On Sept. 12, 2007, I was fired after 14 unblemished years at the newspaper. Why? Officially, because a local teacher about whom I had favorably columnized stood before the school board in a fit of acute indiscretion and shared a personal email from me. One month before, the publisher had killed my column, and the next day I wrote the teacher, attributing the column’s cancellation to the same “tentacles” of local power that had denied her – one of the county’s premier advanced biology teachers – a position at the new high school which replaced Beall High, where she had worked her entire 30-year career.
But it wasn’t really because of my email that I was fired. It was because the publisher didn’t like what I wrote. And while most newspapers promote debate and would welcome a column that drew a response like mine, I was muzzled. Then fired.
I began writing an essay on the matter two days after they killed my column, to channel my columnary juices, maintain an already-precarious grip on sanity, and spark revolution.
I sought to mount a coup with my work, my "Indictment," to demonstrate to peers through publication in Editor & Publisher or Columbia Journalism Review, that the publisher violated sound business principles in killing popular features and, more egregiously, suppressed and manipulated the news to the favor of a growing legion of close personal friends who told him what to think. And do.
It was a case 10 years in the making. And I was to bet my career and home on its success. If the essay actually made a national journal, I would resign just prior to publication and hope that industry pressure would compel the corporate parent to investigate the situation.
I finished the essay the night of Sept. 11. Earlier that evening, unbeknownst to me, Vicki Knieriem had stood before the school board and read verbatim my email of the previous month. The next day Managing Editor Jan Alderton hauled me downstairs and said that because of my writing the email the newspaper’s reputation was “in the gutter.” He coldly informed me I was “terminated immediately.”
It took me a few hours to pack up and to say my goodbyes. I was a zombie; my coworkers were stunned silent. Just before leaving, I sent Jan a final email: “In the quiet of your heart where truth resides, I would hope you recognize that it wasn’t my email or Vicki Knieriem’s reading it that left the reputation of the Cumberland Times-News ‘in the gutter.’ It was the editorial policies of this newspaper.”
The story follows at the "Indictment" tab to the right. I over-nighted it and backup materials to CNHI executives the day after I was fired, but have heard nothing from them in the weeks since. I hope you’ll give it a read…
"Sunset by the Sea," My Last Column
An Indictment
How the publisher of the
Cumberland Times-News is failing the citizens of
Western Maryland and the paper's corporate owner.
WCBC Interview
Listen to my interview with Dave Norman of
WCBC Radio, Cumberland, on Sept. 26, 2007.
The Knieriem Column
The Infamous Email - A Terminal Offense?
As part of an exchange about a letter to the editor she had written, I sent the following email to Vikki Knieriem, an advanced biology teacher and science department head at Beall High who was denied a position at the new Mountain Ridge High School--which replaced Beall--after teaching there nearly 30 years. She was transferred to the county’s Center for Career and Technical Education where she now teaches chemistry, a subject she had never taught. The email was written Friday, Aug. 10, 2007, the day after I learned that the publisher had killed my weekly column. Knieriem read the email at the Sept. 11 meeting of the Allegany County Board of Education. The next day, I was fired.
Vicki, Thanks for making the cuts. I had to trim it a bit more to fit, but not that much. It's on the page for Tuesday. The tentacles of the gold ol boy network reach far. The publisher canned my column yesterday. I think it was a threat to the same good ol boy network that you're confronting. The tentacles reach far and wide back here. Hopefully someday it will all be exposed, and shrivel and die in the light that chases shadow. May we both live long enough to see it. We'll have a beer together!! I'm still on the editorial page - for now - so can help with any future letters, etc. I will miss my column tho. Take care. Keep fighting. . . Dick
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"We’ve done our job if readers never think about the corporate leadership.” --CNHI CEO Donna Barrett, quoted in the Traverse City, Mich. Record-Eagle upon the company’s assuming ownership of the newspaper in January, 2007. By Barrett’s definition, CNHI has not done its job in Cumberland. Despite appeals from numerous readers to investigate the Times-News under Publisher Ronald Monahan, Birmingham has issued naught but “No Comment.” Contact CNHI. Ask them to investigate the charges I lodge in The Indictment. CEO Donna Barrett: Dbarrett@cnhi.com Group Publisher Jim Hyatt (Monohan’s supervisor): hyatt@cnhi.com Bill Ketter: CNHI VP of Editorial: wketter@cnhi.com |