Image via WikipediaFriends of Bill Pitcher, The Record's food editor since June 2006, say he has been spending a lot of time in the Adirondacks region of New York State, helping to care for his seriously ill father-in-law, and has had to neglect his duties at the Woodland Park daily.
That is also why he is leaving the job and moving his family there, friends say.
Happy now, Victor? Easy to criticize from the outside, when you don't have all the details. You can easily critique THE NEWSPAPER and what it lacks, and be on solid ground. THAT'S what's wrong when you make it personal. You lose critical perspective. I hope you take away something positive from this and criticize constructively.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it have made sense for some announcement to be in the paper explaining Pitcher's departure? Suppose Ervolino left suddenly, wouldn't his readers expect an explanation?
ReplyDeleteYes. It would make sense. But The Record's message to readers has always been, It's none of your business what goes on in the newsroom. In the nearly 30 years I was there, we never had an ombudsman to address readers concerns about coverage, bias and so forth. If the paper announced the departure of columnists and editors, it would put itself in the uncomfortable position of explaining why it got rid of its only black columnist, its only Hispanic columnist and its only female news columnist at the time.
ReplyDeleteI think Victor can be forgiven a bit of vitriol toward the person who got the position he deserved because of what he believed was age discrimination and retaliation and very nearly proved in court. I prefer to see constructive criticism, and despite some of Victor's personal issues with a couple of managers, the content of this blog is nothing if not constructive. Victor is right in driving home the point that the paper ignores its once core constituency. Unfortunately, the Record does not respond well to constructive criticism, or to any criticism at all for that matter, or so it seems.
ReplyDeleteYour insight is welcome. The Record not only doesn't respond well to criticism, but managers and editors do their best to kill the messenger, as they did me, whether the issue is poor local news coverage or age discrimination.
ReplyDelete