Monday, February 27, 2017

Mark Giangreco busted for groping at the Twitter orgy




     One of the great things about working at the Sun-Times: not many meetings.
     Well, I'm sure somebody has meetings. I glimpse them through doorways as I'm hurrying out of the building.
     Occasionally I get sucked into a meeting, like one a few weeks ago explaining the importance of doing what I've done for years -- use social media, post to Facebook, Tweet stuff. We were reminded once again that we are no longer newspaper reporters, but "digital storytellers." I gazed at the phrase mournfully. They've been repeating that for years. What does it even mean? Digital storytellers. It has a whiff of kindergarten, of a robotic Mr. Rogers with a lightbulb nose and an LED red cardigan tinnily reading The Little Engine That Could to an audience of mechanical puppets. Is that our job now?
     I was forming a comment along those lines, when I thought better. Shutting up is an art form.  But I felt the need to say something, for the reason most people speak at meetings -- to hear myself talk.
     "Do you think we could get some guidelines for Twitter?" I asked, reminding my boss that Twitter is a minefield we're expected to skip across several times a day.


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8 comments:

  1. I haven't even finished reading the column in the paper, but have to nominate the grab-ass-in-an-orgy simile as Metaphor of the Year.

    john

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I held my breath on that one. "Butt" just wasn't the same.

      Delete
    2. You might have evaded editorial censure by getting French and fancy with 'derriere,' Or perhaps do as the Brits do, where an ass is a donkey and only a donkey, and use the ancient Anglo Saxon 'arse.' You are, of course, right that 'butt' doesn't do the job.

      It is, indeed a fine simile, but not as neat as one I recall Neil deploying to explain newspaper home delivery to a member of the cyber-only generation: "Like a website they fold over and throw at houses."

      Tom Evans

      Delete
  2. Neil, I'm not a respected, professional newspaper columnist or a snarky Sports Announcer, worse, I'm a retired senior citizen, Military Veteran, ex-cop who was notified that I had "won"? The American Theatre Magazine's "Cartoon" Caption Contest for the January 2017 issue, until they sent me an email telling me they had to pull my winning caption and would not publish it because they were afraid their "Publisher" would be upset because the political cartoon, "they published" and asked folks to comment on, was too political and they might lose their 501(c)(3), non-profit, tax status! OH, the shame! It's like Jimmy Kimmel blaming Matt Damon for letting "Drunk Uncle" from "SNL" stuff the envelopes at the Oscar's last night! And I don't even have a Twitter account!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The caption was:
      "Did you like the 'Springtime for Trump' or 'Putin on the Ritz' number better"?

      Delete
  3. If Giangreco made the comments on air, at work doing his job, I could see him getting in trouble for it. He didn't do it while working, and didn't refer to his work, though. A personal communication seems like it should be his own business.

    Trump does tweet about his work, though, so he should be suspended.

    ReplyDelete

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