By Gregory Favre
When is enough, enough?
Or too much?
Just when do you pack up your things and leave rather than blink on a matter of core principle?
Those were the questions facing Executive Editor Jerry Roberts and some of his colleagues at the
Santa Barbara (Calif.) News-Press. And, as we know now,
the answer came for them in early July, when Roberts, four other top editors and a columnist who had been with the paper for 46 years resigned. (
Since then, one other editor, a reporter and a copy editor have also left the paper.)
We've read of some of the reasons they gave for their decision: Wendy McCaw, who bought the
News-Press from the
New York Times Co. in 2000,
sought special consideration for stories on subjects near and dear to her. They said she demaded better treatment for the restaurant reviews written by her fiance; that she killed a short story about the sentencing of Travis Armstrong, the editorial page editor, for a DUI; and that she reprimanded editors and reporters after the paper published the address of actor Rob Lowe in a development story. The final blow: Armstrong was named interim publisher and would oversee the news operation.
McCaw, who reportedly is vacationing somewhere overseas on her yacht, responded with
a front-page note to readers, blaming "disgruntled ex-employees." She wrote that they are "attempting to make this situation appear something other than what it is." She claimed that news articles had become opinion pieces, reporting had gone unchecked and the paper was being used as a personal arena to air petty infighting by the editors.
There has been much more said on both sides of this turmoil, as well as
demonstrations in the streets surrounding the newspaper office.
News-Press reporters say they have been forbidden to speak about what's going on and some have appeared with duct tape over their mouths. There have been
many stories and columns written about the issue, in print and on the Web.
In fact, one headline caught my eye:
To Stand on Principle Might Require a Superhero.
A superhero?
It's certainly not easy to walk away from a job you love, from a staff you have helped build and have led through good and bad days, from a community and readers you have come to know and appreciate.
It's even harder to go home and ask your family to share this burden, knowing that another move is coming, especially if there are children involved.
And then there are the moments of fear. You don't wait, when you quit over a matter of principle, until you have another job in your pocket. You just do it. What if you can't find another job? What will other potential employers think of you? How are you going to pay the bills? Regardless of your level of self-confidence, those thoughts creep into your mind.
But doing what you believe is right, being unwiling to toss out those unbreakable core values and principles, doesn't take a superhero.
I know. I did it twice. And there was a third time when I was booted out because there was no way we were going to reach an acceptable compromise on our differences.
I'm no superhero. Not even a plain one; just someone who believes strongly that there isn't a job in our business worth surrendering your most basic and most deeply ingrained beliefs.
Each time, it hurt me, my family, my friends. It hurt badly. And I know Jerry Roberts and his colleagues are hurting. I can truly say that I feel their pain.
But I hope that they have someone like my dear friend
Gene Patterson, the retired president and editor of the
St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, who also won a
Pulitzer Prize for columns written at the
Atlanta Constitution.
I found a telegram on my desk the morning after it had been announced that I had resigned from my first top editing job.
It was a simple, but joyful, message from Gene: "You will always have a job in St. Petersburg." I didn't end up there, but I can't express what that offer meant. Sadly, there aren't many Gene Pattersons left running newspaper companies.
I don't know Wendy McCaw. She spent about $100 million or so buying the
News-Press. And she hired Roberts, who had been a respected editor at the
San Francisco Chronicle for years. Her goal, she said, was to publish a quality local newspaper.
Certainly, that investment gives her the right to make decisions. But if you feel strongly, as I do, that being a journalist is a great gift, then no one -- owners, publishers, editors, reporters, visual journalists, none of us -- has the right to mess it up. Not even $100 million earns you that right. And playing loose with our values is messy.
Readers in Santa Barbara deserve better.
Journalists love nothing better than reporting on other journalists, and...
