I have now been fired from two media jobs in Nashville.
On Monday, SouthComm Communications told me that due to budget cutbacks, my services were no longer needed. On a Friday in March 2008, WKRN, the ABC affiliate here in Nashville also let me go.
As a connoisseur of such things, I must say I far prefer the Friday sacking to the Monday termination.
Don’t get me wrong – both times were painful and jarring. But the job at WKRN was a dream job, a job I never imagined being considered for or getting. So while it stung to be shown the door, it was something I was prepared for one way or another. By the time I got home, got my bearings and submitted my final post — it was Friday night. The weekend gave me time to calmly confront the future with a two-day buffer until the start of the work week I would not be participating in.
This time it was different. Sure, media companies are contracting all over and nothing is forever but, suffice it to say, I didn’t expect them to come for me. In many ways, now five days out, I don’t feel I have my wind back yet and am looking forward to catching up to it in the next few days.
The powers that be at SouthComm elected not to allow me a farewell post. I honestly don’t know what I would have said had I been granted one at the time and am struggling with what to say now — but here it goes.
To all those who sent and posted messages of encouragement and support, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I don’t deserve it. I’m not saying that to be humble or modest. I truly don’t deserve it. In my estimation, I have had two of the greatest jobs in media in this town. I have been financially compensated for something millions of people do for free everyday: blogging. My opinions on politics have not only been linked across the state on the web, they have actually been published on paper and distributed all around Nashville. When I was in middle school I dreamed about being a newspaper columnist. I achieved that goal. If I never get another job, writing or blogging for the rest of my life, I can be satisfied in knowing I’ve had more than my share of luck.
I never dreamed that lightning would strike twice and that I would be able to continue what I was doing at WKRN somewhere else. When I was hired by SouthComm in March of ’08, it was a very small company comprised of NashvillePost.com and few other properties. Shortly after coming on board, SouthComm bought MusicRow. During my tenure, SouthComm bought The City Paper, the Nashville Scene, a Louisville alt-weekly and launched a woman’s magazine among other things. I’ve witnessed a lot of change. I’ve witnessed the departures, forced and voluntary, of a lot good people. It’s been an eye-opener. I got to work with and observe folks that I had only previously been able to admire from afar. You cannot fully appreciate the work of a Clint Brewer, a Liz Garrigan, a Jeff Woods, a Ken Whitehouse, a Tom Wood or a Jim Ridley until you witness how they work and how they work with others.
I wouldn’t trade my SouthComm experience for anything in the world. I’ve been able to do what I love standing on the backs of bloggers, commenters and journalists, and I thank each and every one.
I’m not sure what is next, but one thing I can say about the past four years is that I regret surprisingly little. I spent most of my formative years as one of those kids who teachers, parents and coaches always said had a lot of potential but never applied himself.
In The Wire, Marla Daniels once advised her husband Cedric to play it safe in his job because he “could not lose if he did not play.” That’s the way I lived my life until my late twenties — at least subconsciously. If you don’t give something your all, you can always lie to yourself and say that you could have achieved more but that you just didn’t choose to. If you don’t apply yourself, you can always feed yourself the excuse that it wasn’t that you weren’t good enough — it was that you didn’t really try.
Well, I did try. I gave Post Politics everything I had and while, at the margins, I can certainly pick things out and say I would have done them differently, for the most part, I have few regrets. Like Ethan Hawke in Gattaca, I never left anything for swim back. Knowing that about an experience you have finished can be very satisfying — even if nothing else about the ending is.
Post Politics was an exciting and fulfilling chapter in my life and it was my honor that you all chose to be a part of it. Again, I thank you.
SEE ALSO:
Nate Rau
Richard Lawson
Tom Humphrey
The Liberadio Interview
Trace Sharp
Michael Silence
R. Neal
Steve Steffens
Chris Sanders
Southern Beale
Say Uncle
Margie Newman
Nashville Jefferson
Joe Lance
John Brown
Ilissa Gold
Rex Hammock
Ben Garrett
