Sunday, October 06, 2013

They can list, they just can't process

As The Washington Post was tanking financially, they made the decision to award stock options to journalists they wanted to keep.   Jim Romnesko broke the story at his site.  He, his commenters and others who covered it grossly missed the point. 

These are the people, according to Romesko, who got stock options:


Achenbach, Joel L; Bank, Justin S; Baron, Martin D; Barr, Cameron W; Bell, Melissa A; Beyers, Dan; Brouillard, Damien P; Cha, Ariana; Cho, David D; Cillizza, Chris M; Cohen, Jonathan M; Curran, Timothy J; Diehl, Jackson K; Eggen, Dan; Fahrenthold, David A; Ferguson-Rohrer,wallet Anne M; Finkel, David L; Fisher, Marc F; Ginsberg, Steven J; Griffin, David L; Haik, Cory T; Tsukayama, Hayley M; Helderman, Rosalind S; Hiatt, Fred; Irwin, Neil; Jaffe, Greg; Jehl, Douglas D; Jenkins, Sally; Jordan, Mary C; Kellett, Ryan Y; Kilgore, Adam D; Klein, Ezra; Kornblut, Anne E; Lane, Charles M; Loeb, Vernon F; Malcolm, Kenisha R; Marburger, Joey; Marcus, Ruth A; McCartney, Robert J; McCrummen, Stephanie L; Merida, Kevin E; Miller, Greg; Mufson, Steven J; Hermann, Peter E; Rich, Eric B; Rucker, Philip J; Sampsel, Sarah A; Samuel, Terence; Saslow, Eli E; Schneider, Gregory S; Sellers, Frances S; Steinberg, Dan; Stewart, Nikita R; Stuever, Hank; Sullivan, Kevin J; Tate, Julie A; Thompson, Krissah S; Tumulty, Karen E; Victor, Yuri A; Vobejda, Barbara; Wallsten, Peter; Whitlock, Craig; Wilson, Scott W.


Some whined in comments that their personal favorite was overlooked.  Robert B. Hunter wanted to know "How many black writers are on the list.  Who are they?" 

Hunter, if your question is so important, why don't you do the work with the names provided?


We're all for representation but Hunter's question is grossly stupid at this point.


These are bonuses, these stock options, and there's a more important aspect than race or gender when you look at the above -- if you are a thinking, literate and intelligent person.


If you got a bonus, your work needs to have enhanced the paper.


Where's Dana Priest?




  1. You are right. Pakistani troops also. US also. I was writing for US audience. no disinformation.



She's a woman.  We ask why she isn't on the list not because of her gender.  We ask that because The Washington Post would be a rag without her and a few others.

In 2006, she got the George Polk award and the Pulitzer (for reporting on the CIA black site prisons).  2008, she, Anne Hull and Michel du Cille received the Pulitzer for their work reporting on Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Her 2010 work enhanced the paper's reputation as well and was featured on The NewsHour and Frontline.  So why the hell didn't she get options?






  • Officers began instructing people to shelter in place or return to their office around 2:22pm.




  • Within moments, officers with semiautomatic weapons were seen exiting the building; moments later, plain clothes seen running w weapons




  • Colleague and I owed the officers to 1st floor. There, officers had locked East side house entrance




  • Incident appeared to begin around 2:19 pm when Capitol Police officers were seen running from the basement to the 1sr floor




  • And another name we'll toss out is Ed O'Keefe.  He does a great deal of work for the paper -- in print and online.  Most importantly, when stock options started getting handed out, he was going to Iraq to report from there.  He went into a combat zone and that didn't qualify for stock options either?



    Jim Romensesko spat out info.  We can't say he reported or processed it.