Vail Resorts didn’t like the snow reports so the reporter is fired – try talking to God instead

Bob Berwyn - what color is the snow "white" and lots of it

Even the weather reports are fudged at the newspapers these days in a valiant attempt to survive the end.

A journalist at Summit Daily News in Vail Colorado was fired when his story didn’t tell the snow reports the “right” way. Journalist Fired After Critical Report Published

“Bob Berwyn has more than a decade of reporting the news in Colorado’s high country. He was terminated at the Daily News five days after the column was published.

“I think it’s worrisome, it’s worrisome for the community to think that, if it’s the case, if it’s really true, that advertisers might be dictating who works for the paper and what type of content is in the paper,” Berwyn told CBS4.”

“Berwyn said Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz called him at the paper and expressed displeasure with the column.”

“I don’t remember his exact words, but the thing that stuck in my mind was ‘This calls into question our ability to work with you,'” said Berwyn. “That was sort of the main thing that stuck in my mind.” Colorado and Denver News

The newspaper tried to cover it up. “It was not as he suggests the result of pressure from Vail Resorts, which continues to be a customer of our organization.”

At least the ski resort was honest in corporate-speak. “We never asked, threatened or implied with Jim Morgan or Bob Berwyn that Bob should be terminated. We simply expressed disappointment in how the paper handled the issue.”

At least the resort only wanted the reporter fired and not terminated with extreme prejudice.

The resort canceled their advertising anyway. The paper spent a lot of time explaining away – otherwise known as lying – how they chose advertisers over employees.

To work at a newspaper is to be a mushroom. Keep your mouth shut while they pile the horse manure.

George Gombossy was fired from the Hartford Courant for reporting the news that offended an advertiser. Now he runs the Connecticut Watchdog.

It’s the same on Prince Edward Island. The Charlottetown Guardian covers the Island like the fog. We could spend a lifetime picking apart the paper but who cares?

They couldn’t fire us for reporting the truth so they pulled our press gallery pass. On PEI, the story was reported as defamation in the Guardian. Halifax got it almost right. Andy Walker Chronicle got most of story on bloggers and then corrected most of it.

Despite the press gallery ban, we beat the Guardian most days covering the Legislature sitting this fall. Guardian keeps PEI in the dark with late and partial news of Legislature.

One day we did a survey. The Guardian was so far behind, they must have been asleep. CBC was slightly better. We kept their reporter Brendon Elliot on his Tweets.