Irony Or Hypocrisy?

Interesting. There still is an Idaho Edition of the Spokesman Review today. Most of the articles had nothing to do with Idaho but a couple of items caught my eye anyway. Gary Grooks, an Associate Editor, wrote about the difficulties facing print media in today's world. A bit of a caveat, after the fact, of the layoffs; no, firings, that occurred Thursday and hit the northern Idaho newsroom hard.

Maybe we take it a bit too much to heart because a lot of us who participate in the blogging world, the hub of which in Idaho is Dave Oliveria's Huckleberries Online , know the people personally.

My objection to the whole sorry mess is the way in which it was handled. Wednesday people had jobs, Thursday they were cleaning out their desks. I know what it's like. We have been in similar circumstances and understand the disbelief, the anger, and the angst of "what's next?". Crooks mentions in his column how much money has been spent on consultants to sort things out. Too bad they didn't get advice on the firing process while they were at it.

To make the matter even more ludicrous, in the In Brief column on the front page of the section is a headline reading Teens can investigate career in journalism. Yep, in a program being run through the Spokesman Review. I hope they include sessions in how to update a resume and how to check the fiscal soundness and integrity of potential employers!