How Do You Fire a New York Times reporter?

[kurth]

How Do You Fire a New York Times reporter?
Could Judy Miller get the ax?
By Daniel Engber

New York Times columnists Maureen Dowd and Byron Calame lashed out at their colleague Judith Miller over the weekend. Some have even called for her dismissal from the newspaper on account of her role in the Valerie Plame affair. How does the Times go about firing someone?

For the most part, they don't. Most Times staffers enjoy the protection of their union contract, which makes dismissal a complicated, drawn-out process. Last year, deposed Executive Editor Howell Raines claimed that "would-be staff members get tenure for life" as a result of the procedures mandated by the union contract. (Raines was himself fired in 2003; as a member of management he didn't qualify for union membership.)...

The Times almost never fires its permanent staff employees. (Freelancers and contract writers get the ax more often.) Two staffers got canned earlier this year, though. Former Baghdad Bureau Chief Susan Sachs was let go when she allegedly told the wives of two foreign correspondents their husbands were having affairs. Photographer Nancy Siesel got fired for what her termination letter called a "repeated failure to comply with warnings and directives concerning job performance." Both Sachs and Siesel denied the charges against them, and both are awaiting arbitration.

What about the reporters who got canned in 2003? Technically, they all resigned. Jayson Blair and Lynette Holloway quit at the urging of their bosses. Rick Bragg's job wasn't covered by the union contract when he was caught allegedly misusing a stringer. (Some senior reporters and photographers get bigger salaries at the expense of union benefits, while some low-level editors are in the union.) The newspaper suspended him for two weeks, but he left of his own accord. "I am not enjoying the atmosphere and I am not enjoying the tension," he said...

http://www.slate.com/id/2128633

[marylanddem]

1. "Judy, could you step into my office for a moment...?" n/t

[sendero]

2. They don't have to fire her..

... it will be not that difficult to make her quit. Don't publish anything she writes. Have her editors kick every thing back with picayune complaints. Just make her life hell, she'll leave.


I thought she was on "indefinite leave of absence" anyway...

[Sal Minella]

6. But somehow she just keeps "drifting back......."

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. Assign her to the Obits

Make her write obits for every service member killed in Iraq.

[BillZBubb]

5. Great idea.

And make sure they are thorough and detailed too.

[Jacobin]

4. Stop sending a paycheck

Box up her personal items and mail them to Vail

[Crunchy Frog]

7. There must be 50 ways to fire your employee.

Sorry. It just doesn't seem that complicated.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

8. Move her desk to the basement

like they did to that one dude in "Office Space".

[Jacobin]

10. LOL

You made me spit coffee, remembering that guy!!!

:rofl:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

11. Although I don't enjoy ruining a good keyboard. I have have say

I'm pleased. :evilgrin:

[Jacobin]

13. "my swingline, my swingline.....

'you have my swingline'............then he burns the building down!!!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

14. Bwwwahaaaahaaaahaaa! If only they would have let him keep the red stapler.

[warrens]

9. I used to work for a company that transferred you

To the Westport office. Which was four empty offices with telephones and a telephone book. Nothing else.

Keller's memo was pretty much a firing. She will never come back now. Good riddance.

[leftofthedial]

12. kerosene and a match

[Rockholm]

15. I was gonna say gasoline! Ah, great minds.

Hey, maybe a blowtorch!

[Disturbed]

16. She has a fork in her ass.

The NYT is a disgrace and will do anything to distance themselves from her. She will get plenty of offers from RW rags, maybe even get a spot of Faux. She will make millions with a book and still be the darling of the RW and some of the misquided so called reporters that believe that she stood up for "protecting a source."

[cassiepriam]

17. Yep, she doesn't need the NYT any more. She is famous

and will do the Ollie North circuit, and make megabucks.
Here in American we love crooks.

[1932]

18. First, you have to let them use up their 1,000 lies without recourse limit