Reinstate Melinda Burns...
Got this from a reader -- will it be effective? I signed it just in case....
I have just read and signed the petition: "Reinstate Melinda Burns"
If you are concerned about the direction of the News-Press and its continuing practices of firing its best writers, please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition.
It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference. We are trying to reach 1,000 signatures - please sign here:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/476908817
Once you have signed, you can help even more by asking your friends and family to sign as well.
Thank you!
http://www.thePetitionSite.com
posted by Sara De la Guerra | 11/10/2006 09:48:00 PM
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18 Comments:
In this world, who knows what helps, who knows what makes a difference?
I signed because of 3 reasons:
1. It was fast and easy
2. It was the right thing to do
3. The well-known "chicken soup effect" - "It couldn't hurt."
Sara, thanks for posting this. I hope that others will not only sign but send emails to their friends inviting them to sign too.
Working together, maybe we can get our community paper back.
Did you see that the News-Press put part of its termination letter to Melinda Burns in a press release?
Friday Night News-Release
Freedom is slavery.
Actually, here is the correct link
Let's have a petition to reinstate me as well.
Oooh, this time I want a corner office with a window.
I didn't sign the Burns petition for three reasons:
1. Who's Melinda Burns? How does this affect my mortgage?
2. The game is on TV.
3. Mike Pinto told me to do it. Chez Geuvarra! CAPS LOCK!
I signed for 3 reasons:
1. I'm a lemming.
2. I'm president of the John Cougar Mellencamp Fan Club.
3. Once I applied for a job at the News-Press, but they didn't hire me.
A petition would be much more effective if words like "Papre", "Dessemination", and even "teh" were spelled correctly (click the "See Full Petition" link under the signature counter to see what I mean).
The News-Press folks have to be laughing their heads off at something like this.
By attacking Melinda unfairly and weirdly the night before the Biltmore "achievement" dinner, McCaw and Neville ensured that the candlelight vigil will be sold out.
Wendy and bed mate are frightened about the candlelight vigil tonight and want to get their licks in first by libeling Melinda. After firing her and, now, stomping on her professionally, they’ll probably sue her, as they have Jerry, Michael and Nick.
Wendy and Arthur don’t know their way around our newsroom, but they do know their way around a Biltmore dinner. It has been her life and his profession. Wine, food, café chit chat – a von Porkburger kind of event. They attach outsized importance to soup at the right temperature, but continue to miss the big picture, as the gross attack on Melinda yesterday evening shows. That attack will fuel the whispers around the tables tonight. They’ve become two of the most reviled people in Santa Barbara. If anyone should be terminated for bias, it’s them. It’s amazing that Thomas, Jurkowitz and McCune accepted the awards—must be the other business and social connections.
i appriciate your work , you are brininging people's mind on such important issue
The release on a national business wire of an ex-employee's confidential personnel records -- where the former employee has a clear expectation of privacy -- shows that McCaw is plainly out of control. Is it menopause or a "Howard Hughes losing it mentally in the tower" type of deal? Can other newspaper employees who cross her by supporting a union to protect themselves from her whims expect the same treatment as Melinda? Is that the method to the McCaw Madness? Whatever the explanation, McCaw is becoming the best thing to happen to plaintiff's lawyers in Santa Barbara since the oil spill. Where's "co-publisher" Neville in all of this? He talks tough on this blog, but, inside, with Wendy, is he a complete whimp who can't risk losing the golden gravy train?
I'm constantly amazed at people's rush to do whatever feels good. I don't know her personally and don't know enough about her work history or work product to form a solid opinion.
I do know that the Newspress has a history of some very shoddy reporting, so I'm not shedding any tears over the shake up.
I do know that the Teamster are bad ju-ju (to be polite) and would stay a million miles away from them. (Personal history and experience talking.) If I owned anything where the Teamster wanted to take root, I'd close it first.
Let's face it, newspapers are dying nation-wide with huge personnel cut-backs and such. If the Teamster want in a non-union shop, then strikes and higher labor costs will surely follow. Thus, making a dying industry less profitable than it is already.
Bottomline for me is that McCaw owns the paper, so that gives her a lot of rights to determine the direction it takes. Also, it gives the consumer the right to judge whether or not her judgment is correct, through their readership.
I know this is heresy here, but reporters like Barney Brantingham (I know, he’s now a columnist), charming iconoclast he may be (or not), are second rate at best, as a former journalist, I’m always amazed that he hung around a long as he has. Maybe he did good work in the 60’s and 70’s, I don’t know, but I do know that his work from the 80’s and on was sub par at best. I don’t blame McCaw for wanting to clean house.
QUOTE: It’s amazing that Thomas, Jurkowitz and McCune accepted the awards—must be the other business and social connections.
Or, perhaps, maybe the rich really are different.
"I'm constantly amazed at people's rush to do whatever feels good."
But never at you're own uninformed generalizations, eh? Here's a clue: people who are constantly surprised by events are stupid.
This is just a game for the ubber rich. People need to realize that and move on. Not demand their jobs back.
Anyone who knows Melinda Burns, that is, has her bio and photo, should submit her feature series on the Mixtec and Santa Maria for a Pulitzer prize in journalism.
Here's the address of how to do it. The story and the accompanying News-Press photo exhibit at the County building are definitely worth it!
Oh, TS, I’m hurt. Stoopid, sniff, sniff…. Oh, the pain, oh the agony….. Oh, well, I….must….over….come. Okay I’m better now. ;-)
City Watcher, I’ve read the story and am aware of the award and I congratulate her for it. However, the Pulitzer can be veerrry political and that CAN taint it; plus, a single award does not a body of work and/or career make.
When I said I was not familiar with her work history, I mean, I do not know about her intimate personnel (NOT personal) details, nor does anyone here and never will. For example: was she lazy in pursuing stories? Did she get reprimanded by her editor for politicizing stories? Did she fail fact checking in some of her stories? Etc. There’s a whole host of things that could have factored into it.
Now I am not accusing her of any of these things at all, but the point is; we’ll never know and should never know because it is personal and personnel (related).
That petition is a meaningless joke.
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