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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Tim Blair: How To Avoid Being Fired for Blogging |
| 2008-02-15 |
| In which the mighty Aussie wordsmith analyzes the firing of CNN producer Chez Pazienza. Step One: Does your employer have a policy that might prohibit blogging? Check to make sure! For example, this could indicate trouble ahead for the would-be online commentator: "CNN has a policy that says employees must first get permission to write for a non-CNN outlet." If your employer's policy is unclear to you, it's best to ask a superior or someone fluent in English for further explanation rather than waiting until you're unemployed then claiming you were fired "because of your views". Step two: Let's say you're a wild, reckless, egomaniacal type who doesn't care for rules and runs a 167-word biography about yourself on the front page of your site announcing, among other things, that you're a "nuisance to authority figures". No way are you going to ask permission to write for non-CNN sources! To hell with you, corporate media! But be careful; those big CNN dollars might stop rolling in if you fail to post anonymously. Otherwise, CNN is likely to be troubled by a senior producer at a vanilla deal like American Morning writing the following: We've come to understand that Bush has the IQ of a lemon and accept that he'll never be able to approach any situation, no matter how significant, with anything but the most rudimentary of motor skills. He's a dumb, lumbering jackass, and we know it. And this: I was never one of those people who believed that Condi Rice was a genius to begin with, despite a doctorate and her admittedly masterful skill at concealing her secret life as a hardcore lesbian ... Lines like these might lead to workplace tension. Step Three: Don't post pictures of yourself looking like you've just eaten the planet's entire supply of smug. This won't necessarily stop you getting fired, but it might stop a few people being happy about it. Some additional information, courtesy of NewsBusters: Pazienza not only blogged on his own site in defiance of his terms of employment with CNN, he also became a regular contributor (presumably, a paid one) at the Huffasuffaluffagus Post. If the content of his blog is any guide, Mr. Patienza is a talented writer with a fine turn of phrase -- but also a raging antireligious bigot with terminal BDS. Given CNN's ideological leanings, he probably fit right in. There's no reasonable doubt he got canned for breach of contract, not for his views. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #2 after an operation to remove a brain tumor unusual in that they asked a proctologist to do the surgery |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-02-15 18:52 |
| #1 Mr. Pazienza said he started his blog in May 2006 as a way to keep his mind occupied while he was on a medical leave of several months after an operation to remove a brain tumor. Might explain the wild, reckless, egomaniacal behavior. Or it could be that he's naturally a jerk. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-02-15 17:46 |
