For more info read my blog:http://www.danvilleva.blogspot.com.
For the most part, apart from the drugs and the gangs, Danville is a pretty little town to live in. Business is booming, jobs are coming back - and you'd think the local newspaper would be a good source of information about what's happening with new businesses and the rest. But no. Sadly enough...
The Danville Register & Bee doesn't want good people - that's why they fired or chased off the last three photographers they had, and laid off a dozen people before that. Not just laid them off but didn't tell them until 20 minutes before they laid them off that they were being laid off. Then they handed them cardboard boxes and told them they had 15 minutes to vacate the building. Some of those people had worked there 30 and 40 years. They too only had 15 minutes. Since that time turnover has been brutal...with almost everyone in the newsroom that was hired in the last year having left. I am no longer there because I dared complain about sexual harrassment, bullying and incompetent managers and the fact that the workplace is totally hostile towards women. How hostile? Read on.
The one reporter/photographer management did like was Mac McLean. He's the one who video-taped the breasts of women around town and then showed the videos in the newsroom so the men could all gawk, laugh and make comments about the women. Since the managers were involved and supported it by their laughing and Mac wasn't disciplined (actually got on at a bigger newspaper within Media General) the atmosphere there is pretty hostile towards women. When I complained I was told I was over reacting. Steve Kaylor did nothing about it even though I spoke to him one-on-one in his office, emailed him and complained to Human Resources about it. Then he lied about knowing anything about it. The PUBLISHER of a newspaper lying??!! Now do you really trust your local Danville Register & Bee? Think twice. If they promoted the reporter who did that - do you really think they care about you?
I'm not so sure most men or women in Danville would feel safe knowing their wives, daughters, girlfriends or sisters or mothers were being humiliated and laughed at and poked fun at in the newsroom. I know of two women who were videotaped - but there's no telling how many actually were or if the videos were posted to the internet - although that was joked about.
Between the story where Mac/his friends called an alcoholic drink a "real panty dropper" on the Sunday edition - you can see it here...and then the front page the following day with a photo where it looked like a man having sex with a child...and a story about where Danvillians have sex and how often - that's not really the kind of small town daily anyone with any class, morals or ethics wants to work for....The people involved in those stories have all gone on to bigger jobs at other Media General newspapers...Imagine. And that's with a zero tolerance policy for obscenity.
They THOUGHT they got away with it. But stay tuned. A tell-all book is coming...but in the meantime, ask yourself why the former "friend" and sports editor of the Register and Bee, John C. had 13 police citations against him - including at least a couple of DUI's, and an evading police charge here in Danville, but was never fired by the editor? Why did it take the new publisher almost a month to get rid of him?? Yet, Photographer Richard Davis was fired based on a lie told by that same editor, believed by the gullible publisher and yet Richard and proved it was a lie in TWO unemployment commission hearings where he WON his case against the newspaper!!
Newspapers have NO SPECIAL RIGHTS. They aren't "news police." They are a business just like every other business.You don't have to talk to them and you only have to tell them as much as YOU are comfortable telling them, NOT as much as they want to hear. The fact is, YOU, the reader have more power over what goes into the newspaper than you know. If you don't read it they don't print it. If you want to see more happy stories, then tell them and click on the happy stories online. They worry about their advertisers. If you don't like what's happening, then tell the businesses where you shop. Without advertising the newspaper will go under. It's up to you.
If you're buying the paper or buying advertising in the paper - please understand THIS is the sort of business you're supporting. IF you're a Christian, ask yourself if this is where your money should be going. Stand up for what is right. Demeaning and objectifying women is NOT right. If you've heard rumors about the former Sheriff's deputy who assaulted a woman and wondered why it didn't get in the newspaper...I was told "It's not news"....and not allowed to write about it...same with Gary Bengston's supposed suicide, the hospital problems. The Register & Bee is NOT a "real news" newspaper - they're an advertising mill - taking YOUR money so they can send jobs to India (advertising layout) and Lynchburg and run Associated Press stories you can get for free online. Urge the new Media General Board to clean house, or sit back and put up with the kind of crap that passes for "journalism" from your local daily.
For the most part, apart from the drugs and the gangs, Danville is a pretty little town to live in. Business is booming, jobs are coming back - and you'd think the local newspaper would be a good source of information about what's happening with new businesses and the rest. But no. Sadly enough...
The Danville Register & Bee doesn't want good people - that's why they fired or chased off the last three photographers they had, and laid off a dozen people before that. Not just laid them off but didn't tell them until 20 minutes before they laid them off that they were being laid off. Then they handed them cardboard boxes and told them they had 15 minutes to vacate the building. Some of those people had worked there 30 and 40 years. They too only had 15 minutes. Since that time turnover has been brutal...with almost everyone in the newsroom that was hired in the last year having left. I am no longer there because I dared complain about sexual harrassment, bullying and incompetent managers and the fact that the workplace is totally hostile towards women. How hostile? Read on.
The one reporter/photographer management did like was Mac McLean. He's the one who video-taped the breasts of women around town and then showed the videos in the newsroom so the men could all gawk, laugh and make comments about the women. Since the managers were involved and supported it by their laughing and Mac wasn't disciplined (actually got on at a bigger newspaper within Media General) the atmosphere there is pretty hostile towards women. When I complained I was told I was over reacting. Steve Kaylor did nothing about it even though I spoke to him one-on-one in his office, emailed him and complained to Human Resources about it. Then he lied about knowing anything about it. The PUBLISHER of a newspaper lying??!! Now do you really trust your local Danville Register & Bee? Think twice. If they promoted the reporter who did that - do you really think they care about you?
I'm not so sure most men or women in Danville would feel safe knowing their wives, daughters, girlfriends or sisters or mothers were being humiliated and laughed at and poked fun at in the newsroom. I know of two women who were videotaped - but there's no telling how many actually were or if the videos were posted to the internet - although that was joked about.
Between the story where Mac/his friends called an alcoholic drink a "real panty dropper" on the Sunday edition - you can see it here...and then the front page the following day with a photo where it looked like a man having sex with a child...and a story about where Danvillians have sex and how often - that's not really the kind of small town daily anyone with any class, morals or ethics wants to work for....The people involved in those stories have all gone on to bigger jobs at other Media General newspapers...Imagine. And that's with a zero tolerance policy for obscenity.
They THOUGHT they got away with it. But stay tuned. A tell-all book is coming...but in the meantime, ask yourself why the former "friend" and sports editor of the Register and Bee, John C. had 13 police citations against him - including at least a couple of DUI's, and an evading police charge here in Danville, but was never fired by the editor? Why did it take the new publisher almost a month to get rid of him?? Yet, Photographer Richard Davis was fired based on a lie told by that same editor, believed by the gullible publisher and yet Richard and proved it was a lie in TWO unemployment commission hearings where he WON his case against the newspaper!!
Newspapers have NO SPECIAL RIGHTS. They aren't "news police." They are a business just like every other business.You don't have to talk to them and you only have to tell them as much as YOU are comfortable telling them, NOT as much as they want to hear. The fact is, YOU, the reader have more power over what goes into the newspaper than you know. If you don't read it they don't print it. If you want to see more happy stories, then tell them and click on the happy stories online. They worry about their advertisers. If you don't like what's happening, then tell the businesses where you shop. Without advertising the newspaper will go under. It's up to you.
If you're buying the paper or buying advertising in the paper - please understand THIS is the sort of business you're supporting. IF you're a Christian, ask yourself if this is where your money should be going. Stand up for what is right. Demeaning and objectifying women is NOT right. If you've heard rumors about the former Sheriff's deputy who assaulted a woman and wondered why it didn't get in the newspaper...I was told "It's not news"....and not allowed to write about it...same with Gary Bengston's supposed suicide, the hospital problems. The Register & Bee is NOT a "real news" newspaper - they're an advertising mill - taking YOUR money so they can send jobs to India (advertising layout) and Lynchburg and run Associated Press stories you can get for free online. Urge the new Media General Board to clean house, or sit back and put up with the kind of crap that passes for "journalism" from your local daily.
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