With this message, I want to leave a ringing endorsement of Doni Greenberg.

I worked with Doni for a number of years at the R-S and found her to be a genuinely decent human being at all times – period. She was just very simply put: nice. I know, I know, what a dull uninspiring description. What does nice mean?

It actually means a lot if you understand the context.

It’s hard to explain (without a great amount of detail) some of the personalities that one encounters inside a place like the R-S. I was there for nearly 10 years (in total) and needless to say there was many a different category of not nice, here are three easy ones:

1) Kinda not nice. Reponse: Everyday occurence, deal with it.
2) Not nice most of the time. Response: Suffer in silence but duck away if possible.
3) Seriously not nice whatsoever. Response: Do avoid at all costs, turn and run to the nearest exit.

There were some grey areas in between, but you get the idea. This could be applied to quite a few folks in the building – not all, of course, and not Doni. Doni, with a handful of others, was a ray of sunshine on a grey day. Cliché you scream! I know… But true! Seriously! If Doni’s become anything other than the person I knew six years ago, then I blame the newspaper itself.

It’s a difficult thing to describe the inner workings of a place like the Record Searchlight to folks who’ve never experienced the stress of trying to be 100% under real deadlines – sometimes double and triple deadlines, or the effect of insecure, ineffective or abusive managers. To add more fuel to the fire: there are frequently times when some irate loser wanders in to the front of the building with a myriad of complaints, spewing filth at the top of his lungs or some jerk phones in to chew you out over some issue or another. Maybe it’s not resolved to his satisfaction so the next time he calls in… it’s with a bomb threat. These are trying work conditions – did I mention the chicken feed pay? These things make normal dismal office politics (at any other job) akin to a leisurely badminton match with friends on a summer’s afternoon. This is no ordinary place to work.

Morale at newspapers is a tough one. Not so long ago newspapers were union operations (in many departments) and to counter this “threat,” management suits (including those at the R-S) hired department directors that were mandated to make lives miserable and break the unions – their actual stated goals, I didn’t make this stuff up. Eventually it worked (and probably for the best – typography and journalist unions were overrated and underpowered anyway). But, the unintended consequence of decades of abusive management has left a permanent stain, there’s a heritage of abuse that carries down to each new employee, instilling instant distrust and fear. They hear from their peers the horror stories – it’s an endless corrosive cycle. It’s probably worse for journalists – take the small step from professional skeptic to hardened cynic in one easy lesson. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since working in it. Include a culture of corporate and local arrogance, personal agendas with competing and counterproductive goals and you have a recipe for disaster. How’s that for the food page, eh?

Losing a gifted writer like Doni – whether you agreed with her positions and opinions or not – is something that the newspaper really could ill afford. Losing someone inside that building that actually cared enough to bring a smile and cheery disposition to work everyday is something even worse; it’s a further insult to the employees. Lose by example.

Because these things don’t really make a difference to the people that run this particular newspaper (and they never really have in my experience), it will most likely continue down its arrogantly blind path, like it’s always done, until the competition that geographically surrounds it finally gobbles it up. It’s a shame, the R-S has always had potential but it just can’t seem to escape its own rotten culture.

I heard about Doni’s dismissal a day or two back and it brought up a whole host of memories and issues I had back on dismissal day right after September 11, 2001. I signed a document however that swore me to silence when I was booted out, so I can’t talk about my situation – and after all this time I don’t care anymore anyway, I’ve dealt with my bitterness (more or less). But I do know what Doni is going through right now, I think. There’s a time of anger and shock, feelings of betrayal and being used. In retrospect you examine every move you ever made, all the friends and colleagues you had – were they really your friends after all? All sorts of things go through your head, paranoid and otherwise.

It will get better for her though. There is life after the old place, better opportunities, better pay, and better people. It’s hard to believe when you’re in the middle of it, but it’s out there. Doni will bounce back and be just fine; there are better days ahead of her.

This blog was a great idea on her part, you loyal readers have a way to keep in touch and she has a way to continue doing what she’s always done best. Maybe she should sell some advertising on this thing and give the R-S some much-needed competition along the way! That’s what I would do!

I join all of you readers and wish Doni all the success she deserves!

Sincerely, her old workmate and pal,

Adam Andrews
The original Redding.com dude and all-around swell guy (most of the time)

I myself am not visiting Redding.com these days, for many reasons, one of them being the rage that permeates the “Comments” sections (and Ed, you’re right–you really have to wonder why so many people in this country are so angry, when we’re so privileged). I am very thankful that those who post on this blog are so civil, even when they’re upset, and this is one big reason why I come here.

But Valerie . . . wow. I’m speechless about your situation. Truly. Clearly these are times when we have to be extra vigilant about protecting our civil rights. Thank you for having the courage to stand up for yourself (and us, by extension).

I quit reading them, but later waded back in so I could communicate with readers after I’d been fired from the RS.

But now I’m back to not reading Redding.com comments again. I just get upset and I end up feeling slimed.

Thanks for reading this blog, and we welcome you from China. Take care.

In the meantime, friends, I’ve got two things I’d like to share with you:

I feel a duty to inform you that nothing posted on the RS website is truly ‘anonymous.’ Despite what the editor said in his column a few weeks back defending the peoples right to comment on redding.com anonymously, claiming the paper had no real way to determine someone’s identity anyhow, that’s simply NOT TRUE. Some RS staffers will do everything within their power to sleuthily try to ‘out’ people who disagree with their opinion – and it doesn’t stop there. You WILL be punished if they think there’s a way to try to stop you.
For instance, if you have a job and answer to a higher power, they may try to go to that higher power to try to intimidate you. You’ve probably already read about how the RS did this to another lifetime Redding resident. She’s not alone.
It also happened to me.
While I considered just washing the poo off my shoe and letting the smell fade away, I didn’t think it was fair to not warn others that there are some at the RS who will apparently stop at nothing to protect their right to free speech, but stomp on everyone else’s.
So here’s what I experienced after commenting on a redding.com blog last week:
The blogger, a RS staffer, sent an email to the CEO of the media organization I work for demanding an apology from me for comments posted (and not posted) on her blog. She claimed I was engaged in harassment and defamation. To me those comments looked like they disagreed with her blog, and expressed frustrations that she was removing multiple comments from multiple citizens who also disagreed. I was ordered to cease and desist & quit personally attacking this hapless reporter. She sent the CEO the texts of all these comments, some which I signed using my name, and some which she deduced were my comments by cross referencing IP addresses but did not have my name on them.
This was a pretty bold attempt to intimidate me into giving up my right to free speech by an employee of an organization that should be doing everything it can to uphold that right.
Additionally, my CEO was told that because I’m a member of the media, that I am to be held to a different set of standards than the rest of the population…that I, unlike any of you, need to disclose my full name and title when making comments on the RS website.
This is so troubling to me, on so many levels.
I’m curious if the RS staffer did this with the blessing of her bosses. The email was cc’d to them as well, haven’t heard from any of them.

So is this what’s it’s coming to? That a media organization will do its darnedest to intimidate the public and stifle free speech in order to skate around the big issue…which is, I believe, this – my 2nd item on tonight’s agenda:

The way we get our news is changing. The internet has had a tremendous effect on that, and newspapers across the country are in trouble. They’re trying to find ways to do things differently, to keep making money. To keep subscribers and to keep advertisers.
In our fair city, the changes and proposed changes that have occured as a result are having a tremendously negative impact on how the citizens of this city feel about their hometown newspaper, how its own employees feel about their newspaper, and it’s caused many of the truly dedicated, talented journalists, editors and other longtime employees to jump ship. Or be thrown overboard.

I could be wrong, this is just my opinion, but it seems that the new editor and publisher are in over their heads and haven’t been taught to swim yet. I’m not directly criticizing them, but rather commenting that a rather unfortunate situation was created during the exodus of all of the talented sailors who knew how to expertly keep this ship afloat.

I am now a real estate broker and feel so sorry for the hard sell that the ad reps must try to make to us:

“Here! Spend your precious marketing dollars in this newspaper that proclaims repeatedly on the front page that the real estate market is in the dumps and the last thing you should be doing is buying real estate!” Now THAT’S got to be a tough job.