How about a little background? Justin Rocket Silverman, Karion's favorite New York journalist, also nearly got fired last year -- after he went on the Thrillist ride. [www.portfolio.com]#mikealbo
Too bad. Mike Albo was so much better than the woman who thinks that fat people ain't got no right to live, much less shop. I thought The Underminer pieces were screamingly funny.
Yeah, he shouldn't have taken the junket. But gifts are delivered at the Christmas season to writers at some of our best-loved publications, and no one says boo. #mikealbo
"in case there is any confusion: im a freelance writer. i have 486 dollars in my bank account. i have no health insurance. i owe my parents $"
Who can't in the Manhattan media universe commiserate with that statement?
Should he have gone on the junket? Hell no. But I still feel bad for the poor guy. The whole thing just causes my head to reel. I hope Gawker, Daily Finance, or The Awl offers him a job so he can get some health insurance and pay his parents back. #mikealbo
So many things. For sure the NY Times wasn't going to do anything about it until it made the blogs and other press. Secondly, it's way over the top to cut his column about shopping when he took a travel junket. Also it's not exactly in the same realm as making facts up about WMDs in Iraq. Lastly, I am sure that for every Mike Albo there are 15 freelancers who contribute to the Times who have taken press trips, junkets, comp rates, free dinners and what have you, either for other pubs or because they are frickin' freelancers who work for themselves and want to keep up. #mikealbo
I feel bad for him, liked his column. And didn't ever make the connection that he was The Underminer here, back in yore. Which was damned funny.
It's hard enough to be a writer anywhere. I don't begrudge him some junket. I didn't know he did travel writing, the technicality which seems the convenient excuse for his firing. I'd hardly expect he'd be slavering over JetBlue as a result, anyway.
@Baroness: I loved Mike Albo's column. It looked like the Style section was moving from their old slogan: "A rehash of fashions from three years ago - now on the Upper East Side!" to a new age of "Smart writing about dumb stuff." Albo's writing about shopping was so sharp I was hoping they'd give him a weekly column. This is hella bunz.
@MyrtleWilloughby: "Smart writing about dumb stuff." Yes, his columns had a glorious sense of the absurd about some of the snooty and expensive shops he checked out, told you what it was like as a shopper off the street with great humour. Aw, I really will miss his columns now. #mikealbo
How is this different than David Pogue? It's a double standard applied to someone with very little power to fight back, or even present their case.
But the Times wouldn't have cared if it hadn't been publicized.
You guys are real fucks. Way to go, Gawker, get the little freelance guy who lives paycheck to paycheck. NYT lost a superbly talented and witty writer. Assholes. #mikealbo
@Atilla the Bun: why don't you read the first post on Albo when Gawker helpfully forwarded along the freelancer's agreement to NYT, helping them see the light of Albo's voracious ways. Muckraking at its finest. #mikealbo
@davids: Since it's the NYT's freelance agreement, I have a feeling that the NYT already had a copy of it somewhere. It was Albo who signed the agreement, Albo who breached it, and Albo who tweeted about it. I think it's dumb that he was fired over it, but I think it's more than a little dumb to blame Gawker for it. #mikealbo
@Atilla the Bun: I agree that Mr. Albo is 100% responsible for his actions.
And, this post is pretty lame in not acknowledging that it was Gawker's original post that put the whole investigation into motion in the first place. Or am I missing that this was simply reported elsewhere? This post is written like "Woah the Underminer got fired! Wow that's interesting!" #mikealbo
@Urbania: No, it was Jeff Bercovici at Daily Finance posting it first, then Gawker following up. And Albo leaving a bunch of incriminating posts on his Twitter. He made a ridiculous mistake by posting about it in the first place, and should have known better than to do that, but the only reason the Times fired him was to avoid the _appearance_ of a conflict of interest.
Funny it took years for them to root out ethics lapses and a conflict of interest with Judith Miller, after she'd helped them push the case for war in Iraq. And then they let her "retire" to save face. #mikealbo
@procrastination_state: Still, one would like to think that Gawker wouldn't have been the ones fanning the flames of this story - and they definitely took the lead on it, even if they weren't the first to report it.
It's like yr ex-girlfriend hearing that you've forgotten to lock your bike, and then running up and down the block telling everyone about it until it finally gets stolen.
And then yr ex shakes her head and complains about the lack of cops... #mikealbo
@Urbania: Sure. Albo shouldn't have done the junket, etc, etc, so it's ultimately his fault but it's Gawker who helped get the ball rolling and now here we are. What I don't understand is why Gawker persisted with this non-story and then pretend that they had no hand in it? Whatever happened to Gawker as scrappy underdog going after big mean journalists with health benefits -- oh that was 4 years ago.
Albo's writing is what Gawker has long lost -- wit, smarts, and character. Maybe he'll take up blog writing. #mikealbo
@Seeräuber Jenny: "BTW, what happened to the fellow who used to contribute The Unethicist pieces?"
Gabe Delahaye runs Videogum.com, a blog about TV, movies, and viral videos. It's pretty outstanding. (The site's a distant corporate relative of the one I run, but I would read it regardless.) #mikealbo
@procrastination_state: Got it, I didn't see the Daily Finance piece, and thought Albo's twitters were after the fact. Thank you for pointing that out. #mikealbo
I would like to take over as the NYT critical shopper, where I would write columns about how to buy an entire day-to-night-to-weekend wardrobe from only three locations (Target, Banana Republic's sale racks, and Loehmann's) and how to get the manager to mark an item down an additional 5-10% off if the clothing has a pen mark on it or is missing a button. #mikealbo
@misslinda: I just sort of love that fantasy ideal of "day-to-night" looks. For this mythical on-the go businesswoman!
Diana Vreeland used to lie down in her bathroom with lemon slices on her eyes for 15 minutes after work and before the next gala event. I myself just avoid the human race entirely. #mikealbo
10/27/09
[www.portfolio.com] #mikealbo
10/27/09
[gawker.com] #mikealbo
10/27/09
10/27/09
Albo, Balk, Choire-rhymes-with-story, I'm feeling nostalgic.
It wasn't the best exercise of judgment, of course, but this only confirms to me that it's a whole lot easier to be "pure" if you're wealthy.
I hope he lands on his feet.
10/27/09
10/26/09
[gawker.com]
Then I read his tweet:
"in case there is any confusion: im a freelance writer. i have 486 dollars in my bank account. i have no health insurance. i owe my parents $"
Who can't in the Manhattan media universe commiserate with that statement?
Should he have gone on the junket? Hell no. But I still feel bad for the poor guy. The whole thing just causes my head to reel. I hope Gawker, Daily Finance, or The Awl offers him a job so he can get some health insurance and pay his parents back. #mikealbo
10/26/09
"It’s hard not to cross it; they keep moving the little sucker, don’t they?"
-- Broadcast News #mikealbo
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
It's hard enough to be a writer anywhere. I don't begrudge him some junket. I didn't know he did travel writing, the technicality which seems the convenient excuse for his firing. I'd hardly expect he'd be slavering over JetBlue as a result, anyway.
Now Cintra Wilson is unstoppable, alas. #mikealbo
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
But the Times wouldn't have cared if it hadn't been publicized.
[www.nytpick.com] #mikealbo
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
And, this post is pretty lame in not acknowledging that it was Gawker's original post that put the whole investigation into motion in the first place. Or am I missing that this was simply reported elsewhere? This post is written like "Woah the Underminer got fired! Wow that's interesting!" #mikealbo
10/26/09
Funny it took years for them to root out ethics lapses and a conflict of interest with Judith Miller, after she'd helped them push the case for war in Iraq. And then they let her "retire" to save face. #mikealbo
10/26/09
It's like yr ex-girlfriend hearing that you've forgotten to lock your bike, and then running up and down the block telling everyone about it until it finally gets stolen.
And then yr ex shakes her head and complains about the lack of cops... #mikealbo
10/26/09
Albo's writing is what Gawker has long lost -- wit, smarts, and character. Maybe he'll take up blog writing. #mikealbo
10/26/09
10/27/09
When I saw this post, I thought:
The Underminer Undermined. Except nobody currently on the staff of Gawker or Jezebel is as clever a writer as Albo.
BTW, what happened to the fellow who used to contribute The Unethicist pieces?
Nonetheless, this isn't Gawker's fault. #mikealbo
10/27/09
Gabe Delahaye runs Videogum.com, a blog about TV, movies, and viral videos. It's pretty outstanding. (The site's a distant corporate relative of the one I run, but I would read it regardless.) #mikealbo
10/27/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
Diana Vreeland used to lie down in her bathroom with lemon slices on her eyes for 15 minutes after work and before the next gala event. I myself just avoid the human race entirely. #mikealbo