For Fairness Sake, Read Burlington Free Press Response To Upheaval Uproar

Burlington Free Press Executive Editor
Michael Townsend explains his perspective
on changes at Gannett and his paper.  

You might have read my sharp criticism of the media giant Gannett this week, the parent company that owns the newspaper where I used to work, the Burlington Free Press.

I stand by everything I said about Gannett's boneheaded management style, it's abuse of employees, its iffy philosophy on how to judge the importance of news articles.

The Burlington Free Press has suffered a lot of staff departures in recent weeks over this upheaval, and there's been a LOT of community discussion and criticism about the quality and journalistic commitment at the Free Press.

That discussion is a good thing.

Burlington Free Press Executive Editor Michael Townsend has responded to this discussion with an article he wrote that explains his, and Gannett's perspective on this.

In the interest of fairness, please read what he says by clicking in this link.  It can't hurt to see where he, and Gannett are coming from.

Townsend says the paper will remain committed to accountability and watchdog reporting.  It's worth reading his whole explanation.  He disagrees with a lot of the criticism that's blasting Gannett and says there's some false information floating around out there that needs to be corrected.

That said, I still have a LOT of problems with what's going on at Gannett.

Also, just to squelch any rumor mill stuff, nobody asked me to link to Townsend's article. It was my decision only.  Journalism 101 tells us to provide perspective from each side of a dispute.