Hey Mrs. Reporter, How 'Bout Talkin' About Yourself?

A former staffer for the Alberta Report has written a scathing memoir of her time at that just-folded publication.

[Via Jeremiads.]

Comments

[Uri Naithor]

Who cares? She's like talking TO herself.

(Just like me, standing in front of this urinal.)

Boy, it's windy in here! Can you feel the wind?

[S.U.B.]

I don't know what she's complaining about. As far as I know, Canada is a free country. Her editor can say what he wants. If she feels like she was being harassed, then take him to court. See? Simple, easy, less whingeing. If you don't like it or, "can?t afford show anything remotely resembling female hysterics," then get out. Besides, a four day work week? Cry me a river. I can't wait for Cathy, Kerry and Sara's 5,000 word screeds.

[Tommy_Grand]

"One told me I had absolutely no writing ability and would be lucky to last another week."

Not all the editors were idiots it seems.

[Anonymous]

kinks song title

[Jesse Walker]

Anon. gets the cigar.

As for the rest of you: Maybe you're interested in the internal dysfunctions that killed Canada's leading conservative magazine, and maybe you aren't. But this isn't just about Ms. Ko.

[Ms.]

Did somebody say Ho? Maybe if she'd slept with more of the editors she'd still have a job... oh wait, nevermind.

[Mr. Savage Whitey]

Yeah, it's about her marathon-length bitch session. Get a fucking weblog... oh wait, this is one, isn't it?

[Douglas Fletcher]

She does go on and on. You'd think she could work in a mention of Moosehead or Labatt's along the way.

[Warren]

How can anybody be bothered to care about anything so meaningless? I mean it was a C A N A D I A N magazine for crying out loud. Hellooooo

[Hellooo]

Jesse Walker posted the piece as a warning flag.
What happened in C A N A D A can happen here.

[pills]

She needs an editor, that was too long to get through.

[Anonymous]

Give her a break. She had a lot to whine about. You know how women are ...

[Anonymous]

Get your progesterone here! Don't miss this special offer, get your progesterone now!

[Anonymous]

purist type. so sorry for the typo.

ps - since somone let the librarians out early today, i'll note that it's less awkward if you say "they even reject the laws..."

[Anonymous]

and now I spelled "someone" wrong. see how productive and amusing this can be.

[Anonymous]

1) Kathy = Troll

2) Other countries will get our respect when they deserve it.

3) It's no wonder right-wing magazines are closing shop in the People's Republic of Canada.

[Anonymous]

Jeff - My objection was with the characterization of Canada having NO libertarians, but you're probably right that the term libertarian has seeped into the media more in the US & you do seem to hear more about it.
You might want to check out quebecoislibre.org (not what you would expect from the usual use of those 2 words together!) and nextcity.com out of toronto.

Now I'm starving for poutine!

[Jeff Smith]

Hmmm ... nextcity.com is interesting. Too
bad I did not find it when I was in Canada!

One of the contributors, Filip Palda, was
in grad school with me at Chicago. I met or
corresponded with two of the others. Small
world.

Jeff Smith

[Anonymous]

Kathy isn't a troll, she just made the mistake of feeding a whole bunch of them.

[Amelia Pierce]

So says Jeffrey Smith....

"I thought the reporter's essay was childish
and not very smart - would you hire someone
you knew was going to badmouth you on her
web page for all to read? It is fine to
warn your friends away from bad employers
but her piece seems a bit self-indulgent."

Au contraire, Mr. Prof of economics. Lesson 1 of journalism is, the good ones write about what they know. Self-indulgent? One could say the same about your remarks. I'd say the best stories are those that walk the reader through a day in the life of the author's shoes.

And two, the only employers who have to worry that they will be badmouthed by their employees are probably those that make crass, sexual, foul remarks and create a work environment as obviously toxic as this professional had to endure.

As for the earlier remarks - 'if you're not happy, take 'em to court' - a decidely American attitude... 'sue-happy', 'give me millions cause I've suffered' liberal sentiment. Canadians don't typically pay lawyers $200 to $400 per hour to clog the court systems fighting their battles. Canadians seem to have more important things to worry about - like dirty old men who molest children -- who get off with a measly 18-month jail sentence. (I read that here: http://www.marnieko.com/shake.htm)

As for "Ms." the classic feminist identifier... you recommended this lady sleep with her bosses... guess that's what you do to get ahead. How courageous and post-modern.

Myself, I thought the piece was anything but childish and I found the account compelling and remarkably balanced. It takes a mature person to so fairly present the good, bad and ugly.

[Kathy]

I never expected to encounter so many mullet-mouthed little frat-boy misogynists over at Reason magazine. Who knew?

And talk about arrogant: who cares about a Canadian magazine? Yeah, they only have 30 million people up there. Livin' in their igloos and that. Do they even have magazines and shit?!

Man, I love America--but the people who live there can be assholes...

[Anonymous]

"mullet-mouthed" - love that one.

[George Stryker]

hey, if you don't like it... don't read it.

And if you're gonna badmouth someone, least of all a perfect stranger, at least have some American guts and use your real NAME.

[Anonymous]

yeah, george stryker's bout as real as a dime store indian.

[Tommy_Grand]

What does "mullet-mouthed" mean?

[Jeff Smith]

Some thoughts:

1) I too am a bit disappointed in some of the
remarks here.

2) I thought the reporter's essay was childish
and not very smart - would you hire someone
you knew was going to badmouth you on her
web page for all to read? It is fine to
warn your friends away from bad employers
but her piece seems a bit self-indulgent.

3) Americans are amazingly narrow people.
The US would be a lot more popular, and
could accomplish more of what it wants to
accomplish around the world (at lower cost)
if Americans treated other countries with
respect and some measure of understanding.

4) Speaking as someone who lived in Candada
for seven years during the 1990s, the right
in Canada is very different than here.
First, there is no one that an American
would recognize as a libertarian. No one.
Second, what there is is a funny mix of
British Toryism with American Republicanism.
The split in Canada between the Reform/
Alliance party and the old Progressive-
Conservative party is basically a split
between social conservatives and torys.
One useful thing to keep in mind that
actually explains a lot is that 225 years
ago all the people who liked kings and
hierarchies and taxes moved to Canada and
all the people who didn't stayed in the
US.

Jeff Smith

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry Jeff is disappointed by the comments - yes, americans are narrow minded, the irish are drunks, mexicans are lazy and the french are so arrogant & sexy.....
(americans are actually amazingly wide people, but that's another problem)
- i agree that we should mimic the open-mindedness of middle eastern and african nations & show the same respect & understanding they do to other countries & cultures, like that shown by Europeans & Canadians (the angelic leftists anyway) towards the US.

[Anonymous]

Jeff
Maybe sometime during your 7 years you should have left your little circle of social democrat and commie friends in Canada (let me guess - quebec?). Canada is full of libertarians - often of a more radical, purest type than commonly found in the US.

[Tommy_Grand]

"Canada is full of libertarians - often of a more radical, purest type than commonly found in the US."

So pure they reject even the laws of grammar

[Anonymous]

It's testosterone, Ma'm! Testosterone! Comes naturally to us macho men.

[Anonymous]

Canada ain't a free country - we all pay up to 40% of our income to the damned liberal gov that wastes it crap like a useless gun registry to register duck hunter rifles. maybe the only reason some editor at this rag was able to say what he wants is because Canadians aren't allowed to carry guns and shoot some big mouth crude bigot like you trigger happy americans.

[Ken Crombie]

Most of the messages on here, in addition to the reporter's description of the treatment she was subjected to -- has served to set the Canadian conservative cause back decades.

Conservatives already have the reputation for being a bunch of racist, fanatic, angry, old white men with patriarchial attitudes - women belong barefoot, pregnant, at home cooking, etc., etc. But, up until now, anyway, they could insist it was a reputation all undeserved. This poignant description of what this individual had to put up with to keep her job proves otherwise. Obviously, the Alberta Report management WERE a bunch of racist, sexist, partriarchial angry old white men.

Were there any women actually in management in the Alberta Report newsroom? Were there any women making any decisions? Or were all the women secretaries?

As a long-time Saskatchewan reader of Alberta Report, the message you couldn't miss in all of the articles and editorials was, hey, look at us, a shining example for morals in a faithless society. We're good, we're right, we're just, we know how to make society better........

Apparently they didn't. If the owners of the Alberta Report couldn't even make their work environment harassment free for the employees, or at least those who were ladies, then they are not on higher moral ground, and their new "citizens center" which preaches individual responsibility, freedom for all , etc., etc. is doomed to the same financial mismanagement, poor reputation, ugly environment, and in the end.... FAILURE. Failure for the foundation, and failure for any credible, worthwhile, effective conservative movement in this country.

[feministanne]

Americans are assholes. And obviously, so are all you so-called "conservatives".

[sue]

obviously this magazine was anti-feminist and anti-female. behavior like this explains why women had to become feminists in the first place. the men who ran report magazine should be dragged before a human rights board because this behavior has no excuse. what a bunch of b***s