Herald: WBZ fires Jonic after FBI story flap

[David Tomm]

On Aug 4, 2005, at 3:35 PM, Joseph Pappalardo wrote:

>> Oh, what a steaming pile of crap that is!  Conservatives love to throw
>> the word ""terrorism" around as an excuse to scare people, muzzle the
>> alleged "liberal media" and chip away at freedom of the press.  Look,
>> if that story was to air, I'm sure the FBI could make arrangements to
>> address the problems and beef up security in compromised areas within
>> hours.
>
> You are sure of that?  You're an authority on the FBI, their strengths 
> and
> practices?

C'mon.  This is the FBI, a major government agency.  I'm sure that they 
can make changes quickly if necessary.  A report on a few security 
weaknesses at an FBI building is no threat to national security.  It's 
just another right wing scare tactic to suppress bad PR stories.

I'm sure you're not an expert on the Iraq war but I'd bet you have an 
opinion on it.

>
>> The real story is that the right wing federal government is...
>
> The real story is that Flo Jonic was insubordinate to her superiors 
> and was
> fired.
>
> It has nothing to do with right/left wing politics.

I never addressed her being insubordinate.  My outrage is that WBZ 
management, who's idea it was to investigate this story in the first 
place, didn't have the stones to back up her work and run it.
>
>> They intimidated WBZ into caving.
>
> Gee, I wasn't aware that you were in on that phone call.

Were you in on the call that said they didn't?
>
>> That should scare the crap out of
>> any newsperson no matter what your political leanings are.
>
> The reality is that every reporter has an editor, news director or 
> publisher
> who makes the final decisions as to what should be printed and 
> broadcast and
> what should not.

True, but don't investigate a story if you don't intend on running it.  
It would be one thing if the story was false, but if the Herald piece 
was any indication, Jonik's facts were solid.

>
>> Lets see, the government intimidating the fourth estate....sounds like
>> the old Soviet Union to me.....
>
> There is no indication that they enganged in "intimidating".
> They simply made a request.   And, WBZ saw it as reasonable.

Were you in on that phone call too?  We'll never know for sure whether 
WBZ "saw it as reasonable" or if they were instructed not to run the 
story.

--Dave Tomm
"Mike Thomas"