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Bloggers have no job security -- so goodbye!
November 5, 2007This is my final blog.
Just can't afford the risk.
I need my paycheck.
I need my health insurance.
Rishawn Biddle needed his, too.
But the Indianapolis Star editorial writer is now out of a job.
A blog did him in.
Biddle, a black man, blasted a city-county council president, who is also black.
One Web site said the blog was titled: "The Indianapolis Black Democrat minstrel show."
The editor of the Star fired Biddle and apologized to readers for the insensitivity of his blog.
I am real good at insensitivity. That's why I can't take a risk doing something I don't get paid for.
I'm the "sports guy." I write these blogs for the freedom of expression. I do it for free because I enjoy it.
But what happened to Biddle -- even if he deserved it -- scares the holy crap out of me.
The blog culture is dangerous.
You can really get caught up in the freedom of expression.
When I Googled "blogger fired," I got several different stories.
Biddle is not alone.
But he was alone at the Star.
Notice that no editor was fired along with him.
That's because blogs aren't edited.
I write whatever I want, then post them. No editor proof reads them.
Newspapers want their Web sites to appear to be journalistic endeavors, but anytime something is printed with no editing -- it ain't journalism.
But when something "insensitive" shows up in a blog, one person -- the writer -- takes all the blame.
I don't like those rules.
So this is my 324th and final blog.
Goodbye, friends
It has been fun.
Posted by at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Comments
Maybe I'm missing something. I realize I have been out of the ' Falls for over 10 years but what happend to the Nick Gholson I remenber from my youth. The Nick Gholson who never let a good fact get in the way of his opinion ? Now Nick says " I write whatever I want, then post them. No editor proof reads them". Sounds like a lot of his stories I remember. What changed ? Is Nick no longer "untouchable" have all his cronies and protectors / appologists left the paper ? It would seem so from his statement " the writer -- takes all the blame.
I don't like those rules." I guess Nick can no longer risk defending his opinions cause no one's left to cover his butt.
P.S. The only reason I followed this link was to read Nick's thoughts on being let go or retiring. Mr. Gholson there is a generation that remembers your slanted local sports reporting and will rejoice when it no longwer taints the local rag.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
I actually look forward to reading your Blog every day. I sometimes check it three to four times before you finally post something. Now what am I going to do to pass time at work??
NO, NO, NO .. Nick, say it ain't so! .. your blog is the best thing on the Web! .. (Okay, it's in the Top Ten .. way up in the top!) Keep it going big guy .. don't leave us hanging out here.
I really hate to see you quit this endeavor. It allows those of us that have moved away to experience a part of Wichita County...the history that is applicable to our lives...the flavor of the area...who else writes about drinking red draws and eating at the Casa Manana? Who else will write about the insanity that is unique to the area and is possessed by those that have lived there? One can't write an edited version of any aspect of life in Hooterville and be truthful and candid unless one leaves out a great deal.
Good luck, enjoyed every one of the blogs..you and I may not agree about Bush, politics, coaches, and sports but I can say I enjoyed reading your views.
Sincerely,
Doug
Nick,
I agree with you. Now how can I get out of writing my blog? Got any advice? Not only is blogging a slippery slope, in the current climate of newspapers, the head honchos are looking for ways to cut out high salaries. So anything you do on a blog can cause your undoing.
I'm a bit shocked though by you giving up the blog. You definitely pushed the envelope in it a few times, but hey, that's what makes you you. Besides that, aren't you the Wichita Falls equivalent of Denny Freeman? For the most part, you're untouchable up there my man.
I'll miss the blog.
Nick I live in Indy and you know what you don't knowthe whole story, so please don't try and offend my intellence with this "last blog" comment.
Aww, one of two blogs I read with regularity is going.
It was always fun to read your stuff. Take care.
Dear Nick & Fellow Readers.
Rishawn Biddle was dismissed for freely expressing his opinion--good for him! Yes, he lost a job that included pay, privilege, prestige, and benefits. However, the real shame lies with the Indianapolis Star for bowing to liberal forces that would gag him and jeopardize our constitutional rights in order to advance a truly appalling agenda.
Consider your Sept. 5, 1999 column. Whether it was your intention, you wrote in a spirit to defend the First Amendment to our Constitution as originally argued and written. In case you or other readers do not know what it actually says, here it is.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
The writers of the Bill of Rights spent hundred of hours, and invested copious paper and ink, creating a document providing and protecting freedoms that they saw to be inherent and common to all as well as being mutually reinforcing. The best example of both these things lies within the First Amendment. In a single sentence, our forefathers simultaneously protect religion, freedom of speech and press, freedom of assembly, and freedom to ask for governmental reform. In this, their most important addendum (as evidenced historically as much as by their choice to make it first), they not only protect edited journalists such as yourself, but also unedited commentators (Early Bloggers?!) like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine. Thus, your reasoning, while perhaps self-preservative, is deeply flawed. You are effectively running from petty tyrants who endanger our institutions, our faith, and our nation--the same people who tried to prevent the founding of our nation. When you are silenced, you enable those who criticize our military (without offering alternative solutions) to sway public opinion unopposed. They are already far too powerful. Over the last 50 years, they have overwhelmed our institutions of higher learning. This academic priesthood has entrenched their own peculiar, secular faith establishing their personal opinions (on matters such as evolution, abortion, relativism, a national atheist mandate, etc.) as facts beyond question! They have injected an ungodly worldview into the American social, cultural, political and legal landscape that does great harm and is perhaps more directly to blame for the events of 9/11 than anything else within our control as a nation.
Thus, I find your decision especially ironic in light of the Holy Spirit's essay, which your pen brought forth in 1999. Please review what you wrote before. If God is with you, of whom shall you be afraid? Who stands against God? We must not live in fear, but in faith! In closing, I want you to consider two more quotes.
"Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power."
--Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack of 1738
That quote captures some of the spirit of another quote often attributed to Franklin. Although it is of questionable authorship, it expresses an unquestionable truth, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." (First appearing in 1759)
It is my sincere hope that God will embolden you to continue to follow His Spirit and boldly meet those who would oppose you...and Him!
Fondly,
Scott Seigel
NOOOO! you cant go Nick! You and the obits are the only reason i even go to the TRN website. If you go all i have to look forward to are a bunch of dead people!!
Maybe you should take all of our emails that enjoy your blog so much and start your own little blog outside TRN. You make my day, your blog is the first thing i read in the morning's. PLEASE SAY YOU WONT GO!!!!!!
But if you do, you will be missed.
God Bless
Just start blogging under the name "Rick Nholson" and you won't have to assume responsibility for insensitivity. Write it off as a new guy with a hot opinion.
When he's fired, hire "Dick Wholson" to do your blogging.
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