from jasonbentley.org
Why do companies do this? CNN just fired one of their interns for posting about her job on a blog. On a password-protected, closed-membership blog. Where she raved about how much she loved her job at "Anderson Cooper 360," how exciting it was to be working for CNN, and how gosh-darned great everything was. There were about fifty-odd people in their little online community, enjoying her musings like "today I transcribed tape" and "Anderson Cooper is really, really nice" (okay she may have noticed that he worked out but my God, are we not human?). The point is, ne'er did a more innocuous closed-membership password-protected blog exist.
Her name is Rachel and she's 29, a writer and copyeditor and full-time back-to-school-student, psyched beyond belief to have landed this internship. Her story came out yesterday via a long and impassioned post on the Anderson Cooper 360 Review blog, posted by her friend and blogger, Eliza, to register her shock and disbelief at the injustice.
Is it injustice? One the one hand, the perils of posting publicly — or even divulging privately for the purpose of posting publicly — about your workplace are well-documented. CNN, fearful of being overtaken by Fox, is right to be protective of its secrets. Oh, wait. But on the other hand, as a point of fairness but also general industry policy at this point, should there not be some sort of standard for this sort of thing, other than a knee-jerk dismissal? According to Eliza, and confirmed via email exchange to ETP, there was no elucidation of prohibited behaviors at CNN (though there was a confidentiality policy to sign, but no definition of "confidentiality"), and no warning after Rachel's (private, password-protected) musings were discovered. Ought the closed nature of Rachel's communications — never mind what was contained therein (and ETP has read it, see above re: innoucuousness) been taken into consideration? Says Rachel, regretfully: "A warning would have been both appreciated and heeded."
Now, clearly the journal-blog was not sacrosanct, password protected though it was; and as Tucker Carlson's video clerk knows all too well, information has a way of getting back to people. A lapse in judgment, to be sure, but a fireable offense? For writing things like
At 3, I took a totally awesome class on a program called iNews. Let me just interject here that the woman who does training is possibly one of the coolest, nicest, most honest people on the planet.
and
I am introduced to ___ today, who was the writer who did the 360 Blog entry yesterday. He is super, super nice, as they all are.
Also, Anderson apparently gets gift baskets all the time, and leaves them to the interns to enjoy. THIS INFORMATION MUST NEVER GET OUT!
More tidbits on the CNNers after the jump. If you're not interested in reading things like "that John Roberts is an awesome guy!" then don't bother.
"Saw Toobin and The Gerg outside the studio. The Gerg is at least nine feet tall. Watching him get mic'd up by our sound guy, who is about 5'7, was easily one of the most hilarious things ever....When he was done with his segment, I came outside and saw him checking his email on a computer, approached him and said, "I just want to shake your hand." He was very gracious and soft-spoken...I think he's not used to being approached by admirers."
"The graphics PA (who is sweet and wonderful and helpful) calls me down to the dubbing room and asks me a favor--can I please dub some clips from the server onto beta for her. Of course I can; I like doing things for her."
"Midnight rolls around, I head back up to the newsfloor to pack up my stuff, and then head to the elevator. John King comes jogging through the hall door and calls, "Hold the escape chariot!" How adorable."
"Anderson is about as shy and quiet as your average wild rabbit."
"David Doss is ridiculously nice. I also like his hair. Plus, he's funny.
And brilliant. All this from like a two minute conversation with the guy.
Imagine the impression he'd leave after half an hour."
How you log b-roll: "This is like logging an interview, but supposedly faster. You're basically supposed to describe every shot as it changes and time-stamp it. So, she gave me a list of terminology: For example, you don't "zoom" in our out, you "push" or "pull." You "tilt" up and down, "pan" left and right. There are high shots, low shots. Pushing, pulling, tilting, and panning can all be done slow, fast, or regular. There are wide shots, medium shots, and tight shots."
(There. Now you know.)
Here's a paragraph I took from up top because man, was this getting long. If you're still here, you can read it now:
It is a matter of personnel policy for CNN, and other media companies, but from the sounds of this case they seem to have jumped the gun (and lost an enthusiastic and skilled employee - she types 120 wpm!). Blogging (or "journaling" as Rachel is specific about calling it) is widespread enough now that companies should be well aware of the risks and the temptations; with that foreknowledge, the responsibility to help their employees help themselves seems considerable. CNN in particular should know better: They fired someone for leaking to a blogger just over a year ago — I should know, I was that blogger. Sounds like they haven't updated their employee handbook since then. In this case, there was no blog in the conventional, public sense, nor was there a leak to any blog (both Rachel and Eliza maintain that, contrary to this item on Jossip, no details from her journal was used on the 360 Review blog (and also, some smackin' down: "I am clearly not a stalker. Anderson wasn't even there more than half the time I was. When he was, I saw him for about ten minutes a day; he lived in his office and I lived in the library and the tape room").
A final thought: Rachel would like to say thank-you and goodbye to all the people she worked with, and hopes "someone got to enjoy the lunch I brown-bagged." Aw. There's a CNN Sex Fridge joke in here somewhere, but we're too depressed to make it.
A 360 View of Interning at (and Being Sacked by) CNN [AC 360 Review]
