This is an unbelievable meltdown. Check out this story.
Arizona Republic Executive Editor Greg Burton sent a staffwide email Thursday lamenting a “divisive unionization effort” that had taken hold in his newsroom. But his email probably didn’t go far in restoring harmony.
Burton alleged that ”several employees, in pursuit of their goal of unionizing our newsroom, are tracking the comings and goings of a number of their co-workers” who don’t support the effort. Without elaborating on the allegation, Burton went on to tell the story of how a shady former detective he once reported on had entered his house and made a recording, as an illustration of the sort of scumbag who would surveil somebody.
Read the whole thing.
Some Thoughts:
Karma
Burton is falling victim to the tactics that reporters use all the time. He sent an email rant to the group and one of the reporters sent it to the Huffington post. Welcome to the party pal.
Burton is complaining that journalists are "tracking the comings and goings of their co-workers". Seriously Greg? What makes you think that your reporters are going to respect boundaries? Check out this Tweet from the Republic's Joshua Bowling
Bowling went to City Hall but didn't get a comment, so he WENT TO THE MAYOR'S HOUSE. He later pointed out that she lives in a gated community. So he got past the gate and knocked on the door. Where she....didn't comment.
Notice that this is a "Pinned Tweet". Joshua Bowling is proud of his actions and proud of this tweet. Note to Greg Burton. If this is the culture that you have established, then this is the culture that you have to live under. You can say all you want about your employees "tracking the comings and goings of their co-workers" but you have tolerated them tracking the comings and goings of everyone else so you shouldn't be surprised when they show up at their co-workers' doors.
Notice also that Greg Burton refused to comment to Huffington Post. He gave the ultra-lame excuse that he doesn't discuss personnel matters. Really? His email is not a "personnel matter".
Burton's unhinged rant about murderers, child molesters and his employees is fair game and he should either comment or not, but don't also lie and say that he won't comment because it's a "personnel matter."
Burton has obviously lost the trust of his colleagues and Gannett management can't be happy with the way he handled the issue.
He'll be gone by year end.
Rebekah Sanders
The Republic's Rebekah Sanders is quoted in the Huffington Post story. It would be logical to assume that she also supplied them with the email. She is the one who Tweeted the story to her followers. So far, there have been 67 retweets, but none of them are from Republic Reporters. This will be good test of character. We'll see who supports her. So far it looks like they are going to let her twist in the wind.
Twitter Accounts
I'm curious to see how the Republic responds to Rebekah's Tweet. Does Gannett consider these accounts to be personal? Former employees like Robert Leger seem to be using their old accounts. The reporters certainly treat the accounts like they are personal. I can't imagine that Gannett would sanction something like this:
It will be interesting to see if any of these players are here in six months.