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Secrets of the
Montgomery Advertiser "Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs." - Norman MacLean By JUDITH HANEY USNewsLink
- The Montgomery
Advertiser announced today the departure of Executive Editor, Paula S. Moore. Ms.
Moore is fighting cancer. I am a former
employee of Ms. Moore. She hired me in the capacity of Online Editor of the Montgomery
Advertiser a few years ago. During my tenure
at the Advertiser, I was exposed to a harsh corporate culture which turned a blind eye and
deaf ear to the gross misconduct of Ms. Moore's subordinates who maligned, defamed,
denigrated, and disrespected her, unchecked, behind her back, and at their will. Ms. Moore was a
corporate executive who in exchange for her hard working, dedicated, efforts, was allowed
by the Publisher, Scott Brown, to be mistreated by lesser beings, behind her back - always
behind her back. I hated the way
Ms. Moore was treated. I felt an intense loyalty to her, both as a boss and as a woman. I
reacted with repugnance at the manner in which she was discussed outside her presence. The Advertiser
employees who did the maligning were inferior, uneducated, crass, rude, cowardly, boys who enjoyed
debasing Ms. Moore to the night shift employees in the news room. There was never a boss
around late at night when the maligning was taking place. And for the record, no woman
ever engaged in malicious conduct about Ms. Moore - at least not in my presence. The Advertiser -
in fact all of Gannett - is top heavy with men in management. Ms. Moore was a rare
exception who was able to stay longer at the top of the corporate ladder than many other
women in the news industry. Being a woman at
the top had it's price and Ms. Moore paid dearly I departed the
Advertiser under adverse circumstances. One night I vigorously confronted a man who I
worked with when he maligned and defamed Ms. Moore while she was away on vacation. I
refused to work with him thereafter. And I reported him to the Publisher, to the Human
Resources Director, and to others in the corporate structure. I had had enough of his
abusive behavior and I wanted distance from it. The bottom line was: I wouldn't put up
with him for another second. When she returned
to work from vacation, approximately a month after the incident, Ms. Moore fired me for my
actions toward the other employee. My having stood up for her didn’t register with
her. To this day I don’t know why. I didn't deserve to be fired. She knew that. I knew that. and Scott Brown, the Publisher of the Advertiser knew that. Ms. Moore was a
strong leader, a compassionate lady, and a fine woman. She will be missed in the
journalistic world. I am proud to say I worked for her, knew her in that capacity, and had
an opportunity to see how a committed editor brings the news to a community, nay an entire
state, hungry for the truth. She told me once:
"I want us to OWN political reporting in Although I have
not spoken to her since she fired me, I have often thought about her, and I have
remembered her gratefully for affording me a rare opportunity to function at a high level
of competence inside a major daily. And during the
Chief Justice Moore debacle, I have often wondered what Paula thought about that matter.
She had her Of course, Paula
would never say "publicly" what she thought about anything - she would never
risk being perceived as biased. But "sometimes", on rare occasions, and only
behind closed doors, one would get a glimpse of her brilliant wit and wonderful sense
of humor. Thank you Paula
for your excellent contribution to journalism. You raised the bar for the rest of us. And,
you will be sorely missed by all of us. |
On January 25,
2004, the Montgomery Advertiser announced that Paula S. Moore would leave her position as
executive editor. A memo to her staff read as follows: |
