
(Clockwise, from top right, Harper's editors from 1941 through 2010.)
Cause? None in particular it seems, except for “the general weakness of the magazine’s newsstand sales and circulation figures.” Well, that would put Hodge in good company with the magazine’s previous editors. Hey, it’s hard to be a gangster.
Frederick L. Allen: 1941—1953 (died)
John Fischer: 1954—1966 (retired, no pic.)
Willie Morris: 1967—1971 (fired)
Robert Shnayerson:* 1971—1976 (fired)
Lewis Lapham: 1976—1981 (fired)
Michael Kinsley: 1981—1983 (fired)
Lewis Lapham: 1983—2006 (retired)
Roger D. Hodge 2006—2010 (fired)
*Yes, related.

TERRY GROSS: So you think they might just pull the show?
DAVID BIANCULLI: Well, even Jay Leno has said, you know, I wouldn’t mind going back to my old slot at “Tonight.”
GROSS: Whoa.
(Soundbite of laughter)
BIANCULLI: Yeah, isn’t that a big…
GROSS: Tell that to Conan O’Brien.
BIANCULLI: Yeah, exactly, exactly. That is such a big whoa. And, you know, if you thought that his leaving “The Tonight Show” and then sort of bringing it to primetime under another name was a little bit disingenuous or not being a team player, what about that admission?
[via NPR's "Fresh Air," Dec. 29, 2009: "TV 2009: David Bianculli On the Best...And the Rest"
I’ll be hanging out with the Shitcanned Media Elites over at ASSME.org for awhile—you know, a little blogging, a little this, a little that.
Should your Tuesday afternoon be getting you down, by all means swing by and check out the pink slippers—a change is a-coming, hallelujah. Etcetera, so on, and so forth too.
Which is excellent! For the aforementioned recently laid-off Miss McClear, that is. Who says? Why, the New York State Department of Labor, in its concerted two-year effort to crack down on employers who misclassify their workers as independent contractors!
To wit:
“UI and Independent Contractors: If an employer-employee relationship exists, it does not matter how the relationship is described by the person engaging the services. For example, if an employer issues individuals a 1099 form rather than a W-2 form, the workers may still be considered employees. Even if the workers sign a statement claiming independent contractor status and waiving any rights as employees, or if they are required to obtain a DBA in order to work for that employer, those individuals may still be considered employees under the law. The Unemployment Insurance Law provides that no agreement by employees to waive their rights under the law is valid.” [NYDOL, itals all moi.]
The irony. Really.
[Gawker: How To Tell If You're A Freelancer Or An Employee]
doree:
Sure, Sheila wasn’t fired. But she also wasn’t, technically, an employee. Gawker staffers are all contractors and as far as I know she will not be eligible for unemployment.
youngmanhattanite:
Oh, can we stop saying Sheila was fired? It’s a layoff. read more…
Remember Andy Comeau from the awesome if slightly overindulgent and now-canceled HBO series Huff? He played Hank Azaria’s schizophrenic brother, Teddy.
And now he’s in the new Kmart Christmas commercial! Fun times!
“Multiple award-winning 7-day daily” is a real winner of a phrase, but nevertheless. Which Western U.S newspaper, “without question, the leading newspaper in the market,” has a 40-person newsroom and an about-to-be-fired editor?