Banjo Jones will be on CNN Radio tomorrow, discussing something he knows all too well:
Beyond the First Amendment free speech rights accorded to all American citizens, the answer is no.
In other words, you have the right to blog, but your employer, in most cases, has the right to fire you for it.
This may not seem fair, but it’s the way it is.
He’ll be on at about 1:50 p.m. our time. (To stream CNN Radio, scroll down the CNN homepage about halfway and the link is under the stock market numbers section.)
Banjo also links to this American Journalism Review brief that explains what happened to him several years back. While Brazosport News readers most likely know the details already, the Jeff Cohen quote at the end is priceless:
A Texas reporter’s pseudonymous Weblog costs him his job at the Houston Chronicle. Steve Olafson, a former Houston Post reporter who had covered Brazoria County from his home since joining the Chronicle in 1995, had been letting loose as Banjo Jones, creator of the Brazosport News Web site and commentator on everything from family life to local political figures and the local daily, the Brazosport Facts. “It kind of just started on a whim, and kind of slowly took on a life of its own,” says Olafson, who turns 49 this month. “It wasn’t like any kind of horrible, scathing opinions were expressed. It was mostly a lighthearted venue, satirical much of the time.” He used the pseudonym, he says, because he knew his editors would probably disapprove. But after a Brazosport Facts reporter called Olafson in late July and said a local “newsmaker” had provided evidence that he was Jones, Olafson says, he called his supervising editor and fessed up, though the Facts reporter had already contacted the Chronicle. He says he was suspended, then fired a week later. “We have standards and expect our journalists to comply with them,” says Chronicle Editor Jeff Cohen.
UPDATE (11-18-2005): Banjo Jones links to the mp3/podcast of his appearance.