Does running this headline seem like a fireable offense to you?
“Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough.”
Apparently, the powers that be at the Chattanooga Times Free Press thought so. They may want to drop the “free press” part of the paper’s name going forward. The editor, who’s name is Drew Johnson, was accused of going against policy by changing the headline at the last minute, but he claims: “we change headlines all the time at the last minute. I had a filler headline in that stunk and thought of that Johnny Paycheck song.”
Even if he did break procedure, how is that headline so offensive that an editor needed to be removed for it? After all, it was in the editorial section of the paper, where headlines like that are supposed to be. It appears that someone has very, very thin skin. From The Hill:
“Free Press editor Drew Johnson has been terminated after placing a headline on an editorial outside of normal editing procedures,” the paper said in a statement. “Johnson’s headline, ‘Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough,’ appeared on the Free Press page Tuesday, the day President Barack Obama visited the city.”
The paper said the headline was “inappropriate for this newspaper” and that it “was not the original headline approved for publication.”
What a sad joke.
Full article from the Hill here.
Read Drew’s article here (with a different headline).
In Liberty,
Mike
Follow me on Twitter!
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G
Follow me on Twitter.
I hope that the readers of that newspaper express their support for Mr. Johnson and demand that he be reinstated. I hope that there is a followup article on the readers’ reactions.
That is what Freedom of the Press is for,”The People who pay”ALL”the bills. Not the precious Elite. If they were printing this for Mr.Bush or Mr.Reagan, it would be Blessed by the Media ! “Great Job” Mr. Johnson for Standing up for your city. Any Real Newspaper should be Proud to have you as “EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR” for what you did.
Chatt Unfree Press, I am done reading your paper. The media does not hold the President and his policies accountable. You have become part of the problem not part of the solution in America. Pretty lame action by firing the man. It is obvious with your actions that your paper wants to remain PC versus stating the facts for the people of Chattanooga.