An Associated Press reporter’s official reprimand over an innocuous comment on his Facebook page has sparked the ire of union officials. They are now demanding that AP clarify its ethics guidelines and are also urging reporters to watch who they add to their friends lists.
“We have seen about six Facebook problems over the last two months, with employees — maybe managers you have as friends — reporting potential issues to management,” union guild chief Kevin Keane wrote in a memo to union members last week. “You must be careful who you allow on as friends.”
Richard Richtmyer, a Philadelphia-based newsman, set off Tuesday’s tempest with a seemingly harmless comment posted to his Facebook profile late last month criticizing the executive management of newspaper publisher McClatchy, whose stock plummeted following a 2006 acquisition of San Jose-based Knight Ridder.
“It seems like the ones who orchestrated the whole mess should be losing their jobs or getting pushed into smaller quarters,” Richtmyer wrote on May 28. “But they aren’t.”
McClatchy, like countless other newspaper publishers, happens to be a member of the AP’s newsgathering cooperative. Had the comment been uttered in real life, it likely would have dissipated into the rank air of a Philly journo bar. But Richtmyer had some 51 AP colleagues as Facebook friends, some of them higher up in the AP food chain. One turned out to be a “mole” — Richtmyer’s description — and the reporter was given a firm talking-to by AP management, who put a reprimand letter in his employment file.
Richtmyer's comment about McClatchy's corporate management is one of the mildest criticisms about McClatchy's management I've heard. Jeez.
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8 comments:
Boy, the MNI Marxists, must seethe with hatred for your site, that ironically, speaks the Real, "Truth to power"
McClatchy management can't take the joke - themselves.
To all of the MNI management or others who seem to enjoy trolling this site: Perhaps your time would be better spent improving your company (such as it is) instead of playing Gladys Cravitz.
The only harm to MNI is done by the idiots who dare to call themselves competent and yet who always seem to remain employed.
MNI management has no idea how to increase revenue. Even with debt elimination MNI is about to be swallowed by the internet. Outsource corporate and let the papers live or die on their own.
MNI management has no idea how to increase revenue.
We do too! We're selling Obama memorabilia, selling parking lots and lobbying our friends in government to give us monopoly rights so we can force you to buy our word.
We might even try to force you to give us tax dollars to increase our revenues, so you better write nice things about us.
You should apologize and send us money for this rebuttal.
I reported this to you yesterday.
Takes you a whole day and you only report on what other sites say.
Question for AP execs: I guess you don't support the principle of free speech for your own employees. Gutless and pathetic. You should leave the profession if you can't support freedom and the right of journalists to express themselves.
2:09 I try to read every comment but sometimes I miss a few here and there!
Here's a tip: You will stand out more if you ID yourself instead of posting as "Anonymous."
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