I’m a libertarian. A “live and let live” kinda gal.
But there is one thing I cannot abide at all. And that’s calling for someone else’s job.
Unless the person in question is a duly elected politician, I cry “foul” whenever I see someone else’s job on the chopping block. And that’s what I dislike so much about the partisanship of the internet. Sooner or later it’s considered fair game to demand the firing/resignation of an idealistic opponent. It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
It’s too easy to forget that behind the hit counts is someone with rent, groceries, credit card bills and medical expenses.
Maybe it’s because I’m in the middle of my own employment nightmare, and maybe it’s because I truly like the people in question and enjoy the NiT/VV experience. Or maybe it’s just because I don’t like to see anyone bullied. I dunno.
Regardless, I think that while disagreement is kosher, demanding that someone be deprived of his or her livelihood–especially when you are well aware of their current employment environment’s internal struggles–is just not on.
Just Another Pretty Farce 
Sometimes I think some people misunderstand the quote thusly: “All’s fair in blog traffic war.”
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Kat,
Let me be clear: I’m not in favor of them losing their jobs. There would be no clapping hands or glee from me if they did. However, there would be a certain irony to the story. As a writer, I’m certain that you could appreciate that.
As for the role they played in Hobbs’ dismissal from Belmont, it wasn’t as major as the one Spragens/Kopp played. But what did happen was that Brittney drug the name of Bill’s employer into the the fray, which Kopp then Kopp/Spragens made part of their print story in the Scene. That was unnecessary.
Bob K
[…] Katherine Coble: I’m a libertarian. A “live and let live” kinda gal. […]
Bob,
(Sorry I lost you in the Akismet bin, which I keep forgetting to check. It wasn’t an intentional oversight.)
Let me be clear: I’m not in favor of them losing their jobs.
Okay. That’s good to know, because it’s not at all what I inferred from the original.
However, there would be a certain irony to the story.
I guess, had they actually ‘gotten Hobbs fired’ there would be. And I think I best go back and re-read the contretemps, because to my recollection I don’t recall them having done so. To my mind it was Spragens and Kopp and Kopp’s overly-friendly neighbour child who were the prime instigators.
I really don’t agree with Bob’s parallel between Brittney/Adam and Bill Hobbs. There’s no irony at all, as far as I’m concerned.
Here’s the thing: Hobbs worked in PR for Belmont. In that capacity, you and everything about you represent the university. That’s just the way it is in that business. I once worked in PR for an agency that represented Don Sundquist. While employed, I did not attend Democratic fundraisers or parties and was careful in my public involvement with noted Memphis Democrats. Because that’s what you do when you’re in PR–you’re careful. Bill wasn’t and he learned a tough lesson. Had he been in a position such as professor or some other administrator other than dean or president, I don’t think his dismissal would have been warranted.
Brittney and Adam, however, were hired to to write blogs, not act as ambassadors for the TV station (though they have been cast as such by many people outside the station) and what they write and report is merely par for the course. There’s simply no parallel.
And Steve Gill is an ass.
Lesley’s dead on. Bob’s reaching here, for sure.
*Brittney drug the name of Bill’s employer into the the fray, which Kopp then Kopp/Spragens made part of their print story in the Scene. That was unnecessary.*
Unless it’s escaped my memory, that did not happen. Please provide a link.
From the roundup on April 17th, 2006, Blake Wylie says in the comments:
Blake was FIRMLY in Hobbs’ corner back then.
::sifts through more archives, which takes for frakkin’ ever::
::Oh look. I guest-blogged back then::
Here’s the article where Brittney initially addressed the Bill Fired/Resigned story. In this post, a Liz Garrigan piece is excerpted.
No reference by the Scene Editor made to Brittney as being the one who dragged Belmont into the equation.
So I’m moving back a few days to see where Brittney pointed the finger at Belmont
::Oh gosh. Even back then we were talking about Pac-Man Jones. Good grief.::
Ah, lookit here! The blog post a week prior to the paper’s street date and Hobbs’ subsequent resignation.
What have we here?
Oops. Brittney didn’t say that. Mike Kopp did. Brittney featured it at NiT, but she didn’t start the “Belmont Should Be Ashamed” Meme.
Or did she? Let me keep digging through the archives.
Nope. Nothin’ that I can see.
It all looks to have been done largely by Mike Kopp.
BTW, what happened to the “I resigned” charade? I guess everyone’s on the same page that it was a firing from Belmont, not a quitting, since Hobbs has corrected no one regarding it.
Just wanted to make sure.
Here’s the original post.
That’s KOPP’s original post.
He was the one banging the Belmont drum from the opening bell on this.
Furthermore, it’s ironic to me to see that Hobbs is still going strong as a blogger, while Kopp seems to have largely disappeared.
Katherine,
I just responded to what you wrote on my site, much of it applies here as well.
Yes it was Mike Kopp who started it. He had to make the gratuitous Belmont reference three times before anyone noticed it. But Brittney picked up two of them in her story, and even seconded one of the references to Belmont in her own writing with a “Yeah”
You can call it “passive aggressive,” “plausible deniability,” or being an “unwitting pawn,” but whatever the reason, referencing Hobbs’ employer added nothing to the story. But it did add another notch to Kopp’s belt, courtesy of Brittney.
Also, Kopp never was a blogger. That’s why he’s not “going strong.” He was, and is, a political assassin. The blog just gave him another weapon. both sides do it. That’s why journalists, who should know better than just run of the mill bloggers, have to be very careful about how they use information put out their by hacks.
At best, Brittney was very uncareful. And I think, in retrospect, she recognized that. Which was why she seemed genuinely upset when Bill was “resigned”.
For a bunch of actual and self-proclaimed media-watching types, I’m surprised so many seem to have missed what’s going on here.
Remember a few months ago when Don Imus made a stupid and offensive remark on air? Under great pressure, he was fired from his job. Remember the past few weeks when Rosie O’Donnell made remarks that offended a lot of folks, including her co-host? Under great pressure, she quit.
What Gill did is what all local television, radio and print news sources love to do: localise the national story. A couple of Nashville media people made offensive remarks. Gill is ginning up pressure — and his own ratings. It’s Radio 101: create an outrage and open the phones.
It’s worthwhile to note how the focus has shifted from Gill to Bill Hobbs, though. That tells me there are still a lot of raw nerves over that issue.
A couple of Nashville media people made offensive remarks. Gill is ginning up pressure — and his own ratings. It’s Radio 101: create an outrage and open the phones.
Oh, we get it.
Some of us also get that Steve Gill has written a pro-Fred Thompson book, while Kleinheider has been the most stridently vocal anti-Thompson person in Gill’s immediate sphere of influence.
From where some of us sit, it was very convenient to take an offensive tack against Kleinheider to spin the “Fred Thompson only served in the movies” meme in a different direction.
Because, really, Gill’s Candidate-ish of Choice was headed for a small patch of rough water until, suddenly, the story stopped being about Fred Thompson And The Military and started being about Adam Kleinheider And The Military.
Some of us very much get that.
A couple of Nashville media people made offensive remarks.
No, they didn’t.
Mike Kopp hasn’t disappeared. He’s running Buck Dozier’s campaign for mayor. Can’t have opinions on his own. That would distract from the campaign because Kopp’s opinions are way too left of center for Buck.
[…] by the belief that Steve Gill called for her to be fired, and that I was advocating the same (Katherine Coble certainly came to that conclusion), Brittney Gilbert reacted venomously to the assertion that she […]