PBS says good night, Melanie, now security will escort you out. Melanie Martinez was the star of The Good Night Show, the
marquee show on the PBS-Comcast preschool channel,
Sprout. At least, she was until this week, when a parody PSA promoting "
technical virginity" (
video, NSFW) from her starving actress days resurfaced, thanks to a
Memphis radio station. PBS fired her, saying that the "video is inappropriate for her role as a preschool program host," even though it pre-dated her Sprout work by many years. A new meaning for the word
dooced?
posted by dw
on Jul 21, 2006 -
95 comments
Another blogger gets fired for blogging. Blogebrity is reporting that the latest victim is Jessa Jeffries whose blog
Jessaisms got her booted. But mysteriously there is no explaination on her blog as to what her offense was and a
cached version reveals nothing negative to her workplace or any illegalities. Unless of course they stumbled across some of her anti-Bush rants or pictures of Lindsay Lohan's breasts. Is
that now termination-worthy? Furthermore her now-former employer is demanding that not just her offending posts be removed, but her entire blog. How is that possible? The blog is due to disappear at noon today.
posted by tsarfan
on May 18, 2006 -
215 comments
Another
working blogger bites the dust - "This was moaning about not getting your birthday off or not getting on with your boss. I wasn't libelling anyone or giving away trade secrets."
The company he worked for,
Waterstones, saw differently. More on the subject
here.
posted by triv
on Jan 12, 2005 -
56 comments
Bob Edwards gets the boot! The host of National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" since its inception in 1979 has been forced out of that job. What's next to go? Susan Stamberg's cranberry relish?
posted by Durwood
on Mar 23, 2004 -
72 comments
Cirque Du Soleil fires HIV positive gymnast. "It's preposterous for Cirque de Soleil to call Matthew a 'known safety hazard,'" Gorenberg said. "Cirque du Soleil denied Matthew this job not because of sound science or rational concern for other employees but because of unfounded fear. It defies both common sense and science to think that Matthew would exchange bodily fluids with another gymnast while flying through the air."
posted by adrober
on Jul 22, 2003 -
28 comments
Perhaps This Public Image/Persona Thing Has Gone Just A Little Too Far: Luís Campos Lopes, the manager of the Portuguese football team
Vitoria de Setúbal has just been
sacked for "projecting a negative image of the club". [
Link in Portuguese, but please read on.] The reason? Just watch the photo-sequence in the main link. Luís Lopes had trouble putting on his Setúbal vest during a crucial game with Benfica! I.e. the powerful sports media in Portugal and Brazil have had a riot with the photographs and the poor widdle proprietors were embarrassed. So? He may not be a brilliant manager - but isn't this blatant
lookism? Isn't "image" becoming much too big for its boots, as it were, in professional sports? [
Here is the only English language reference I could find. Please scroll down to "Luís Campos".]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Mar 31, 2003 -
26 comments
"Now America is reappraising the battlefield, delaying the war, maybe a week and rewriting the war plan. The first plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another plan." Seems patently obvious, no? But tell Iraqi state television that and suddenly you're speaking from "a position of complete ignorance," according to the White House.
Peter Arnett,
highly respected, Pulitzer Prize winner and the first journalist to
interview Osama Bin Laden on film, wouldn't back down the
last time a network caved into craven submission at hands of the American military, and
he's been sacked by NBC/MSNBC for again refusing to do so. There's no First Amendment case, obviously, and no real surprise that the military would be exerting pressure to maintain control over information, but does the firing of high-profile Arnett for the repeating the obvious increase
anybody's confidence that we're hearing anything resembling the truth?
posted by JollyWanker
on Mar 31, 2003 -
30 comments
Today's lesson:
Write a letter to a congressman, get fired for it. Was this abuse of a work email account, or a miffed congressman's office overstepping its bounds? Ah, dissent in the 21st century, what a time we live in.
posted by mathowie
on Aug 14, 2002 -
66 comments
Cadence engineer fired for activism: So, an engineer for
Cadence Design Systems, on his own time and dime went to Bethlehem to do humanitarian work with the
International Solidarity Movement, a group of pro-Palestinian activists who believe in non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. When he returned, he was immediately terminated due to "inappropriate politics in an area where Cadence does business (Israel)".
Should corporations have the right to mandate the political views of their employees, contractors and subsidiary workers? Would there be more outrage if he was fired for supporting the Israeli occupation? When a Christian's beliefs run contrary to Jewish interests, is it automatically fair to fire the Christian?
posted by dejah420
on May 29, 2002 -
57 comments
