Wisconsinites know that the first radio station was what now is WHA in Madison. Today in 1920, the nation’s first commercial radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, went on the air.
The number one British single today in 1956 is the only number one song cowritten by a vice president, Charles Dawes:
The number one song today in 1974:
The number one British album today in 1985 was Simple Minds’ “Once Upon a Time” …
Non-conservative Gleen Greenwald:
Internal strategy documents and emails among Clinton staffers shed light on friendly and highly useful relationships between the campaign and various members of the U.S. media, as well as the campaign’s strategies for manipulating those relationships.
The emails were provided to The Intercept by the source identifying himself as Guccifer 2.0, who was reportedly responsible for prior significant hacks, including one that targeted the Democratic National Committee and resulted in the resignations of its top four officials. On Friday, Obama administration officials claimed that Russia’s “senior-most officials” were responsible for that hack and others, although they provided no evidence for that assertion.
As these internal documents demonstrate, a central component of the Clinton campaign strategy is ensuring that journalists they believe are favorable to Clinton are tasked to report the stories the campaign wants circulated.
At times, Clinton’s campaign staff not only internally drafted the stories they wanted published but even specified what should be quoted “on background” and what should be described as “on the record.”
One January 2015 strategy document — designed to plant stories on Clinton’s decision-making process about whether to run for president — singled out reporter Maggie Haberman, then of Politico, now covering the election for the New York Times, as a “friendly journalist” who has “teed up” stories for them in the past and “never disappointed” them. Nick Merrill, the campaign press secretary, produced the memo, according to the document metadata:
That strategy document plotted how Clinton aides could induce Haberman to write a story on the thoroughness and profound introspection involved in Clinton’s decision-making process. The following month, when she was at the Times, Haberman publishedtwo stories on Clinton’s vetting process; in this instance, Haberman’s stories were more sophisticated, nuanced, and even somewhat more critical than what the Clinton memo envisioned.
But they nonetheless accomplished the goal Clinton campaign aides wanted to fulfill of casting the appearance of transparency on Clinton’s vetting process in a way that made clear she was moving carefully but inexorably toward a presidential run.
Given more than 24 hours to challenge the authenticity of these documents and respond, Merrill did not reply to our emails. Haberman declined to comment.
Other documents listed those whom the campaign regarded as their most reliable “surrogates” — such as CNN’s Hilary Rosen and Donna Brazile, as well as Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden — but then also listed operatives whom they believed were either good “progressive helpers” or more potentially friendly media figures who might be worth targeting with messaging. The metadata of the surrogate document shows the file was authored by Jennifer Palmieri, the communications director of the campaign. As The Intercept previously reported, pundits regularly featured on cable news programs were paid by the Clinton campaign without any disclosure when they appeared; several of them are included on this “surrogates” list, including Stephanie Cutter and Maria Cardona:
The Clinton campaign likes to use glitzy, intimate, completely off-the-record parties between top campaign aides and leading media personalities. One of the most elaborately planned get-togethers was described in an April, 2015, memo — produced, according to the document metadata, by deputy press secretary Jesse Ferguson — to take place shortly before Clinton’s official announcement of her candidacy. The event was an April 10 cocktail party for leading news figures and top-level Clinton staff at the Upper East Side home of Clinton strategist Joel Benenson, a fully off-the-record gathering designed to impart the campaign’s messaging:
A separate email chain between Clinton staff (one that was not among those provided by Guccifer 2.0 but appeared on the DCLeaks.com site earlier this week) contains plans for a separate off-the-record media get-together in May. Food and drinks were provided by the campaign for the journalists covering it, on the condition that nothing said would be reported to the public.
Many of the enduring Clinton tactics for managing the press were created by the campaign before she even announced her candidacy. A March 13, 2015, memo from Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook provides insight into some of the tactics employed by the campaign to shape coverage to their liking. In particular, Mook was concerned that because journalists were assigned to cover Clinton, they needed to be fed a constant stream of stories that the campaign liked. As he put it, a key strategy was to “give reporters who must cover daily HRC news something to cover other than the unhelpful stories about the foundation, emails, etc.”
All presidential campaigns have their favorite reporters, try to plant stories they want published, and attempt in multiple ways to curry favor with journalists. These tactics are certainly not unique to the Clinton campaign (liberals were furious in 2008 when journalists went to John McCain’s Arizona ranch for an off-the-record BBQ). But these rituals and dynamics between political campaigns and the journalists who cover them are typically carried out in the dark, despite how significant they can be. These documents provide a valuable glimpse into that process.
We begin with a non-music anniversary: Today in 1870, the U.S. Weather Bureau was created, later to become the National Weather Service.
Tomorrow in 1870, the first complaints were made about the Weather Bureau’s being wrong about its forecast.
Today in 1946, two New York radio stations changed call letters. WABC, owned by CBS, became (natch) WCBS, paving the way for WJZ, owned by ABC, to become (natch) WABC seven years later. WEAF changed its call letters to WNBC.
America is often described as a society without the Old World’s aristocracy. Yet we still have people who feel entitled to boss the rest of us around. The “elite” media, the political class, Hollywood and university professors think their opinions are obviously correct, so they must educate us peasants.
OK, so they don’t call us “peasants” anymore. Now we are “deplorables”—conservatives or libertarians. Or Trump supporters.
The elite has a lot of influence over how we see things.
It turns out that Trump used the same gestures and tone of speech to mock Ted Cruz and a general he didn’t like. It’s not nice, but it doesn’t appear directed at a disability.
I only discovered this when researching the media elite. Even though I’m a media junkie, I hadn’t seen the other side of the story. The elite spoon-fed me their version of events.
Another reason I don’t like Trump is that he supported the Iraq war—and then lied about that. Media pooh-bahs told me Trump pushed for the war years ago on The Howard Stern Show.
But then I listened to what Trump actually said.
“Are you for invading Iraq?” Stern asked.
Trump replied, “Yeah, I guess … so.” Later, on Neil Cavuto’s show, Trump said, “Perhaps (Bush) shouldn’t be doing it yet, and perhaps we should be waiting for the United Nations.” I wouldn’t call that “support”—the way NBC’s debate moderator and many others have.
I was stunned by how thoroughly the media have distorted Trump’s position. That’s a privilege you get when you’re part of the media elite: You get to steer the masses’ thinking.
At the second debate, we all know that Trump walked over to Hillary Clinton’s podium, as if he was “stalking Ms. Clinton like prey,” said The New York Times. CNN said, “Trump looms behind Hillary Clinton at the debate.”
Afterward, Clinton went on Ellen DeGeneres’ show and said Trump would “literally stalk me around the stage, and I would just feel this presence behind me. I thought, ‘Whoa, this is really weird.’”
But it was a lie. Watch the video. Clinton walked over to Trump’s podium. Did the mainstream media tell you that? No.
The ruling class has its themes, and it sticks to them.
When Clinton wore white to a debate, the Times called the color an “emblem of hope” and a Philadelphia Inquirerwriter used words like “soft and strong … a dream come true.” But when Melania Trump wore white, that same writer called it a “scary statement,” as if Melania Trump’s white symbolized white supremacy, “another reminder that in the G.O.P. white is always right.”
Give me a break.
The ruling class decides which ideas are acceptable, which scientific theories to believe, what speech is permitted.
In the book Primetime Propaganda, Ben Shapiro writes that the Hollywood ruling class calls conservatives “moral scum.”
He says, “If you’re entering the industry, you have to keep (your beliefs) under wraps because nobody will hire you … they just assume you’re a bad person.”
They won’t tell you why you weren’t hired. They just tell you, “You weren’t right for the part,” explains Shapiro. “Talent is subjective, which means that it’s pretty easy to find an excuse not to call back the guy who voted for George W. Bush.”
Years ago, the ruling class was the Church. Priests said the universe revolved around Earth. Galileo was arrested because he disagreed.
Today, college lefties, mainstream media, Hollywood and the Washington establishment have replaced the Church, but they are closed-minded dogmatists, too.
We are lucky that now we have a lot of information at our fingertips. We don’t need to rely on the ruling class telling us what to believe. We can make up our own minds.
Today in 1963, Ed Sullivan was at Heathrow Airport in London just as the Beatles deplaned to a crowd of screaming fans and a mob of journalists and photographers.
Intrigued, Sullivan decided to investigate getting the Beatles onto his show.
Today in 1964, Ray Charles was arrested at Logan International Airport in Boston and charged with heroin. Charles was sentenced to one year probation after he kicked the horse.
Today in 1938, CBS (radio, obviously, because there was no TV yet) broadcasted The Mercury Theater on the Air production of “The War of the Worlds,” from H.G. Wells’ novel.
Some number of listeners who missed the opening (such as those listening to the NBC Red Network’s “Chase and Sanborn” show with ventriloquist Edgar Bergen who changed the channel when Nelson Eddy started signing) thought the simulated news bulletins were actual news bulletins about the Martian invasion, or an invasion by Nazi Germany. Half an hour into the broadcast, the CBS switchboard lit up, and police arrived at the studios. As he had planned, Welles concluded the broadcast by calling it the equivalent “of dressing up in a sheet, jumping out of a bush and saying, ‘Boo!’”
Then, the actors and producer John Houseman (before he became a law school professor and pitchman for Smith Barney) were locked into a storeroom while CBS executives grabbed every copy of the script. And then the reporters showed up.
At WGAR radio in Cleveland, host Jack Paar (yes, that Jack Paar) reassured callers that Martians were not actually invading. Paar was immediately accused of covering up the news.
The number one album and single today in 1971:
A low, low moment in rock history: Today in 1978, NBC-TV broadcast “Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park”:
(The entire movie, believe it or don’t, can be viewed on YouTube.)
The number one song today in 1966:
Today in 1983, Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” spent its 491st week on the charts, surpassing the previous record set by Johnny Mathis’ “Johnny’s Greatest Hits.” “Dark Side of the Moon” finally departed the charts in October 1988, after 741 weeks on the charts.
Now that Chicago is finally in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, we can be objective and read Tim Sommer:
Last week, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced 19 nominees for its class of 2017. Five of these nominees will be inducted into the Hall.
I am certain many of the Hall’s members and voters mean well, and I have heard nice things about their museum (which I have not visited). But the Hall, as it exists now, is so deeply flawed that it risks not only having a lack of credibility, but also a lack of validity. In other words, it doesn’t just make mistakes; the mistakes seem to be endemic, built into the fabric of the organization.
And you know what? Rock ’n roll deserves better.
Rock ’n roll (by which I mean any and all manifestations of music-based expression and art, from King Oliver to Tony Conrad) saves lives. It is a friend to the lonely. It finds the words for you when your tongue, childish or ancient, is tied in confusion. It makes you excited to wake up in the morning, and it pumps life into your Chuck Taylors on your way home from school. It paints rainbow swirls of dreams on the gray wall of your cubicle. It makes you shout, “That is me. I wish I saidthat. There’s my swagger, my swish, my wag, my wish, my future, my youth!”
Rock ’n roll brings back the sensation of an autumn day 39 years ago, and the smile cracked secretly at a traffic light this morning. It is the sound of your favorite city and the sound of a lovely farm-spotted road; it is the soundtrack to a pair of brown eyes you will never, ever forget.
Remember that moment in the flat yellow hallway of your suburban high school when it seemed like the future would never come, when it seemed that your lips would never find a kiss, when you would stare at your reflection in the giant window panes by the gym and you would see exactly the moon-shaped, un-kissable face you assumed everyone else saw?
Then you heard the Kinks, or you heard the Mumps, or you heard Mott the Hoople, or you heard the tube-heated tones of a late-night DJ playing “Dark Star”, and you knew that behind the gamelan clangs of the blue green lockers, outside of the tall red brick walls, past that row of shrieking buses, beyond the anonymous whirr of the Long Island Expressway, somewhere beyond Bayside and Little Neck and even Jamaica, there might be a place where misfits like you would find love.
Rock ’n roll loved me before anyone else did, didn’t it love you before anyone else did, too?
That’s why it’s important to tell its story in the right way.
The powers that be at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame simply don’t know nearly as much about their subject as someone running an organization with that mighty a title should. Most of the poobahs at the Hall know about as much about rock and pop as I know about, oh, baseball. See, I know a little bit about baseball, probably enough to fake my way through a conversation, and I know a lot about certain aspects of baseball, like the New York Mets or the career of catcher/spy Moe Berg; but I would never, ever claim to know enough about baseball to run a freaking Hall of Fame, or even act as a voter for one.
I suspect the Hall of Fame and their voters know a bit about rock ’n roll, and perhaps a lot about certain areas, but they simply don’t know enough to reasonably accomplish the rather significant task they have assumed control of. Otherwise, they would have inducted The Smiths, The Cure, Thin Lizzy, Kate Bush, Big Star,Judas Priest, Slayer, Husker Du, and many etceteras, a long time ago.
So, here are the new nominees, along with my handicapping of the likelihood of these artists getting voted into the Hall this time around. Please note: This is notbased on who I think belongs in “a” Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; it’s based on who I think this Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the deeply flawed and biased organization that presently exists, will vote in. (For those not familiar with gambling odds, it works out this way: 1/5 means a 5/6 shot that X will get into the Hall of Fame, meaning they’ve got a good chance.)
In order, and remember, there are only five slots:
- ELO 1/5
- Tupac Shakur 2/5
- Chic 2/5
- The Cars 2/5
- Pearl Jam 3/5
- Joan Baez 3/5
- Chaka Khan 6/5
- MC5 3/2
- Janet Jackson 3/2
- Kraftwerk 8/5
- Yes 2/1
- Journey 5/2
- Bad Brains 5/2
- The Zombies 6/1
- Depeche Mode 6/1
- Jane’s Addiction 7/1
- The J. Geils Band 8/1
- Steppenwolf 12/1
- Joe Tex 14/1
I want to say a few words about the nominees, but first, let’s take a moment to talk about who isn’t nominated.
I’m no Bon Jovi fan—at their best, they remind me of a cell phone photo of a screenshot of Thin Lizzy—but clearly they sneezed on Jann’s brie at some point, because I cannot for the life of me understand why they are not in the Hall of Fame (and even Green Day is in the Hall of Fame). They fit two of the HOF’s primary requirements: they’re American and they sold a lot of records.
Once again, there’s no heavy metal on the list. Zero.
This is profoundly insulting to the millions of people who have been excited, energized, entertained and inspired by Judas Priest, Iron Maiden (only one of the biggest bands in the world for the last 30 years!), not to mention hugely popular innovators like Slayer or Motörhead.
I want to repeat this slowly to let it sink in: there’s something out there calling itself the Rock and roll Hall of Fame, and Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, and Motörheadaren’t in it. Jeezus, you’d think they would have at least thrown a bone to Def Leppard. (But, hey, British accents…)
With the exception of nominee Depeche Mode, the Hall of Fame carries on pretending that virtually no British music made in the 1980s is worthy, despite the profound influence many of these groups had on both sides of the Atlantic (and regardless of the fact that all of the artists I am about to cite were major chart acts in the U.K.).
So, once again, no Smiths, Kate Bush, New Order, Madness, the Jam, the Cure, Joy Division, the Specials, etcetera; and the anti-British bias of the Hall extends backwards from the “New Wave” era, too, and therefore we don’t see Thin Lizzy, T. Rex, or Roxy Music nominated, either, to name just three. I find the Hall’s rabid Anglophobia another major element that obstructs any occasional desire we might have to take the Hall seriously.
Now, on to this year’s nominees.
This past April, the Observer published my list of the 10 most offensive omissions from the Hall of Fame roster. Three of those artists have been nominated this year, so let’s start there.
Kraftwerk are, inarguably, the second most influential pop/rock group of the last 55 years. They were the first pop act to entirely replace their rhythm section with distinctly synthetic instrumentation, and the first act to use the pulsing synth throb as their unvaried signature. The entire age of electronic dance music and synth-based pop derives from their inventions. Put on any mainstream pop radio station today, and it is more likely you will hear a sound rooted in Kraftwerk’s innovations than you will hear a combo-based Beatle-centric sound.
In addition, for over 40 years Kraftwerk have consistently released high-quality music. No Hall of Fame omission is more glaring (with the exception of archivist/ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, who should have been inducted in the first or second class). But it’s a tough crowd this year, and Kraftwerk may get passed over once again.
I have no particular affection for Joan Baez, who’s over-sincere, over-reaching vocalizing is the musical equivalent of Eric Roberts’ yowling “Charlie, they took my thumb!” in The Pope of Greenwich Village. However, she is the second biggest name in the history of post-1960 folk music, and folk music is an essential part of our pop/rock story: it is the crucial bridge between the 1950s ideation of American rock and the more sincere, more artistic, more rebellious form it took in the 1960s (this is a really important point that I’ll write about at another time).
It’s utterly ridiculous that the second biggest name in folk music isn’t in the Hall. That underlines one of the abominable things about the Hall: They simply ignore entire categories of rock and pop. Folk, heavy metal and low-charting but culturally important alternative music suffer the most. All of these things get pushed out of the way because the Hall can’t see beyond the fine, fine mane of Timothy B. Schmidt. Joan Baez most definitely belongs in (and so does Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, the Kingston Trio, Fred Neil, and Peter, Paul and Mary, to name just five others who will never, ever get nominated).
The MC5’s stock has gone up in the last year or two, and I think this may be their year. I need not tell any of you why this snarling, fiery band, one of the few activist acts in American rock history who honestly put their money where their mouth is, belong in the Hall.
Let’s move on to the rest of the nominees! Oh, now might be a good time to take a swig of that 20-year-old Tawny Port you have sitting around.
If the Hall had even the slightest history of inducting low-selling bands of innovation, genius and influence, the nomination of the phenomenal Bad Brainswould make an enormous amount of sense, and would be something to celebrate. But the Hall have not only shied away from acknowledging those sorts of acts; they’ve actually spurned the idea at every conceivable chance.
The Hall have 100 percent ignored American independent music and non-mainstream/non-major label punk rock. Because of that, as phenomenal as the Bad Brains were (and circa ’79 – ’83, they were the greatest live act in America), I cannot endorse this act of pure tokenism (and I do not mean “tokenism” due to race, but in terms of the Bad Brains’ role as underground/punk heroes).
If their nomination had been accompanied by nominations for, say, Black Flag or Minor Threat, this would make some sense; it would indicate that the Hall was acknowledging the enormous importance hardcore punk had on the creation of an alternative touring and independent label distribution circuit in the 1980s.
Likewise, if the Bad Brains were nominated alongside, say, Suicide, Big Star, Van Dyke Parks, or Wire, it would indicate that the Hall was acknowledging artistically pioneering artists who didn’t rack up big American chart numbers. But that didn’t happen either. This is your dad trying to make you feel better that your grandmother died by giving you a Beatles record. This nomination doesn’t make the Hall cool. It underlines how uncool it really is.
There’s nothing wrong with Chaka Khan, except for the fact that there’s are a pile of legacy R&B singers who deserve to be honored by the Hall more than she does—just off the top of my head, Shirley Ellis and Irma Thomas spring to mind, and I am sure you can think of others. But her name is very familiar, so I think she stands a strong chance of getting in.
Chic, who made music of quality and originality and sold records and were significant generational touchstones, are prime Hall of Fame material.
Depeche Mode are a giant act of style and distinction. There may be other post-1980 British acts more worthy of a nomination, but Depeche Mode should still definitely be in the Hall. Do I think they’ll get voted in? Probably not. There are too many Hall voters who were called “fag” in high school; rather than embracing this, they then tried to buddy up to the jocks that were calling them names. This kind of confusion is still in their hearts, so they’ll probably take it out on Depeche Mode.
Electric Light Orchestra are pretty much the stone-cold lock in this year’s nominating class. Although I find Jeff Lynne’s I-wish-I-wish-I-wish I could have been in the Fabs act tiresome and offensive, he can write a helluva tune, he understands drama in production and arrangement, and best of all, the amazing Roy Wood, co-founder of ELO, gets to slip into the Hall, too.
If there was a Hall of Fame for well-meaning bands who seemed O.K. in the 1970s because they offered a refreshing alternative to ELP, Kansas, and England Dan and John Ford Coley, The J. Geils Band would belong right in there, alongside Southside Johnny, Steve Forbert and Willie Nile. These acts were like the middle relievers of rock ’n roll; they saw us through some tough innings, but then the Ramones and the Sex Pistols came in to close, striking out the side in the 9th. But there aren’t very many middle relievers in the baseball Hall of Fame.[i] Still, because there are no E-Street Band-related nominations this year, I would not entirely rule out The J. Geils Band sneaking in. If I was going to bet on a long shot, this might be the one.
I believe Jane’s Addiction were an important factor in bridging hair metal and grunge, but I’ve always found their “We’re (giggle giggle) ever-so kinky, but we’re kinda (giggle giggle) mainstream, too, doesn’t that make us (giggle giggle) cool?” act vaguely stinking of Danny Elfman-esque snarkiness. They’re the kind of band you tolerate until you really start thinking about them; once you do, it all falls apart, though the individual parts are very solid. I think they’ll get into the Hall one day, and for all the asinine things I just said, they probably deserve to be in, but I don’t think this is the year.
Janet Jackson doesn’t belong in the Hall, but she’s a super familiar name who had big hits over a fairly wide period of time, and that’s usually enough for the Hall voters. If it were a weaker class I’d say she was a lock, but it might not happen this year. I mean, if you’re going to admit mainstream state-of-the-art pop (and I think you should), why the freak isn’t the amazing Carpenters in the Hall?
Joe Tex would be an ideal Hall of Fame act if they Hall could find their ass with a Google Maps app and a big sign that said “To Find Ass: Look Down and Behind.” But, see, the Hall can’t find their ass with a Google Maps app and a big sign that says “To Find Ass: Look Down and Behind.”
I’m glad to see Tex nominated, but like the Bad Brains, I am afraid this nod might be a concession to shut up naysayers like me. Personally, if the Hall functioned with intelligence, wisdom and discretion, artists like Joe Tex and, say, Lee Dorsey would have been in a long time ago. And although it’s a different kind of music, where the heck is Doug Sahm? (See, the “Tex” thing made me think of that.)
Normally, I would say Journey are a lock, but this might be the year the Hall try to show how credible and earnest and sincere they are (because, see, the Hall actually think that the Cars pass for a cool alternative rock band), and Journey may end up paying for that.
Someone has to be the first non-Nirvana grunge band in the Hall, and it might as well be Pearl Jam. Likable, hard working, sincere and popular, they belong in the Hall.
Having two classic rock hits should not be the sole criteria for getting into the Hall, so I find it offensive that Steppenwolf are even nominated, since the band has virtually no generational profile outside of those hits. However, the Hall is notoriously stupid—the voters will see a name, hum a song in their head, and think, “Ohhh, I like them, I just heard their song on the radio today!”—so you never know.
Personally, I despise the Cars: They are “clever,” which is the second worst thing a pop/rock act can be (the first is “ironic”), and when I was a teenage fan, Ric Ocasek was inexcusably rude to me (not Paul Simon-level rude, but still pretty bad). Nevertheless, the Cars have everything that makes them an archetypal Hall of Fame act: They wrote some of the more memorable melodies of their era, they are a distinctly “generational” act (i.e., everyone who was young during their ’79 – ‘83 heyday will have all sorts of goofy nostalgia attached to them), and they sold plenty of records. I think they’re pretty close to a lock.
The Zombies are a tough one, because I want to say they absolutely belong in, but there’s no freaking way they belong in before T. Rex. I’ll leave it at that.
Tupac Shakur is generational touchstone, an artist who often displayed genius, a big seller, and a martyr, so Tupac (along with ELO) is as close as you get to a lock in this year’s nominating class.
And that’s the nominating class of 2017.
Finally, I would like to end this piece by quoting the great Mark Twain: “Everybody talks about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but no one shoots it as it steps out of its limousine on to the sidewalk outside of Sparks Steakhouse on E. 46th Street.”
Today in 1956, Elvis Presley made his second appearance on CBS-TV’s Ed Sullivan Show, with Sullivan presenting Presley a gold record for …
One year later, Presley’s appearance at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles prompted police to tell Presley he was not allowed to wiggle his hips onstage. The next night’s performance was filmed by the LAPD vice squad.
One year later, Buddy Holly filmed ABC-TV’s “American Bandstand”:
It would be Holly’s last TV appearance.
I can, as readers know, relate to what Warren Bluhm writes:
When the news broke late last week that layoffs were imminent at the corporation that owns the venerable small-town paper where I worked for most of 14 years, I started to think about how logical it would be to lay me off. I suppose all of my co-workers had similar thoughts about themselves, but I just had a feeling.
I don’t take horoscopes seriously, but I do read mine because they often contain good advice. On Monday morning, I read it out loud to Red and we both laughed nervously:
“Changes at work are coming: This could be the luckiest turn of events that’s happened in months. To prepare yourself, bone up on your skills and make sure your client base is ample.”
If ever there was a moment when I went over to the dark side and embraced the idea that my fate is sealed by the position of stars light years away, that might have been that moment. Whether or not I “believed,” in any case, by golly, it was good advice.
And: A little after noon on Tuesday, I was given the word that I was part of the company’s latest round of cuts to contain costs.
It was a cordial conversation, and I was assured this was not a performance decision but an economic one yada yada yada, and they explained some nice going-away benefits, and off I went to let the folks who work with me know they were safe, and only I was leaving (at least in the newsroom; a trio of other, tremendous support people were also let go).
Now, my dear friends and colleagues have railed about how could the company do this, and I love them, but let’s note that the goal is to keep the doors open, and under this ownership the newspaper has endured for 12 long years since the previous owner decided he couldn’t make a go of it any longer. My fondest desire was always to grow the paper despite the odds, but in the absence of such growth, the alternative is to cut costs, and frankly I was the costliest cost in the room.
The paper survives to fight another day. My loyalty has always been to the 154 years of folks who toiled under the banner before me and with me, and not to the corporation that bought the brand, and perhaps that helped put me on the list. You know what? It doesn’t matter. The brand survives, and if anyone can save it from oblivion, it’s the incredible journalists and other people who still work in that building.
I am so proud to have been a part of that tradition and grateful for the high bar set by the people who walked those hallways before me. Anytime I started feeling my oats, all I had to do was remind myself, “Bluhm, you’re no Chan Harris,” or someone would come along to say it for me. I wouldn’t have tried as hard as I did without those noble ghosts chasing me.
Today is the first day of the next phase of my life, and oh, what an adventure it shall be.
It seems that the worst thing a media person can do these days is work for a publicly traded media company. I guess I was not specifically laid off, but when the company that owns your magazine decides to close the magazine, you are definitely surplus.
The Door County Advocate has for decades been the state’s largest weekly newspaper, with thousands of its subscribers living in Door County only during the summer. But at least, like me and my former Journal Communications colleagues, Warren has a lot of company with former Gannett Co. employees. (That sentence has a double meaning in that no one works for Journal Communications anymore, with the broadcast/print split and subsequent print sale to Gannett.)
Gannett’s next purchase, by the way, reportedly will be the thing called “Tronc,” the print arm of the former Tribune Co., which like Journal split off its broadcast (Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times) and broadcast (the WGNs) properties. Again, change is not necessarily progress.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 