By Joel Thurtell
Guess they showed me who’s boss.
The door did not slam behind me — I got the news at home, by phone.
After three months of writing for a liberal blog, I’m out.
Liberal or conservative, it doesn’t matter: The bum’s rush is the bum’s rush.
Canned.
Sacked.
Dumped.
Nobody likes being fired. Except, well, actually, this separation came, frankly, as a relief.
It boiled down to a choice for me: Did I want to blog MY way, or did I want to follow the dictates of faceless managers in Washington, D.C.?
Did I want to write columns about secret court file rooms, slanted New York Times reports, abuses in the offices of a congressman, hypocrisy at the Detroit Free Press, giant burritos (that one’s on deck), huntin fer Osamy in the hills of Californee, or fictitious dissidents in my own fake newsroom? Those are, you know, the sometimes whimsical, often quite serious topics I’ve been dishing up to readers of joelontheroad.com.
Or did I want to do what some Michigan Messenger bosses in D.C. decided was more important for Michigan readers? That turns out to be covering local elections just like the mainstream, chain-owned newspapers.
I said no to gumshoeing elections. The Messenger said no to me.
Fair enough.
I can no longer brag that I get paid to blog.
But really, at 63 years of age, having worked 30 years as a newspaper reporter covering nearly every possible beat including way too many elections, why would I want to go back to writing inside political baseball if I have a chance to write what pleases me?
And thanks to the Blogosphere, I can do just that.
It’s called joelontheroad.com.
True, my website doesn’t have the reach of the Michigan Messenger. But there are signs my readership is growing. As I reach more readers — you — so my sense of responsibility to them — to you — grows, too. They — you — must be tuning me in for a reason. Maybe it’s because I offer a different, independent approach to current events. If that’s the case, then I’d betray you if I seeded my site with stories inspired by unknown people in D.C.
You see, the Michigan Messenger is the creature of the Center for Independent Media. CIM is a private, nonprofit organization aimed, as I understand it, at providing an alternative to news from chain-owned newspapers, which pretty much describes most papers in Michigan.
On the other hand, if you have people in Washington deciding what people in Michigan can read, what’s the difference between CIM and say, Gannett, or Newhouse? Want story quotas? CIM has them. It’s more blatant than at Gannett. Want to work long hours for no commensurate pay? CIM has it, while Gannett pays OT. After all, in Detroit, there’s a Newspaper Guild contract. Want to cover away-from-home events with no compensation for miles driven or other business expenses? Gannett is pretty stingy, but CIM pays zilch.
Welcome to the Blogosphere!
When I think about the Center for Independent Media, I recall how Voltaire described another colonial regime: “Neither holy, Roman, nor an empire.”
Well, I guess there is a “center” somewhere in Washington, but the “independence” belongs to the managers.
There are some very fine people working for the Messenger. I learned from a couple of MM people about blogging. The copy editors are superb. There are too many managing editors, though, micro-managing like hell, and the publication’s aim is hard to fathom.
So adios, Michigan Messenger.
At least you showed me who’s boss.
That would be me.
Drop me a line at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
