Monday, December 29th, 2008...9:53 am
You May Panic Now
News reports and editorialists have pointed to many indicators of our parlous economy, but news today chilled me.
NPR journalist Ketzel Levine, along with 64 other NPR employees has been laid off, according to an article in the New York Times. Levine has worked with NPR for over 30 years, the Times reports. She has had a successful feature called Talking Plants, which as a gardener I always found interesting.
Levine’s unwitting valedictory series? Prior to learning of her impending job loss, Levine had undertaken human-interest features reporting under the title “American Moxie: How We Get By.” At least in her last report she got to tell her own story.
Two things about Levine’s being laid off are alarming indicators: First, she was a very productive reporter with a successful franchise (including a related book); second, NPR has always tried to maintain its news infrastructure, in which talent not technology is the key.
Levine can now be found at Ketzel Uprooted.
Girl’s got moxie.
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2 Comments
January 1st, 2009 at 9:51 pm
The Second Great Depression apparently began in fall 2007: we’ll need federal spending on the scale of World War II to get out of it. Maybe, then, NPR will rehire its lost talents. Then again, maybe Chrysler, GM, the airlines, Alcoa, AIG, the banks — Citi, SunTrust, Wachovia, the brokerages, etc. will stage comebacks, if only through the visible hands of Presidents Bush and Obama. Maybe.
January 2nd, 2009 at 12:02 pm
You mean Bush’s “War on Terror” (for which he wanted the American people just to go shopping) is not sufficient?
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