The mainstream media eats its own

Blogging—as many people have discovered—can be hazardous to your employment status. But the risks are even greater for those who make their livelihoods as members of the Fourth Estate.

Editor & Publisher, in its current issue, offers a cautionary tale:

A St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter who was writing pseudonymous blog was identified by newspaper management, who seized his hard drive and suspended him from his job, according to the Riverfront Times, an alt-weekly in St. Louis.

Post-Dispatch staff writer Daniel P. Finney was writing the blog, titled "Rage, Anguish and Other Bad Craziness in St. Louis," under the name Roland H. Thompson. The blog, which was first discovered by the Riverfront Times a week earlier, chronicled his life, including his work as a features writer for the Post-Dispatch.

In his blog, Finney "too frequent, thinly veiled potshots against his employers and coworkers," wrote Times reporter Ben Westhoff. "He also wrote about stories he was working on for the paper. And example: 'Today was an absolute abomination. It began unwillingly at 7:30 a.m. when I was forced from my sweet, gentle slumber to go to work on a hideously lame story involving Santa Claus and the Hard Rock Café.

"In another entry he poked fun at the subjects of the Post's annual '100 Neediest Cases' feature. 'Speaking of dicks, I've been reading the Post-Dispatch's 100 Neediest Cases stories,' he wrote on Dec. 2. 'The bottom line is that there are a lot of poor people who need stuff. It is a worthy cause. And, at some level, I feel sorry for these people. But at another level, one in which your friend Crazy Roland is much more in touch with, I must admit I feel as if a good number of these needy cases could be avoided by a well-placed prophylactic.

"Six days later, a '100 Neediest Cases' installment carried Finney's byline."

Finney and Post-Dispatch editors declined to comment to the Times.

On PaidContent.org, Executive Editor Staci D. Kramer—a St. Louisian—noted that Finney shouldn't be lumped with those penalized unjustly for outside blogging activity. "The blogger used profanity to describe the newspaper, made comments about co-workers and bosses, wrote of interview subjects and stories he apparently had covered," she wrote. "I saw nothing which led me to believe he was blogging from work but his blogging in many cases undermined his own work and that of others."

Ouch.