I wonder if the folks who ended your time at The Day ever had second thoughts about that assignment, the story you produced, and their reaction to it. Keep doing what you're doing to nail stuff down.
Love to see you here, Bill. I will share with my friends, many of whom are already your friends. I have been noodling to find an angle on my own Substack, in which I plan to focus on truth. Currently I am calling it the Noetic Cafe, but that is likely to change. I look forward to continuing to learn from you.
It was great gaining insight into your professional journey. Most interesting was the stance you took at a very young age, sticking with the story you uncovered. It must’ve been a very tense situation. Did you realize it could cost you your job? Was your story published?
Thanks, Kevin. I was surprised that the situation escalated to getting fired so quickly, but I learned later that were a couple of factors driving things. As Greg Stone reports in his book, the genesis of the story was a complaint from the admiral in charge of the Academy to the Day's publisher about critical coverage. The publisher ordered up what was supposed to be a favorable story. In addition, the bosses suspected that I was challenging them with this story as part of a union organizing effort in the newsroom. I had signed a Guild card supporting the union but I wrote the story entirely based on what my reporting turned up. My story was never published, nor was a follow up letter to the editor pointing out that The Day's handling of the story conflicted with the principles upon which the paper had been founded.
Your stories remind us of the personal decisions each of us must make -- and how you made the right ones along the way. The challenges we confront today are personal but they are also global and systemic with the added issue of the plethora of truly fake news made to look real. Thanks for launching this Substack. Melissa
Thanks, Melissa. And thanks for your help getting started with Substack. I look forward to posting your story with the tagline: Count the Bodies! In the meantime, I hope my readers will become readers of https://melissaludtke.substack.com/.
I wonder if the folks who ended your time at The Day ever had second thoughts about that assignment, the story you produced, and their reaction to it. Keep doing what you're doing to nail stuff down.
Love to see you here, Bill. I will share with my friends, many of whom are already your friends. I have been noodling to find an angle on my own Substack, in which I plan to focus on truth. Currently I am calling it the Noetic Cafe, but that is likely to change. I look forward to continuing to learn from you.
Great Biil. Happy to subscribe!
It was great gaining insight into your professional journey. Most interesting was the stance you took at a very young age, sticking with the story you uncovered. It must’ve been a very tense situation. Did you realize it could cost you your job? Was your story published?
Thanks, Kevin. I was surprised that the situation escalated to getting fired so quickly, but I learned later that were a couple of factors driving things. As Greg Stone reports in his book, the genesis of the story was a complaint from the admiral in charge of the Academy to the Day's publisher about critical coverage. The publisher ordered up what was supposed to be a favorable story. In addition, the bosses suspected that I was challenging them with this story as part of a union organizing effort in the newsroom. I had signed a Guild card supporting the union but I wrote the story entirely based on what my reporting turned up. My story was never published, nor was a follow up letter to the editor pointing out that The Day's handling of the story conflicted with the principles upon which the paper had been founded.
Your stories remind us of the personal decisions each of us must make -- and how you made the right ones along the way. The challenges we confront today are personal but they are also global and systemic with the added issue of the plethora of truly fake news made to look real. Thanks for launching this Substack. Melissa
Thanks, Melissa. And thanks for your help getting started with Substack. I look forward to posting your story with the tagline: Count the Bodies! In the meantime, I hope my readers will become readers of https://melissaludtke.substack.com/.
We're in this together!