 |
| Leaving my office at 401 N. Wabash for the last time, 2004 (Sun-Times photo) |
The entire staff of the CIA received buyout offers this week. I got my buyout offer Tuesday.
Ha ha, see what I did there? Both sentences are true — one can play games with this writing stuff — and while I did interview with the CIA fresh out of college, under the charmed notion that my year of Russian language gave me a snowball's chance, whatever they were looking for, I wasn't it.
A condition that lingers, apparently, since my offer came from the Sun-Times.
"Here's a bag of cash, Mr. Ego, take it and scram ..." But that too is deceptive. I wasn't singled out for my abrasive personality. Everybody got offers, though mine was big enough — I can be a jerk — that I surprised myself by thinking about it.
Again, deceptive. The amount was determined, not by my capacity to cause headaches for my superiors, but the 38 years I've been on staff.
"It's nothing personal," said Michael Corleone in The Godfather. "It's just business."
A business shredded by the grinding tectonic plates of technology. At the same moment the government is being torn apart in an orgy of unrestricted Republican institution-wrecking. A lot of people making hard personal decisions, while the choice of what kind of country we are seems suddenly settled. The United States used to consider itself a force of good projected into the world. We welcomed refugees at home, brought hope, democracy and clean water abroad.
Now the United States Agency for International Development was declared "a criminal organization" by our shadow king, Elon Musk, and summarily disbanded. I'm not sure the intention was to yield the field to his business partner, China. Though that will certainly be the result.
So yeah, it's self-absorbed of me to focus on my own little drama while the government is literally being wrecked around us. But that's being covered elsewhere, and besides, to paraphrase Stalin, a person losing his job is a tragedy, a million losing their jobs is a statistic.
Besides, the big picture is almost too horrible to contemplate. The Department of Education is next, for the crime of imposing uniform standards on a country keen to sink back into regional intellectual darkness, unbroken by any intrusive light from without. Tennessee might be able to expel evolution from its curriculum just in time for the centennial of the Scopes Trial this summer; 100 years and not an inch of progress — they can put that on their license plates.
To continue reading, click here.
Don't do it. Take a chance and keep going until the paper stops printing. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteUgh. I'm sorry Neil. It's been a very hard few months for you, and with the background of the nightmare we're all sharing. I won't be presumptuous enough to suggest what you should decide, I'll just say talk with family and friends as a way of looking in the mirror and don't feel like you owe anyone anything. I only hope you'll continue posting here and either way we'll give you as much support as anonymous commenters are able.
ReplyDeletemaybe talk it over with the wife ? your accountant and financial planner. then do what you want.
ReplyDeleteI retired a year ago. been working ever since. I highly recommend it
Selfishly I wish you stay
ReplyDeletePlease don’t leave. But ultimately you should do what’s best for you.
ReplyDeletePlease stay. Your voice is desperately needed in this crazy abyss we’re headed toward.
ReplyDeleteTaking the offer doesn’t mean you should stop EGD. And you shouldn’t. I’d be really pissed off if you did that.
ReplyDeleteWhat would you do if you didn't write for the paper?
ReplyDeleteWould you be OK with your voice's lack of seismic echo, magnified by the cache of the Sun Times?
As you mention, our early 1930s reset puts "people like you" in an all too familiar place; just like me.
As Jews, we've seen this story before. We've seen the silence from the "best" news papers in the world. We've seen the thread-borne knees of the elites, worn out from kissing the ring. We've seen the silence from an entire political party as the very things they railed against for the last 50 years. We've seen our friends, neighbors, countrymen stand in silence while the other was rounded up and shipped away.
We know how this will end, and it won't matter if you took the buyout or not. But I think you know that.
I hope you stand in defiance until you can no longer stand. Then do the same while you sit. But, I understand that you need to protect yourself.
---
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
Print is irrelevant. You would have no fewer readers if you went solo. Many have done it, some sank into obscurity, some keep on chugging along, and I think that there are more people who come to the Sun Times to read your column than the other way around. I personally believe that you and Zorn and Kass should make an online magazine and charge admission.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know if Eric Zorn is actually making a living publishing the Picayune sentinel, but it sure seems like he’s having fun. Keeping a roof over your family‘s head, and keeping them fed, of course, always comes first. But if that’s not the gating issue, publishing your column online might not be a bad alternative. Some people might even pay for it. And it would be fun to have you show up occasionally on “The Mincing Rascals“.
DeleteYou're nuts. And may I add, freaking nuts. I've bought a print newspaper for nearly 70 years, and I still go out every morning to buy the Sun-Times. Print is not irrelevant. Many people my age like to get their morning exercise by going out to get the paper; I know, I see them at the same store where I get mine. It's a tradition. Later someone will call and say, "Did you see that story on page 15?" Then we discuss. They don't go on the internet to read the news. Some don''t know how because of their age, but they sure know how to plunk down two bucks to buy their daily paper.
DeleteAnd really, you want Kass to ally with Steinberg and Zorn? (Please see the first eight words of my opening sentence.) I guess who want a fascist viewpoint to "balance" the truth. Just like the school district in Texas that required teachers who taught about the Holocaust to also teach an opposing view.
He’s said he started PS to cover his health insurance, has way surpassed that goal, and never been happier. It’s pretty obvious.
DeleteYes, Zorn has the equivalent of "an online magazine" for which he doesn't "charge admission," per se, but for which he's happy to have many subscribers who voluntarily pay. I know Kass has some kind of outlet, but would no more seek it out than try and purchase an original of a Michael Ramirez cartoon.
DeleteI believe EZ has said that he makes about half as much from subscribers to his Picayune Sentinel as he made from the Tribune. Which he seems to be relatively content with, from what he's written.
I'm offering no advice to our genial host, as I'm sure he needs none from the likes of me, and really, there is no "wrong" decision on the table. NS is in the quite enviable position that I imagine that whatever he does will work out fine for him, one way or another. For somebody who's frequently stated something to the effect that "if you're not in the paper, you might as well be dead," this must be a challenging dilemma, indeed, though. Of course, in the old days, the idea that the paper might die before its writers didn't seem nearly as likely.
From the perspective of someone who enjoys the breadth of topics and opinions available in newspapers, it was sad when so many folks took the Tribune buyout and it will be sad however many take the offer from the S-T. But there's a lot to be sad about in America these days, so those are just added to the lengthening list.
I used to read the Suntimes and the Trib. Suntimes mainly for the columnists. Everyone I used to read his gone. Telander might be the only sports columnist worth reading now. I've been a Trib subscriber for a long time. I am sure it was my mother's idea to switch from the Sun Times to the Tribune. Needless to say all the columnists I used to read were bought out, retired or are dead. I have lived in Racine for 60 some years, but was born in Chicago. So even though we moved here we still got either the Sun Times or the Trib plus our local paper. Our local paper had been printed in Munster. I have no idea what time it is delivered to our place. I know when go get the paper it is here at 6:30. No it is down to two sections with hardly any local news, They cut the comics down to half of what they had. Of course any strips you are missing you can find on line. I read a lot of independent journalism on line. https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2024-12-12-the-view-from-somewhere-abolish-rogan-9e9630924275 Read Ryan Cooper's story that Doctorow links to.
DeleteI’ll take the other side. I personally have witnessed
ReplyDeletePlease don’t go, but if you decide to, please don’t stop writing!
ReplyDeleteIn 2008, I took a buyout offer. It was the only way I could proceed, at considerable, scary risk, to be more of the person I wanted to be. I found my way. Yours is a voice worth listening to wherever you are. You are still (relatively)young - you could get a few more years in. Likely you won’t retire from where you are; I suspect this situation will reappear. But you can plan and be pretty comfortable. Or - you can take the money and run, use your rare gifts in your own time, and perhaps come out way ahead in ways that matter most. The risk is tedium and a response to nagging feelings. Either way - that's life, your choice indeed. Whatever you choose, it’s all good; a gift to have a choice at all, surrounded by family, friends, admirers either way. But you know that.
ReplyDeleteFffng genius? Look up how many touted geniuses such as Musk are not only on the spectrum, but hit the listed traits of psycopathy! Ditto billionairs.
ReplyDeleteHeard this chiller right before bedtime...
“Regulations, basically, should be default gone,” Musk said in call joined by Vivek Ramaswamy, until recently the joint head of Doge, and two Republican senators, Joni Ernst and Mike Lee.
“Not default there, default gone. And if it turns out that we missed the mark on a regulation, we can always add it back in.”
Yeh that'll work out well, fffng geniuses.
Rememver, there are going to good paying jobs for everyone with the change to robots, AI and super compuertization. Our masters promised.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the only person you should listen to in this decision is Edie. Edie matters. The rest of us, not so much.
ReplyDeleteTrue dat. You and Edie, together, will make this call. Surely you will still lead the illustrious EGD community you have created. And no doubt be immersed in future opportunities that will present themselves. A "zshlub" you are not. WRITE ON!
DeleteTotally agree. Listen to The Smart One, Mr. S. She will know whether or not it is wise to remain with The Bright One...as the Sun-Times was nicknamed back in the 60s and 70s, when you were still "beavering away" in your classrooms in Berea. (SUN-Times, get it? Nyuk nyuk. Wonder if some Don Draper type thought that one up?)
DeleteYou're rolling dem bones, Mr. S. You could stay a while longer, and retire in two more years. Or be booted out in another two months. You could just take the money, and run like hell. Your father is right. If he were your age, he might have even said "You do you!" A phrase I dislike, because it is so frequently used as a putdown.
Any input from me is negligible, at best. My working life was not a happy or a fruitful one. No upward mobility, or any real money...just bouncing around for decades like a pinball, propelled by the flippers of chance, whim, and serendipity. That was how I got my cup of coffee at the Sun-Times. It lasted about as long as an ice cream cone in July. But, hey, I met Tim Weigel, and Bob Greene. And took a whiz next to Royko, and got a nod of recognition. I'll always have that.
Buyout? Never even came close. More like a kick-out. Or a get-the-fuck-out, as in having had enough. There were some times when I went to lunch and never came back. A couple of them were on the first day. Once, my keycard was terminated, and so was I. Locked out of the office. Even got fired over the phone...from a phone sales job. Tried to make a list of the jobs I held in forty years. Couldn't remember them all. Pass the Prevagen, please.
Nineteen twenty-five? Seems like as good a comparison as any. Most of the
older apartment buildings in the Chicago area were built around 1925, during this country's enormous Roaring Twenties building boom. Now they are being supplanted by the ubiquitous dull gray boxes that will not last a few more decades, let alone for another century.
But then, neither will their environment. An American oligarchy, and a few more years of our spree, followed by a world-wide economic collapse, and then the final cataclysm. Sounds like a remake, and also a plausible scenario. But it won't take another fifteen years.
Or perhaps that asteroid will clock us in eight more years. Three days before Christmas. A very violent and messy end, but relatively quick. Samuel Johnson said: "When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." Impending doom may finally awaken us, and wise us up, just in time for us to become cosmic dust.
That last part seems pure whimsy, Grizz. I'd say we're two crises away from further breakdown.
DeleteYou got that right, Neil. There is nobody in the administration to handle a crisis. As a matter of fact, the administration is a crisis.
DeleteAnd approaching the edge of the abyss. Two serious crises might be enough to push us right to the brink. Hard to say how many Reagan and Bush 43 had.
DeleteNixon faced six stressful circumstances in a dozen years, between 1948 and 1960, long before he finally became POTUS. Wrote a best-selling book about dealing with them. We aren't even close to having that much time. Our guy's cabeza is rapidly turning to mush.
Take the deal. Jeff Zaslow was shown the door because he earned too much money. (Ostensibly, it was because he needed an assistant. I can't imagine they earned much of a salary. Full disclosure: I worked for Jeff for a couple summers when I was in college. I *was one of his assistants, for a very short time.)
ReplyDeleteOnce you become a large-enough line item in a budget, your days are numbered. I worked for a guy who was laid off from the Tribune (many years after I left) for just that reason. He had been there for decades. The paper didn't care. Institutional knowledge? Pffft. Profits were more important.
Thankfully, my salary was never that big, and I've never had an assistant. Funny, I mentioned Jeff in the original column, but cut it for space. My understanding is that it was the cost of the assistant, plus the fact they could get a column half as good for $50 a month syndicated from some lady in Canada, that put him on the block. Jeff went on to go back to the Journal and write, "The Last Lecture," so that was good, though the success of "Lecture" ended up killing him, in a way (he was driving to one of the countless signings he did when he had his fatal accident).
DeletePlease consider staying. Your voice is needed in these Trumpian times.
ReplyDeleteMiddle of the night, I scrolled quickly to the end and was relieved not to see a definitive farewell. But if you decide to leave the Sun Times, you owe us nothing and we offer you thanks for decades of fine writing. I'll echo Linda to say it's "a gift to have a choice at all ..."
ReplyDeleteI won't presume to give you advice, but I will say that I think it's extremely cruel to subject you to this "Let's Make a Deal"-type scenario where you have to avoid the door with the goat behind it. Take the buyout and leave a job you love? Keep the job only to risk losing it at any time, with no money to show for it?
ReplyDeleteThis is the way that many employers relate to their workforces, for whatever good reason they might happen to have. The only difference between this and a full-blown "Squid Games" situation is that losing the American game doesn't cost you your life.
At least not usually, and not right away.
Substack? I only subscribe to the Sun-Times because of you - I’m up in Minneapolis - but I’d willingly pay another subscription there for EGD.
ReplyDelete100% agreed. With the departure of NS, S-T will lose a ton of biz. You're their golden goose. They need to keep you fat and happy.
DeleteDidn't realize there were so many 'Dear Abby" aspirants out there.
ReplyDeletejohn
Oh, forgot to say that my advice for Neil would be, "Beware a 'No Compete' clause as well as a "No Sue' clause." Either of those is the equivalent of giving you money with one hand and taking it back with the other.
ReplyDeletejohn
I'm more concerned about the "No disparagement" clause. For me, that would be a like a "No breathe" clause.
DeleteLet me echo Bill Herrmann above. Should you decide to retire from the paper and put EGD on a pay-only basis, I will be one of the first on your subscriber rolls.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bitter.
DeleteDitto. EGD is the intelligent person's whinery.
DeleteWhen I post elsewhere as I do here, the teeming billions mostly ignore me.
Farcebook has become an aviary for the bird-brains.
The Sun Times without Neil Steinberg is unthinkable. I start everyday with EGD or your column in the paper. It's always entertaining, informative, and most importantly, a tonic for the madness the day always brings since the least capable, most maladjusted human on earth has infected the national consciousness.
ReplyDeleteAnd I’ll also be among the first subscribers. You are the finest writer in town and beyond. Your essays have great value. And entertaining besides. Of course we should pay for it! I’ve known this for decades - - the primary reason to get the S-T. (I’ll never forget meeting you by chance on Wacker Drive, over 30 years ago, in pre-internet times, just back from vacation, and I opened my briefcase to show you it was full of M-W-F Sun-Times which I had a coworker save while I was gone, to ensure I didn’t miss your column)
ReplyDeleteNem the gelt, Neil. It won’t be there later. You can still do what you love, and what you’re great at. Then allow us to subscribe!
Neil, when my kids had to make hard decisions, I would tell them, "You can't make a wrong decision, because the one you make will be the only right one for you." Your father is very wise. He knows you'll make the right choice. And so do I. Best of luck.
ReplyDeleteNooooo!!!! How I would miss you! Even if it's a GD, your column brightens it Every!
ReplyDeleteYou'll do the right thing.
ReplyDeleteNoooo! How I would miss you! Even if it's a "GD", your column brightens it "Every".
ReplyDeleteSo about 25 years ago the hospital I worked for was bought by Advocate. I was 44 and had been there since my early 20s. The suits out in Oak Brook decided to clean house. Fair enough. My new boss took me aside and told me to take the first severance package offered. He said they won't get any better. I took his advice. Darn happy I did. There was no second round of packages. Always take the first offer and then smile and say thank you and slip away into the night.
ReplyDelete10-4 on that, Roger. Most nights I long for citizens band -CB- radio. It seems all the good things so recently have folded-up like a cheap wooden sidewalk and the talent has been laid waste. The "new normal" is a strange mix of discontent and outright lies.
DeleteNeil, you shine through, I mean that. All good things to you and yours. This is a tough old world; I trust society will make a course correction and we'll begin honest conversations of good will. Meantime, Neil, please keep keeping on.
Luckily you should be eligible for Medicare this year and won't need to buy insurance.
ReplyDeleteAs long as you're able and willing, you'll keep writing because your mind doesn't rest. I would happily pay for what burbles forth wherever it lands.. Books, paper, it's still priceless to me. Just stick to it. Your readers will find and fund you.
ReplyDeleteYou and I are about the same age, Neil. If my employer offered me a buyout, I think I'd jump at the chance and consider it a bridge to retirement, something I am salivating over... time to read, take classes that have nothing to do with my career, chosen for expediency rather than passion, and hopefully travel if that is even possible any more. On the other hand, you, like so many of the civil servants President Musk wants to get rid of, are needed for much the same reason. Your dad is right... in the final analysis, it is up to you (and Mrs. Steinberg). And obody can make you put your laptop away. You could still continue your column in a different manner. That's a lot of freedom to have. And freedom to choose is in short supply for many right now.
ReplyDelete