'USA Today' Dust-up Continues
WASHINGTON -- The holiday mood at Gannett Co. Inc.'s new headquarters in McLean, Va., remains anything but festive two weeks after the firing of three journalists for toying with what they thought was dust on a prized sculpture. "Everyone's very shaken and scared," one Gannett worker told E&P.
Several dozen workers at Gannett flagship USA Today are wearing lapel ribbons in sympathy with Denise Tom, 49, Karen Allen, 48, and Cheryl Phillips, 39 -- all late of the newspaper's sports department. A relief fund for the three has been established, and they have hired Washington attorney Steven Hoffman. According to Hoffman, his e-mail box these days is filled not with holiday cheer but with charges about disciplinary practices at USA Today.
"I've never done [a case] where, just sitting in my chair, so many people turn up wanting to say something," Hoffman told E&P. He said the messages he had received suggested to him that USA Today might be "trying to clear out older people" or favoring males in its disciplinary practices.
E&P sought comment on the accusations, but a USA Today representative did not return telephone calls.
Hoffman said initial contacts with Gannett lawyers were unproductive. He said those fired were contemplating legal action demanding back pay, payment of damages, and possibly reinstatement.
The three were sacked Dec. 3 by USA Today Sports Managing Editor Monte Lorell, who told at least one of the unfortunates that Gannett had considered lodging felony charges. That, for using fingertips to scrawl "Kilroy was here" on the dusty, unsealed surface of the sculpture, a blue sphere entitled "Aperture," near the offices of Gannett Chairman, CEO, and President Douglas H. McCorkindale and USA Today President and Publisher Tom Curley.
Support for the fired three remains strong. "It's just gratifying," said Tom. "Friends I didn't know I had are calling and e-mailing."
--Todd Shields (tshields at editorandpublisher.com) is Washington editor for E&P.