Newspaper Fires Reporter for Showing Mild Sense of Enthusiasm

[Jaybird180]

I just had to click the story, and got a little hilarity.

http://www.komonews.com/news/va?vaid=c9f3cd8104691cfdc3da6a524e587cc3]

Khristopher J. Brooks is a young reporter who was excited to be hired by the Delaware News-Journal last week. In a playful little gesture, he wrote up a fake "press release" on his own personal Tumblr announcing, "On Wednesday April 4, 2012, the News Journal Media Group acquired veteran education reporter Khristopher J. Brooks." He included some quotes about his career and background on the paper itself. For this, he was immediately fired, because NEWSPAPER WORK MUST NEVER BE FUN.
I defy any reasonable, well-balanced human to find something objectionable in what Khristopher Brooks wrote. Romenesko posted Brooks' mock press release yesterday; by the end of the day, Brooks had been fired "for improper use of the newspaper's logo on his personal sites, and for using executive editor David Ledford's hiring-letter quotes in his press release."
Well, that's what happens when you go to work for the top secret U.S. Delta Force. Oh, sorry, no—it was actually a newspaper. He'd been hired at a newspaper. My mistake. God forbid a newspaper editor's "hiring-letter quotes" get out into the world at large. That could almost be construed as news. And god forbid anyone see a newspaper's logo on the internet. That could, theoretically, lead someone to read this newspaper. That's an immediate firing offense. And happiness, about being hired into the newspaper industry? Sign of mental instability. Fire him at once.
Khristopher, try to see it as a blessing in disguise. You would have been working for a fool.

Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise

 

[steingar]

Sound journalists don't like to be associated with falsehoods. I wouldn't mind seeing that attitude a little more prevalent these days...

 

[Jaybird180]

Sound journalists don't like to be associated with falsehoods....

Hmmmm I see your point, but to quote the HBO movie Tuskegee Airmen, "It was simple youthful exuberance Colonel!"

 

[Mike Smith]

I'd just like to find some "sound" journalist.....pehaps that is the oxymoron of the day.

 

[PW_Plack]

This is a big deal for newspapers. About all they have left is their brand, and it probably touches an especially raw nerve to see their logo misappropriated by a blogger. Bonus points on top of it for using parts of the letter, not only without permission, but probably in violation of stated company policy.

There's also the issue of judgment in cases involving intellectual property. If he crossed the line while in the newspaper's employ, he could put the organization in hot water.

Mr. Brooks made a dumb, beginner mistake. Hopefully he'll learn from it and move on.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Yeah- it was a dumb, beginner mistake. Depending on how the discussion with his boss went (attitude, etc), getting fired may have been a bit harsh.