long will he keep HIS job? Tick…tick..tick
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Rick Wade fired from the Pekin Daily Times and then subsequently involved in fisticuffs. Knock me over with a feather.
Oh crap … maybe he’ll start haunting my blog again (when I resume regular blogging, that is). Good ol’ Rick could pose some serious competition to Vonster for the Troll of the Century award.
December 4th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Holy Shit!!!
I love the newspaper business.
December 4th, 2008 at 12:17 am
Anyone who knows the wrath of Wade knows that many of the details described above may just be true. It’s a shame that he was fired. He is a good journalist and editor. If I had to guess, I would say the burden of the blame goes on the shoulders of the six-cent, barely breathing, 7 million pound, mangy and dying gorilla we all know as GATEHOUSE MEDIA. That company has destroyed community journalism. That company has destroyed lives.
December 4th, 2008 at 12:19 am
You never know what you are going to see in a newsroom. The business attracts people with odd quirks and behaviors. Reporters are intense people, usually fairly intelligent. I don’t miss the stress, but I miss hanging out in newsrooms.
December 4th, 2008 at 12:52 am
What’s going on at that place? Possible criminal charges to management on top of possible labor board charges? How big a pile of doo-doo do they intend to step in?
December 4th, 2008 at 1:23 am
P., I gotta agree. I worked there when Gatehouse’s predecessor (Liberty) owned the place, and they were trouble then. In spite of all obstacles, however, the staff busted their butts to produce the best paper they could. This was not easy to do with a full-time staff of only 3 reporters (sometimes reduced to 2 or even 1 in time of sickness, family emergencies, etc.), yet the corporate bean counters still deemed us to be “overstaffed.”
December 5th, 2008 at 12:36 am
[...] this week, I received an anonymous tip that Pekin Times editor Rick Wade has left this paper. I published it as a blind item. Commenters claiming inside information verified it was Wade who lost his job, although some of the [...]
December 28th, 2008 at 9:03 am
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