CNN Producer Fired for Personal Blog

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Jonathan Ezor [jezor () tourolaw edu]
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 6:41 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: CNN Producer Fired for Personal Blog

For IP if you wish:

Chez Pazienza
Say What You Will (Requiem for a TV News Career)

<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chez-pazienza/say-what-you-will-requie_b_8728
2.html>


Excerpted from the post:

"....As far as CNN knew, I was a valued employee, albeit one with almost no
say in the day-to-day editorial decisions on American Morning. This held
true even as I began contributing columns to the Huffington Post, giving my
writing more exposure than ever before.

Then, last Monday afternoon, I got a call from my boss, Ed Litvak.

Ed, seeming to channel Bill Lumburgh from Office Space, informed me of that
which I was already very well aware: that my name was "attached to some, uh,
'opinionated' blog posts" circulating around the internet. I casually
admitted as much and was then informed of something I didn't know: that I
could be fired outright for this offense. 24 hours later, I was. During my
final conversation with Ed Litvak and a representative from HR, they
hammered home a single line in the CNN employee handbook which states that
any writing done for a "non-CNN outlet" must be run through the network's
standards and practices department. They asked if I had seen this decree. As
a matter of fact I had, but only about a month previously, when I stumbled
across a copy of that handbook on someone's desk and thumbed through it. I
let them know exactly what I had thought when I read the rule, namely that
it was staggeringly vague and couldn't possibly apply to something as
innocuous as a blog. (I didn't realize until later that CNN had canned a
29-year-old intern for having the temerity to write about her work
experiences -- her positive work experiences -- in a password-protected
online journal a year earlier.) I told both my boss and HR representative
that a network which prides itself on being so internet savvy -- or promotes
itself as such, ad nauseam -- should probably specify blogging and online
networking restrictions in its handbook. I said that they can't possibly
expect CNN employees, en masse, to not engage in something as popular and
timely as blogging if they don't make themselves perfectly clear.

My HR rep's response: "Well, as far as we know, you're the only CNN employee
who's blogging under his own name."

It took self-control I didn't know I had to keep from laughing, considering
that I could name five people off the top of my head who blogged without
hiding their identities.

Uh-huh, as far as you know.

When I asked, just out of curiosity, who came across my blog and/or the
columns in the Huffington Post, the woman from HR answered, "We have people
within the company whose job is specifically to research this kind of thing
in regard to employees."

Jesus, we have a Gestapo?

A few minutes later, I was off the phone and out of a job. No severance. No
warning (which would've been a much smarter proposition for CNN as it
would've put the ball effectively in my court and forced me to decide
between my job or the blog). No nothing. Just, go away.

Right before I hung up, I asked for the "official grounds" for my dismissal,
figuring the information might be important later. At first they repeated
the line about not writing anything outside of CNN without permission, but
HR then made a surprising comment: "It's also, you know, the nature of what
you've been writing.""...


-------------------
Prof. Jonathan I. Ezor
Assistant Professor of Law and Technology
Director, Institute for Business, Law and Technology (IBLT)
Touro Law Center
225 Eastview Drive, Central Islip, NY  11722
Direct: 631-761-7119  Fax: 516-977-3001
e-mail: jezor () tourolaw edu


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