I’m sure some of you were perplexed that, after being “laid off” on Monday, lead KC Star editorial writer Yael Abouhalkah remained on the paper’s masthead (bottom of the editorial page) Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Not only that, but Yael’s regular weekly column was on the Op-Ed page yesterday, and the lead editorial — about Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach — sounded like a Yael piece of work.
Puzzling, yes…Because Monday’s news that Yael had been let go struck many dedicated Star readers like a thunderclap, and Yael, in a Facebook post, made it sound like he was finished that day. “I am on to a new adventure after The Star decided to lay me off this morning after almost 37 years there,” he wrote.
Traditionally, when newspaper employees are offered and accept a structured, widely offered buyout, they get a week or two to phase out. But when they’re “laid off,” it’s usually summarily, with the cut-loose employees going back to the newsroom, clearing out their desks (sometimes with security looking on) and leaving the building within hours.
So I was surprised to learn yesterday that Publisher Tony Berg offered Yael two weeks notice and Yael took him up on it.
Now, I’ve gotta say…if somebody drops a bag of shit on my head, I’m going to make a quick exit and not hang around waiting for the stench to become overwhelming.
Yael is now a lame duck — lamer than President Obama — and people are not going to take his work that seriously the next week and a half. Many readers are probably going to be thinking, “Didn’t they get rid of that guy?”
Yael’s decision to power on for two weeks reflects the one thing that some people didn’t like about him: his prima donna status, which he cultivated and nurtured.
He was a straight arrow and always had the taxpayers’ best interests in mind, in my opinion, but he did — does — have a substantial ego. Who knows? Maybe he wanted to play the role of sacrificial lamb — targeted for the kill but not quite ready for the fire.
I don’t get it: I would have left Tony Berg to scramble for the time being and see if Lewis Diuguid, the only other editorial page writer currently, could produce an editorial page. That would have been fun to watch!
As I said in my Monday post, a big question is whether Yael will get the traditional sheet-cake-and-pizza party that retiring employees get, as well as those that are offered and accept structured buyouts. Now that Yael has decided to swallow his pride and work a bit longer, it wouldn’t surprise me if Tony Berg didn’t give him that party and also, just to carry the sham to its natural conclusion, deliver a speech lauding Yael for his 36-plus years of outstanding service to The Star…Now, that’s a party I would have no interest in attending.
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I picked up some other tidbits about this firing that you might be interested in. (Got these mostly from Tony Botello’s “kick-ass sources.” Seems Tony hasn’t been giving them enough “black and white” lately, and, like all good sources, they crave seeing their tips in print.)
:: Last Friday, Yael dropped by Tony Berg’s office to tell him he was planning to come in later than usual on Monday so he could stay late that night and write about the presidential debate for Tuesday’s paper. “No, no,” the publisher said. “Come in at your usual time.” That was the first inkling Yael had that his time at The Star might be drawing nigh.
:: He’s getting six months of severance pay, which is typical in layoffs at The Star.
:: Tony Berg has made it clear he wants a “more balanced” editorial page. What that means, of course, is that the liberal bent Yael and other recently retired editorial-board employees (i.e., Steve Paul and Barb Shelly) brought to the table will be changing with the arrival of recently hired editorial board vice-president Colleen McCain Nelson. Pretty soon, we may well see a slew of letters to the editor complaining about the paper’s conservative tilt, instead of vice versa.
:: Finally, ever since the dust-up over guest columnist Laura Herrick’s controversial piece about rape last July — a column Tony Berg apologized for and had removed from the website — Berg insisted that every editorial and every Op-Ed piece be submitted to him, for review, before publication. I’ve never heard of that before. But, you know, it’s a new day at The Star. It’s now Tony’s show, and he made it clear from the day he took over last January, when he vowed to fix the circulation problems, that he was going to be a very hands-on publisher.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Jim,
I got the pink slip on Nov. 10, 2008, with an effective date of Nov. 21. Mike Fannin offered to let me leave on the 10th, but I opted to stay — partly because I wanted to make Fanin, Mark Zieman and Greg Farmer have to watch me fade away, and partly because I knew it would take two weeks to clean up my work space. I declined the offer of a sheet cake,
I liked Yael. He got off his duff and attended government meetings so he could get information firsthand. He didn’t waste time on goofy ideas like sitting in on a high school class for nine months or dressing up like a bum to see which churches would welcome him at Sunday services.
Maybe I’ve got it wrong, Les…As far as you know, was that the way it worked with others who were laid off? (I was fortunate to have missed the layoffs.) I thought some people were ordered to depart immediately.
…I stand by what I said: If i got the notice with an effective date of two weeks, I’d want to leave immediately…No thanks on two weeks of water boarding.
Fascinating column, Jim. I will alert others.
Yael is the keynote speaker at a Mainstreet Coalition dinner Oct. 30 at the Overland Park Convention Center, and Barb Shelly, on Oct. 10, wraps up the Third Annual Heartland Coalition Community Forum at the Kauffman Foundation Conference Center, 4801 Rockhill Road. Leonard Pitts Jr., kicks it off at 9:15 a.m., and Barb ends it around 3 p.m. He topic is “words we use in everyday life about guns.”
The Kansas City Star continues to shine in the community through its alumni.
And that list of alumni who continue to shine would have you at the very top, Laura!!!
For the Mainstream Coalition dinner, cocktails are at 5 and dinner and program at 6:30. Call 913-649-3326 for more information.
Fitz, I was laid off on September 17, 2008 with my job not being eliminated until September 26. I too opted to stay to the end. Like Les, I knew it was going to take some time to clear out my desk and organize stuff for my successor (wishful and foolish thinking considering that they closed the Northland bureau six months later.
But there were other reasons. One reason is quite frankly my distrust for The Star and its management was so severe that I figured that if I did leave that day, they wouldn’t pay me for the remaining 8 work days. The other reason _ and the reason I understand why Yael is writing editorials to the end_ was that I wanted to continue reporting. I remember the last story I did was about the North Kansas City Council’s approval of its yearly budget. It was a routine Northland News story and insignificant in the eyes of many. But I felt that the people of North Kansas City deserved to know how their tax dollars were being used. So I reviewed the budget, interviewed the mayor and city manager, and wrote the story _ even though I had already been informed of my dismissal. That story was probably the last time details about NKC’s budget appeared in The Star _ at least until the city’s finances crumbled several years later.
So good for Yael for sticking it out and making Tony Berg have to deal with him for at least a few more days.
I’m a big talker, you know…If I had been called into an office and told I was being laid off but that I had two weeks to stay, I might not have had the presence of mind — or the courage of my conviction — to say, “Fuck you, I’m gone.” Might have said, “OK, boss, and stumbled back to the newsroom.”
What has happened to Yael certainly is of interest to those of us who follow the internal machinations and politics at the newspaper, and it has been discussed here, and on Twitter and other online outlets, but unless news of his departure has been published in the Star, I would venture a guess that the majority of readers aren’t aware of his fate and wouldn’t think twice about continuing to see his byline.
This all reminds me of the time back in 1968, when I had my first newspaper job at the Kentucky Post in Covington, KY. I was from Louisville, home of the then-vaunted Courier-Journal newspaper, and I knew The Post was several notches below The Courier, but I needed to start somewhere. At one point, the editor, Vance Trimble, asked the employees for a written evaluation of The Post, and I compared it unfavorably to the Courier-Journal.
A few days later, Trimble called me into his office and and said something like, “This isn’t working out too well, so why don’t you work another month and then move on.”
Stunned, I came out of the office, went back to my desk and told the guy across from me I was getting fired. The guy’s eyes got real big, and he said, “Trimble never fires anybody!”
During the next few weeks, I gained a lot of humility and worked my ass off. Trimble later called me in and said something like, “You’re doing a fine job; you can stay as long as you want.”
I ended up staying there about six months, before going on active duty with the Army Reserve and then catching on with The Star in September 1969.
The Michael Connelly novel, Scarecrow, is about an LA Times reporter who has been given a two-weeks notice, and he is determined to go out with a big story to his credit. And he does, solving some seemingly un-related murders. And, yep, the title Scarecrow fits into the story, and one of the reporter’s editors has a picture of the Wizard of Oz cast hanging on the wall behind her desk.
When I was laid off from the Star in June 2008 along with many of my colleagues, those of us being laid off were offered the opportunity to work another two weeks if we wanted to. I had just been assigned to write a comprehensive update on all the major happenings at Cerner Corp. The story was slated to run as the cover story on the old Star Business Weekly tab in early July.
I stayed the extra two weeks and got that cover story done. I had great respect (and still do) for my supervising editor at the time, Donna Vestal, and I knew she was depending on me to report and write that story. I wrote other stories during those last two weeks as well.
I didn’t get a sheet cake. But Chris Lester, who was the lead editor of the Business News desk, took me and the entire business news staff (a lot of people back then!) out to lunch at Harry’s Country Club. And editor Keith Chrostowski took me out for drinks and encouragement on one of my last nights at the paper. As I look back on everything, I’m really glad I stayed and worked through those final two weeks.
Good stories here on post-layoff decisions…You reporters who held on for the two weeks demonstrated a lot of dedication to your jobs and, more important, to your readers.
KCUR’s Dan Margolies is reporting that Lewis Diuguid is also leaving. Dan’s story (see link below) doesn’t say if Diuguid, 61, is retiring or being laid off. The story says his final day will be Oct. 7, which, presumably, is also Yael’s last day.
It will be interesting to see who in the newsroom is drafted to write editorials, edit the letters to the editor and select the Op-Ed pieces. Or maybe Tony Berg has other plans. In any event, I’m sure he has one, otherwise he would not have taken the drastic step of laying off Yael six weeks before the general election.
http://kcur.org/post/longtime-kc-star-editorial-board-member-lewis-diuguid-stepping-down#stream/0
The culture of the company/yes-/man/woman is a weakness of any 1st Amendment/academic freedom institution. We all want that ego power, check, health insurance, job security…and most workers are willing to compromise in order to secure it or hold onto it to the last possible moment. That is the reason freedom is subject to erosion and revolutions are so rare, but so vicious.
The ego has to have a lot to do with it, Ned…One of my first editors, Don T. Jones, used to say to me, “Fitzpatrick, you eat those by-lines for breakfast, don’t you?”
Indeed, I did…
Here’s an interesting tangential note: In a New Yorker article discussing the endorsement of Clinton by the Arizona Republic, where Mi-Ai Parrish is publisher, it says the paper has a nine-person editorial board.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-a-conservative-paper-ended-up-endorsing-hillary-clinton
I can’t get into the Republic’s website — looks like a pay wall from the get-go, but I’d be very surprised if they have a true nine-member board. Could be that they lump the editor, managing editor and some other high-titled people into it. But if they really do, no wonder Mi-Ah got out of KC. (Although I still wouldn’t want her back; she couldn’t get the papers delivered to the customers!)
Mi-Ai Parrish – president Arizona Republic
Joanna Allhands -Oversees opinions content on web
Steve Benson – Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist
Phil Boas – editor of the editorial pages of The Arizona Republic
Nicole Carroll oversees the newsroom and editorial board as VP news and editor
Elvia Díaz – re she has held various reporting and editing positions. She’s now the editor of lavozarizona.com and its weekly print publication.
Abe Kwok – oversees guests columns, letters to the editor and syndicated columns.
Robert Robb – editorial columnist since 1999
Linda Valdez – editorial writer, columnist and blogger
What’s azcentral’s editorial board all about, and who are the people behind it?
We get that question from time to time, so let’s dispel the mystery. Editorials represent the opinion of The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com editorial board. Our nine-member editorial board — Mi-Ai Parrish, Joanna Allhands, Steve Benson, Phil Boas, Nicole Carroll, Elvia Diaz, Abe Kwok, Robert Robb and Linda Valdez — sets those opinions, which is why you won’t see a particular author or byline.
John is quoting there, from the Arizona Republic website…
http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2016/09/23/editorial-board-members/81497424/
Mostly editors of this and that, a cartoonist and a couple of editorial writers.
The problem with the editorial page is that it had become dull, predictable and boring. Those who remained, perhaps in part, a function of the workload, simply cranked out thoughtless, partisan pap. Yael wasn’t martyred struggling against Brownback, far from it. If anything, Brownback owes him one for damaging some of the independent voices in the conservative movement who opposed the more unpopular elements of Sam’s agenda. None of the conservatives that I know of in Topeka took him seriously.
Endorsements had become rigid and doctrinaire. One could just as easily pull down the endorsements from the Mainstream Coalition as The Star’s given that they were virtually identical. Indeed, at times they became comical as when the Star endorsed a felon convicted of public corruption over a former community college president for a seat on the KCKCC board. And, if you had wanted to know why, you would have been uninformed, given only the vaguest of reasons for the selection.
Worse yet, even when the choice was between two liberals (as in the case of the aforementioned felon), The Star seemed to always pick the candidate with the sleaziest record. Cleaver over Metzl, Holland over Murguia, a drunken judge over a reform candidate, and the list goes on.
While The Star always seemed burdened with talentless tokens like Diuguid, Laura Scott and, in his own way, Tom McClanahan, it did have its bright spots. At one time Yael was one of them when he was focused on metro area government on the Missouri side, but once he became an overworked generalist his writings were more akin to a drunk falling off a bar stool at 3 AM than a knowledgeable honest broker informing the community.
Bob Sigman used to piss me off and outrage me with the stuff that he wrote (he was also a real sweetheart in person and I always enjoyed chatting with him), but I read him. Rhonda Lokeman was no token. Her writing was engaging and usually interesting to read. Rich Hood and Steve WInn were hardly doctrinaire, or predictable. They were journalists and they were interesting.
And so, while I will not take the joy Yael took with every ounce of misery that was ever inflicted on Kansas in seeing him go, I will not shed crocodile tears at an editorial page that had become a disgrace to the community and completely unrepresentative of the majority of its citizens. It was a drag on the paper’s bottom line and a burden to the honest journalists who had to try and convince people they would be objective and fair.
Personally, I don’t think The Star needs an editorial staff in an age where every community has bloggers representing every ideology, or position out there, but, if it must have one, kudos to Tony Berg for trying to make it something the community can respect, be proud of and enjoy.
I’ve got to defend my friends Laura Scott and Tom McClanahan…They were hard-working, conscientious editorial writers who added a lot to the page. And Lewis, as much as I criticize his writing, is a good man. He got a career in at The Star and I’m sure he’s leaving satisfied with that.
I would expect no less.
I’ll remember two things about Tom McClanahan : 1) His totally wrong predictions about the Iraq War; and 2) http://www.poynter.org/2006/kc-star-corrects-column-claiming-upiers-cheered-saigons-fall/79830/ .
Gee, I wish I had only made two mistakes. That’s quite a record. In Tom’s defense it is not easy keeping a job as a conservative in a liberal environment. I wrote every column as if it was my last and was stunned that I lasted over a year. I can’t imagine what it would be like actually having to keep a real job there and the land mines one would have to avoid on an almost daily basis.
I never said he only made two mistakes. He was much more prolific than that.
Yes, you think everything’s going along fine and the next thing you know the publisher has pulled a column on rape and says everything you decide to run henceforth will be reviewed by ME.
Not sure what you’re responding to, Fitz, but that would have been a big hint that, if nothing else, he was not in line for a leadership role on the page. Had it been a minor error, the conversation would have involved some clarification and they would have moved forward status quo ante.
Nothing to do with McClanahan…Just an allusion to your comment about the daily “land mines” those staffers have to deal with, specifically referencing the recent rape-column brouhaha.
Gotcha.