It would be great if The Star Ledger…
….put Cory Booker under a microscope like they have Governor Chris Christie and Rutgers Athletic Director Julie Hermann.
By Art Gallagher, [email protected]
photo via facebook
Star Ledger sports columnist Steve Politi has a column this morning that is part of his ongoing campaign to take down Rutgers Athletic Director Julie Hermann; Julie Hermann: It would be ‘great’ if The Star Ledger went out of business.
Politi has been trying to get Hermann fired since Rutgers hired her to turn around their Athletic Department last spring. Something about alleged bullying and sex discrimination at a previous job and lying about whether or not she talked to the parent of a Rutgers student who alleged he had been bullied.
Turns out that Hermann doesn’t like The Star Ledger. Several weeks ago she told a journalism class that, “That’d be great [if the Star Ledger died]. I’m going to do all I can to not to give them a headline to keep them alive because I think I got them through the summer,” according to a Rutgers student alternative news site, Muckgers. (Note that Hermann didn’t actually say the words ‘if the Star Ledger died.’ She was responding to a student’s question that was not quoted.) The Muckgers reporter broke the “news” of Hermann’s several weeks old remarks to a journalism class last Thursday, the same day The Star Ledger told 167 employees they would be out or work in September with severance pay.
As part of his pity party for his 167 colleagues, Politi wrote a column with a headline that implies Hermann threw a celebratory party to celebrate the coming hardship on those reporters, advertising execs, copy editors and clerks who don’t find work before their severance and unemployment benefits run out.
Forget, for a minute, what you think about the newspaper. It doesn’t matter if you think its Rutgers’ coverage stinks, or its news coverage is biased, or if its columnists are too smug for their own good.
What matters is this: The Star-Ledger employs a lot of people. And if the Rutgers athletic director thinks it would be great if it closed down, then she relishes the idea of seeing those people lose their livelihood, their benefits and maybe more.
I don’t know Hermann. Never talked to her. But I’d bet that she doesn’t “relish the idea of seeing those people lose their livelihood, their benefits and maybe more.” She probably just feels that way about Politi, who has been trying to see her lose her livelihood, benefits and more.
I don’t begrudge Politi taking his shots at Hermann. I have no idea if his coverage of her career is accurate or not. I respect the fact that his bias against her is obvious.
But I think that The Star Ledger spending so much on an Athletic Director while giving a U.S. Senator a pass is disgraceful.
Posted: April 7th, 2014 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2014 U.S. Senate race, Cory Booker, Media, NJ Media | Tags: AshBrit, Chris Christie, Cory Booker, Julie Hermann, Rutgers, Steve Politi, The Star Ledger | Comments Off on It would be great if The Star Ledger…