I am happy to announce that I have turned the corner, put aside the wellspring of anger related to the end of my career in daily journalism.
Many of you know by now that my career came to a sudden halt in August 2012 when I got reorganized out of my job as editorial page editor of the Amarillo (Texas) Globe-News. I thought I was doing a pretty good job there, spending nearly 18 years crafting an editorial policy at a newspaper committed to commenting on events of the city and the region that surrounds it.
Silly me. That’s what I get for thinking, I suppose.
I was hurt when it occurred. I was able to carry on, though, thanks to loads of support and love from my wife, my sons, my sisters and my friends.
Quite suddenly, though, I find myself no longer filled with anger or hurt feelings. It took a long while to get past it all. It has occurred.
I feel quite relieved that I am not packing that emotional baggage around any longer.
The company that owned the Globe-News, Morris Communications, sold its entire newspaper group to Gatehouse Media, which then brought in a new management team. The publisher who pushed me out the door “stepped down” from his job and is now pursuing “other interests.” He’s been replaced by someone I do not know.
The fellow who assumed my post at the G-N has left to work elsewhere. His successor and I have actually forged a bit of a relationship.
And you know what? I have actually wished the new “director of commentary,” Doug Hensley, well as he seeks to keep the Globe-News afloat in the roiling and changing media water. He pledges he will do his best. I hope he succeeds.
In the interest of full disclosure, Hensley was kind enough to publish an essay I had posted originally on High Plains Blogger, so that helped thaw the deep freeze I felt toward the newspaper.
However, it is true that I no longer harbor the anger that at times got the better of me over the nearly seven years since I departed the newspaper business.
I am enjoying retirement. I am enjoying writing this blog. I have relocated to a new community and my wife and I are enjoying our new home.
I don’t have time to be angry.
How cool is that?
Consider yourself fortunate. I don’t believe a journalist of your caliber would want to be associated with what passes as a newspaper in Amarillo now. The reporting is inadequate, and oft times just completely inaccurate. No reporter knows how to use spell checker or grammar checker. The delivery of the paper is sporatic at best. I generally like my Sunday paper on Sunday, instead of on Monday (or this week…. not at all) This paper misrepresents it’s pricing. The monthly charge is $$, but if they insert an extra section, TV guide, Magazine or even ads, those subtract days from your subscription. When it comes to news, a win of the State Championship by a rural high school, results in headlines 2 inches high and stories for a week overshadowing any other story local or National. If WWIII broke out on Monday, we’d read about it in a truncated paragraph on page 7 on Thursday.
John, your contribution to Amarillo was significant. Glad to hear you turned a corner and are no longer letting the bastards grind ya’ down. Most of my favorite people are happily becoming ex-pats …. congrats on your new life.
Well now, I just realized who you are. Thanks for your good words. Yes our new life is wonderful. My next step might be to actually talk to the individual(s) responsible for the misery they created while we were there.