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Last updated on March 6th, 2018 at 12:30 am
New York Post copy editor Dawn Eden—a friend, and a blogger—has been fired by New York Post editor in chief Col Allan, another friend.
Not a happy circumstance. Here’s Dawn’s story, as told by the New York Observer’s George Gurley:
Dawn Eden had been nervous for two days before she was called into the office of New York Post editor in chief Col Allan on Jan. 18. Ms. Eden, a 36-year-old copy editor and headline writer at the newspaper, knew she’d probably made a mistake by working some of her own pro-life views into an article she was copy-editing on women with cancer who were having babies through in-vitro fertilization.
She knew it was risky, but she’d been so utterly repulsed by the lighthearted tone of the article that she felt she just had to make it balanced.
Mr. Allan didn’t see things that way. According to Ms. Eden, he hammered away at her for adding her own spin to someone else’s article. Next he brought up her blog—which she calls “faith-friendly” and which Mr. Allan called “very disturbing.” Then he fired her, for blogging on company time, according to Ms. Eden. (Mr. Allan declined to comment for this article.)
She was stunned. She told him he was making “a terrible mistake.”
“Sir, you’re older than I am,” she said. “You’ve been in the business longer than I have, and I’m sure that from where you’re sitting, you are making the right decision. But from where I’m sitting, it’s the wrong decision.”
According to Ms. Eden, Mr. Allan’s face became red with anger as he leaned over his desk and yelled, “You are a liability!”
Can’t say Col ever called me that (he was editor-in-chief at The Daily Telegraph when I was one of three chiefs of staff, leading to several similar, although non-terminal, exchanges). My view: both Col and Dawn are in error. Dawn, for not clearing those copy changes prior to publication; and Col for (as Dawn has told me) using blogging as a lever to fire her when she’d been permitted by her immediate superior to post on company time.
End result is mixed: the Post has lost a talented staffer, and we get a fine profile of Dawn via the Observer. (Incidentally, while it’s apparently a bad thing to write blogs at the Post, it’s almost required among Post-ites that they read blogs.)
