I’ve only ever had one run in with the media, back when I was the operations officer of the USS Constellation in 2003. Prior to Phase III kinetic operations in OIF, a NYT reporter button-holed me in the foc’s'l after a PAO tour and asked if we had counter-terrorist tactics, techniques and procedures to prevent being attacked while in port in Sharjah, UAE. “Of course,” I answered (this was after the USS Cole bombing).
“What are they?” he asked.
It seemed so much like a Saturday Night Live skit that I almost laughed in his face, before composing myself and answering, “That’s classified. Revealing our TTPs could create an exploitable vulnerability for the enemy.”
He wasn’t happy, and didn’t try to hide the fact. Dude had a job to do, and undoubtedly PAO pictures of anchor chains and windlasses doesn’t sell papers. But I’ve been yelled at by better men.
This, on the other hand, is something else entirely:
US Navy Commander Jeffrey D. Gordon has filed a sexual harassment complaint against the Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg.
FishbowlDC obtained a copy of the July 22, 2009 letter addressed to Miami Herald Senior VP and Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal. In the complaint, Gordon calls for a “thorough investigation” to put an end to Rosenberg’s “appalling behavior” that includes comments about the Commander’s sexual orientation.
The complaint outlines examples of Rosenberg’s alleged “abusive and degrading, comments of an explicitly sexual nature.”
Go to the link to read more if you’d like, her language doesn’t fit on a PG-13 rated blog.
Rosenberg apparently has a reputation as an “aggressive” reporter, and CDR Gordon has had the no doubt thankless task of running the GTMO beat for the last four years. Some friction is probably inevitable as the PA force attempts to put the detention center in the best possible light, while journalists keep prying for the keys to the top secret abbatoir, wherein detainees are slowly roasted in the depths of a giant Slor. That just has to be around there. Somewhere.
The case has broken the signal-to-noise ratio at the WaPo as well, with a mostly straightforward “he said/she said” article by Howard Kurtz that nevertheless ends strangely:
Gordon, a career officer who joined the secretary’s office under Donald Rumsfeld in 2005, is retiring early next year, an exit date that may help explain the unusually harsh nature of his complaint against a journalist.
Now, maybe that makes sense to a seasoned journalist, but to me it’s a jarring non sequitur. It’s obviously placed in the closer to impugn Gordon’s motive, but what is that supposed to even mean? PAOs are trained to work with pushy people, but Gordon’s complaint against the journalist has less to do with any retirement date than the nature of Rosenberg’s insufferable bullying and unprofessional behavior.
Combined with the tautly framed face shot accompanying the Post’s article – always a good way to make a subject look bad – it smacks of circling the wagons more than reporting the news.
I think Cdr Gordon looks a lot better in his photo than Ms. Crustycrotch looks in hers:
http://www.makli.com/carol-rosenberg-miami-herald/
[Shudder]
Oh good heavens… she looks like she’s working to become the new Helen Thomas. Certainly could pass for her daughter. Sigh.
Yea Gods! Would hate to bump into her in a dark alley in the early am!! Looks like she’s got a major ‘tude, workin.’ I might have to bring along the brass nucks or my 9 oz sap (“nine from the sky!”
) just to have a chance!
VX,
My dad taught me a good trick to help level the playing field in any altercation. He learned it from a member of the Shore Patrol during WWII. You simply place a roll of dimes in your neckerchief before rolling it up. Secure it in the middle with either two tightly-wrapped rubber bands, or sew it into place. It’s hidden behind your neck and underneath the collar of your jumper. No one knows it’s there.
If you need a weapon in a hurry, you just grab the square knot and pull the neckerchief up and over your head. You now have a $5.00 sap, and that thing swinging around can impart all sorts of kinetic energy into those dimes.
You can then use the dimes, if needs be, to call someone to get you out of the brig…..
I got taught the same trick by my LPO when I reported aboard my first ship (Coral Sea) in 1960, only he used five 3/8 inch steel nuts threaded onto a steel shaft. Duty LPO was supposed to check liberty uniforms for non-rates, and that was part of the check. The division officer was a Mustang from the old Yangzee River Patrol, and it was his requirement.
Somewhere along the path to wisdom in the past 40 years there has been a huge disconnect between objective reporting of the news and the kind of bullying “when did you stop beating your wife” approach which passes for news gathering today. Sadly, I think that “every newsperson has to have an agenda which must be pursued in writing every ‘news story’” is the way journalism is now being taught in so-called journalism courses. If you look at the front pages and other parts of the formerly designated news sections of the paper, there is almost no reported story which isn’t inflected by an underlying agenda of points which match the liberal viewpoint.
Which is why I read the blogosphere for news, even though it takes me closer to two hours to get a balanced picture, instead of 20 minutes reading newsprint.
All of which doesn’t excuse that female person who has designated herself as a reporter [good reporters of the past like Ernie Pyle are turning in their graves at this] for her insults and harassment of the public information officer in this case. This isn’t reporting — not even National Inquirer type reporting. This is another stupid woman using her protected position as a reporter to get back at a representative of our armed forces who symbolizes to her all of the ‘wrongs’ she feels that men have done to women since the dawn of time.
Get over yourself, girl. You’re not a professional newsperson. You’re taking schoolyard revenge against another person who *is* a professional communicator for our armed forces. This is like beating up the barkeep because you don’t like the taste of the beer.
Marianne
Marianne: “Which is why I read the blogosphere for news, even though it takes me closer to two hours to get a balanced picture, instead of 20 minutes reading newsprint.”
Could not agree with you more. Sometimes I question the amount of time I spend “surfing” the Web, but the nanosecond passes and I remember why I do so.
The fun parts, as so often provided by this & similar sites, are just a great bonus for being on the Net.
Regards,
Many reporters, in the quest for making a name for themselves have misconstrued first amendment rights with license to bully, slander and harass. While not universal, it seems far more prevalent than in times past.
The line between aggressive and abusive is pretty clear.
Marianne, m’dear, that creature is not a reporter, and it would most likely feel insulted if you addressed it in that manner.
It, you would be coldly informed was a journalist, thankyouverymuch, not a mere peon reporter.
And I doubt it knows or cares who Ernie was. I’m lucky enough to have picked up four of his works in the original mid-40s editions at a second-hand bookshop for about two bucks each.
Marianne/
Another point which should be remembered is that news is a commodity these days and the news divisions of network TV are seen as profit centers– unlike in the Cronkite days when entertainment was expected by ownership to carry the financial load. Hence Michael Jackson 24/7 by everyone for two straight weeks to maximize eyeballs no matter what else of import was going on elsewhere in the world…
A Helen Thomas in training–16 forward speeds and a Georgia overdrive.
In a semi-polite society you slap people with a lawsuit–when what they really deserve is a slap in the chops. Her conduct was appalling.
It’s obviously placed in the closer to impugn Gordon’s motive, but what is that supposed to even mean?
Perhaps I am naive.
Couldn’t that mean that these things are usually solved at a lower level and on the q.t. in order that the officer not prejudice his future working relationship with the media? and that since George Meade’s day no serving officer who expects to continue to serve has openly confronted a correspondent.
So “early exit date” might mean “free to speak his mind on paper” – always a dangerous undertaking.
Wow, that is certainly a foreboding pic of the commander. Couldn’t find another of him for comparison, though.
I searched for other pictures of the reporter but couldn’t find any taken at a different time. Perhaps she’s just squinting in the sun, but that looks awfully like the pinched and angry face of a bully.
I never believed the world was full of happy and gentle people who all had the best of intentions (knew all too directly how untrue that was), but it seems to me the last few years that the number of people who aren’t bitter, angry and hateful–whether consciously so or merely reactive to their unhappy lot–is very small indeed. Perhaps it’s just a function of age (each year brings wider knowledge/awareness), but humanity discourages me so much these days…
What a terribly hard and unhappy woman she must be…
Wow! That’s certainly not the kind of behavior I learned in journalism school nor on the job. She sounds like a crude and rude woman, plain and simple.
And she obviously never had to sit through the yearly Navy Rights & Responsibilities class on sexual harassment.
The closing of the story by her fellow reporter sounds like a transfer of blame to me or defense lawyer talk…
Howard Kurtz makes it all proper by condemning Cdr Gordon by association with Rummy.
Nice sucker punch, Howie.
Unpleasant person indeed. Quite the gentle euphemism. Not exactly the customarily colorful, verbal smackdown I’d expect from a member of the fighter community.
From reading the actual complaint, it looks like the Miami Herald has already dealt with at least one previous complaint against this woman back in July 2008.
Judging by the picture provided by her newspaper back in 2008, this woman looks like Rosie O’Donnel and that’s probably where all that dirt, bullying, and attitude against men is coming from…
Button-holed you in the foc’s’l, eh?
Yea, verily. Right about the capstan head, just forrad of the pelican trip. Forrad and to port, of course.
Good that you can look back and laugh
More to the point: Other reporters are cited as witnesses to some of the incidents. I for one am looking forward to their accounts.
You think that other journos will spring to Cdr Gordon’s defense rather than hang together with a fellow member of the 4th estate?
I would be surprised if they did.
Sexual harrassment complaints, from my experience as an onlooker, nearly always end poorly. Even if action is taken, the person who filed it is ridiculed and not trusted by co-workers. It’s why, no matter how bad things got at work, and they got PRETTY BAD, I refused to file one, even when management got wind of some of the stuff that was happening to me. I just took care of it myself. Thankfully, I could.
So I predict that he will look like the jerk as in the WaPo article because… that’s what happens, but MOSTLY it will occur because he is a man. Like it or not, our society expects men to enjoy being sexually harrassed. It is wrong and it takes a lot of guts for men like CDR Gordon to stand up to it. It’s nasty and horrible no matter who it happens to.
Expect nothing to happen to this reporter. Instead she will continue to make snide disparaging remarks about him behind his back, feeling superior, maybe even to his face to taunt him. It isn’t right… but it is what it is.
+1 on the comments about how Kurtz subtly disparages Cdr Gordon. Gordon’s photo looks like a promo headshot for the guy who plays the villain in a theatrical production. Look at the lighting and his expression. This is the only photo they could find of him?
Has nobody else, when asked a question by a reporter that manglement did not want answered or that one was not allowed to answer, ever respond with, “I can’t say, but I suspect an investigative journalist could find it.”
Ain’t my job to do your work for ya.
– Max
What else does Carol Rosenberg have to offer, she looks like a farmers fat sow.
She basically has no business in journalism if she expresses this type of angry behavior. She totally dislikes the military, that is evident. She is biased, and maybe she just cannot get a date.
As someone who worked in the PAO shop in GTMO at one time, and dealt with Ms. Rosenberg…
Good for CDR Gordon. Ms. Rosenberg has proven to be an “interesting” participant from the very beginning.
I personally watched this woman be nearly thrown out of the court for making rude and obnoxious statements aimed at the military in general. She was asked to be courteous or leave. She then claimed it was “outrageous” and stormed out.
One thing that sticks in my mind is that she said the military had “stolen Hamdans smile”. She was seriously demented.