Posted on 02/21/2017 6:35:22 AM PST by Red Badger
Newspaper publisher says community response to writer's ouster has been overwhelmingly positive.
Alan Linda's column about his experience sitting next to an overweight airplane passenger will be the last one he writes for the Fergus Falls Daily Journal.
The newspaper last week expressed regret for printing the column and said it had parted ways with Linda, an unpaid community columnist who has written the paper's "Prairie Spy" column for 30 years.
"I've gotten an overwhelmingly positive response over the decision," Tim Engstrom, the Daily Journal's editor and publisher, said Monday. "People say it's the right thing to do."
In an editorial last week, the newspaper's editorial board explained the decision to cut ties with Linda, an Otter Tail County resident whose humorous columns have run in several other Minnesota newspapers over the years.
"Last Friday, his column was about sitting next to a larger person on an airplane," the board wrote. "In the column, he called the person 'fat' and went on to describe a lack of sympathy for the man's weight issue.
"Not only did this offend many of our readers, it offended us," the editorial said. "Bullying others is not OK. Body shaming is not OK. The list goes on, but you get the picture. Let's debate the issues, not make personal attacks on people."
The staff made a bad decision in publishing Linda's column, the editorial said.
Asked to comment on his release, Linda e-mailed that he didn't understand what the dispute was about.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
I have heard of people buying two tickets just so that cannot happen..................
This totally stupid perfect idiot has never flown cross country next to a beached whale who should have bought two seats.
I take that back; nobody's perfect.
Sympathy?
In his alternate universe, maybe. Imbecile!
That reminds me, is there a link to the offending article?
Would love to read it. A keeper!
See Hillary still has some pull.
Thank you!
Of course. She has her own gravity well...............
Not me. Can’t get rid of me that easily. I merely chose to quit reading as soon as I encountered the source of the Barf Alert.
My little brother has been a Captain for Southwest Airlines for many years. He is close to retirement now. He used to get a couple of “standby” tickets every quarter when he didn’t call in sick to give away to his friend’s and family. The one instruction that I had from him when using them was, “do not complain about anything EVER!” So this is about as close as I have gotten to breaking my word.
So many years ago my wife and I were using a couple of standby tickets for a roller coaster riding adventure at the amusement parks in LA. We needed to get back the next day so we could both go back to work. We showed up at LAX early in the morning and waited all day while every flight back to Seattle was full. The staff told us that the very last flight of the day was full also.
As we were getting ready to leave, we were called to the gate over the intercom and then ushered onto the plane. I am not sure what happened but somehow there were two seats had become available.
At that time my wife was almost a dead ringer for Sally Field. Ms. Field was very popular at the time; the resemblance was strong enough that staff pulled us out of line both at the Hard Rock Café outside of Universal Studios and also at the Knots Berry Farm Restaurant on that same trip. At the Hard Rock Café the chef even came into talk with us and told us about all the other celebrities he had met. When we told the staff that she wasn’t Sally Field they didn’t seem to care. I think that they like the excitement that it creates with the other tourists when they think a celebrity is in their midst. We just became part of the show.
So when she was escorted onto the plane by two flight attendants and me... all these people had their mouths hanging open. She ended up sitting between two guys who wouldn’t leave her alone at the back of the 737. After that adventure she refused to fly standby.
“Yes, they fired him for their decision................”
If I read the tone of your comment correctly, Yes. Yes they fired him for their mistake.
This is why the Editor and the Editor-in-Chief (The editorial board) gets paid as much as they do. They are responsible for everything printed.
So it’s the fault of the editorial board and their staff that this made it to print. Authors and journalists type garbage up all the damned time. I work for a few publishing companies.
If a piece doesn’t meet your current editorial standards, whatever they may be, then don’t print it or publish it.
They chose to publish it, and then after the fact decided it wasn’t up to their standards. Then they fired him, even though he’s an unpaid contributor, for THEIR MISTAKE..................
Ok.. I just wasn’t sure if your last comment was lashing out against me, or agreeing.
The whole reason I posted this article, was not in support of what he wrote, it was the specious manner in which he was fired. The ones responsible for what goes into a paper self-righteously fired the writer when THEY should have been the ones to pay a price. An apology for publishing a piece that apparently angered some snowflakes (snowballs?) should have been all that was necessary................
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