Thank you, for both reading and appreciating that post of mine. Regarding the segment you quoted, let me say this: Yes, I lost the affection of people whom I'd considered friends. They were unable to fathom why I would make a maximum effort to "defend" someone the corporate mainstream media of communication deemed sub-human. Also, they feared contamination by their association with me: The power of the press is such that anyone who publicly goes against its grain incurs societal wrath — or should, in their opinion.
However, a few friends stood by me even as I continued to persevere under the unrelenting assault which ensued during that time. Sadly, one of the people who abandoned me (and I didn't even know it until later) was my brother. When we finally discussed the matter, he said: "I've got a family and a job; and people in the office are talking. 'Isn't that your brother in Oregon who's associated with that Tonya Harding character?' I decided to disown you and never speak to you again."
Big stuff, eh? The power of the press. Fortunately, we've completely reconciled (my brother and myself). Mind, middle-class people such as my brother and his family are the main targets of media advertisers — and hence of media news departments; thus it's harder for them (apparently) to read between the lines or maintain a circumspect attitude when a working-class person (Tonya) is being vilified. Peer pressure, real or perceived, grips the middle class tighter than it does either the upper or working class.
As to my career in journalism: I began by writing as a free lance for local newspapers in 1970, while taking the journalism curriculum at Portland Community College. I was sports editor for that school's weekly newspaper, The Bridge. For my final two years of tertiary education I attended the University of Oregon School of Journalism, graduating in 1973. While there, I was a special correspondent for that school's daily newspaper, The Oregon Daily Emerald.
During my junior year, I was selected for a summer internship at KOIN-TV News in Portland (the internship was a state-wide competition amongst all system of higher education schools). During my senior year, I worked at KOIN on weekends as a producer and journeyman reporter — the good old days of the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists. I went full time upon graduation from university. After withstanding the fallout from an upper-and-middle management change, I finally became tired of the "new order" (which seemed more interested in show business than journalism) and quit. I then got a job at KEZI-TV News in Eugene (Oregon) as producer, reporter and anchor. I missed the level of professionalism in Portland, however; so I took an offer to work at KOIN-AM and FM News, with my "old" employer!
I'd no sooner begun working there, when the National Organization for Women made KOIN a target. Their agent, Jane Hoyt, got a job on the radio side and angled for the news department. She didn't work out and returned to the announcing (disk jockey) side. N.O.W. then revealed itself and began to picket the station. Guess who became the sacrificial lamb? (Answer: me. "We've got to cut the budget; and it's a union shop; and you were the last person hired. . . ." Jane had my job two days later, sufficient budget having been found in 48 hours' time.) Sadly, several years later, Jane committed suicide — abandoned and forgotten by N.O.W., which had accomplished its Beltway-oriented goal. We were, both of us, victims of political correctness.
Upon being laid off by KOIN I took a job as news editor at The Stayton Mail, a small-town weekly newspaper. After several months, I was offered a job as chief writer for GrassRoots — a monthly magazine based in Salem, the state capitol. Not long afterward, we quit getting paid! So, I decided to take leave of journalism for the time being (this was in 1977) and took various and sundry odd jobs.
In the early 1980s, I decided to return to the fold. I became news director at KGAL-AM News in Albany, Oregon. I did, however, grow to hate the lack of professionalism and the low pay. So I quit, ending up as animal caretaker at a veterinary hospital in the Portland metropolitan area. Meanwhile, I kept writing: for the newsletter published by the Washington Park Zoo (now called the Oregon Zoo), for the newsletter published by the Bonneville Power Administration, et cetera.
When the international media-circus came to town in 1994, I was commissioned as a free lance to write articles for the bi-weekly alternative newspaper PDXS. In December of that year, I made the decision to stop doing journalism altogether.
As to why some people decided I wasn't good company anymore: During the media circus, I was interviewed by practically everybody from the C.B.S. Radio Network to The New York Times to Crossfire on C.N.N.; and I made no bones about the fact that Tonya was being railroaded, my conclusion based upon a total lack of incriminating "hard" evidence as well as the character of her ex-husband and his friends. Everything she was accused of was based upon conjecture, hearsay and third-hand gossip. Naturally, the big-shot media downplayed the origins of the "evidence" and played up the front-office-approved circulation-and-ratings spin.
The aftermath included my hospitalization for major depression and suicide ideation — the very same maladies which afflicted Tonya during that time (and which in her case continue to this day).
=^..^=
However, a few friends stood by me even as I continued to persevere under the unrelenting assault which ensued during that time. Sadly, one of the people who abandoned me (and I didn't even know it until later) was my brother. When we finally discussed the matter, he said: "I've got a family and a job; and people in the office are talking. 'Isn't that your brother in Oregon who's associated with that Tonya Harding character?' I decided to disown you and never speak to you again."
Big stuff, eh? The power of the press. Fortunately, we've completely reconciled (my brother and myself). Mind, middle-class people such as my brother and his family are the main targets of media advertisers — and hence of media news departments; thus it's harder for them (apparently) to read between the lines or maintain a circumspect attitude when a working-class person (Tonya) is being vilified. Peer pressure, real or perceived, grips the middle class tighter than it does either the upper or working class.
As to my career in journalism: I began by writing as a free lance for local newspapers in 1970, while taking the journalism curriculum at Portland Community College. I was sports editor for that school's weekly newspaper, The Bridge. For my final two years of tertiary education I attended the University of Oregon School of Journalism, graduating in 1973. While there, I was a special correspondent for that school's daily newspaper, The Oregon Daily Emerald.
During my junior year, I was selected for a summer internship at KOIN-TV News in Portland (the internship was a state-wide competition amongst all system of higher education schools). During my senior year, I worked at KOIN on weekends as a producer and journeyman reporter — the good old days of the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists. I went full time upon graduation from university. After withstanding the fallout from an upper-and-middle management change, I finally became tired of the "new order" (which seemed more interested in show business than journalism) and quit. I then got a job at KEZI-TV News in Eugene (Oregon) as producer, reporter and anchor. I missed the level of professionalism in Portland, however; so I took an offer to work at KOIN-AM and FM News, with my "old" employer!
I'd no sooner begun working there, when the National Organization for Women made KOIN a target. Their agent, Jane Hoyt, got a job on the radio side and angled for the news department. She didn't work out and returned to the announcing (disk jockey) side. N.O.W. then revealed itself and began to picket the station. Guess who became the sacrificial lamb? (Answer: me. "We've got to cut the budget; and it's a union shop; and you were the last person hired. . . ." Jane had my job two days later, sufficient budget having been found in 48 hours' time.) Sadly, several years later, Jane committed suicide — abandoned and forgotten by N.O.W., which had accomplished its Beltway-oriented goal. We were, both of us, victims of political correctness.
Upon being laid off by KOIN I took a job as news editor at The Stayton Mail, a small-town weekly newspaper. After several months, I was offered a job as chief writer for GrassRoots — a monthly magazine based in Salem, the state capitol. Not long afterward, we quit getting paid! So, I decided to take leave of journalism for the time being (this was in 1977) and took various and sundry odd jobs.
In the early 1980s, I decided to return to the fold. I became news director at KGAL-AM News in Albany, Oregon. I did, however, grow to hate the lack of professionalism and the low pay. So I quit, ending up as animal caretaker at a veterinary hospital in the Portland metropolitan area. Meanwhile, I kept writing: for the newsletter published by the Washington Park Zoo (now called the Oregon Zoo), for the newsletter published by the Bonneville Power Administration, et cetera.
When the international media-circus came to town in 1994, I was commissioned as a free lance to write articles for the bi-weekly alternative newspaper PDXS. In December of that year, I made the decision to stop doing journalism altogether.
As to why some people decided I wasn't good company anymore: During the media circus, I was interviewed by practically everybody from the C.B.S. Radio Network to The New York Times to Crossfire on C.N.N.; and I made no bones about the fact that Tonya was being railroaded, my conclusion based upon a total lack of incriminating "hard" evidence as well as the character of her ex-husband and his friends. Everything she was accused of was based upon conjecture, hearsay and third-hand gossip. Naturally, the big-shot media downplayed the origins of the "evidence" and played up the front-office-approved circulation-and-ratings spin.
The aftermath included my hospitalization for major depression and suicide ideation — the very same maladies which afflicted Tonya during that time (and which in her case continue to this day).
=^..^=
