Thursday 17 June 2010

Ottawa bureau -3

Updated re Rue Frontenac story
Christina Spencer
, Elizabeth Thompson and Peter Zimonjic were whacked today from Sun Media's Parliament Hill bureau, TSF sources report.

As one of the sources said: "All experienced, fair and balanced print journalists."

Rue Frontenac, staffed by locked out Journal de Montreal employees, says Sun Media reps from Toronto arrived in Ottawa today to "announce the sad news to Christina Spencer, Elizabeth Thompson and Peter Zimonjic."

The online newspaper says Spencer, Thompson and Zimoniic didn't see it coming and quoted the president of the press gallery as saying they all "have a very good reputation on the Hill."

The Sun's Eye on the Hill profiles read:

Christina Spencer’s journalism experience includes stints as an international affairs writer, editorial page commentator and daily newspaper editor. She’s been with Sun Media’s National Bureau since January, 2008. She loves federal politics, hates media scrums and wonders what it would be like to cover a majority Parliament.

Elizabeth Thompson is new to Sun Media’s national office but not to Parliament Hill or to blogging. Her 23 years working for the Gazette in Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa give the Montreal native a “distinctly” different perspective on politics as well as a fondness for cafĂ© au lait, chocolatines and French wines. When she is not busy driving politicians to distraction with her questions, she drives her children around town.

Peter Zimonjic is taller than anyone in Sun Media’s national bureau and that gives him a different perspective on what goes on in Ottawa. That and his five years in London, England, working for the British press. He’s also an author. He prefers a Double Double to a latte, he rides his bike or skates to work rather than drives and he has a kicking comic book collection.

Still no word on the fate of Greg Weston in the shakeup, but so much for being loyal to Quebecor.

Stay tuned for more of the Sun's parliamentary bureau's extreme makeover.

It is getting uglier and uglier.

13 comments:

  1. If that's true, then that sucks, to the extreme. I had a great working relationship with Liz, and she was very helpful on the Ottawa end for stories I was working on.

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  2. No TV experience among any of them, which is the criteria for employment. Welcome to Sun Media, everyone is replaceable. Now get your stuff and get out.

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  3. Ugh. There goes a hell of a good crew with a ton of experience

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  4. Well just shut down the papers already and replace us all with TV reporters.

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  5. "Everyone is replaceable" is so true. Loyalty, diligence and hard work are not respected or rewarded. Managers should take note. You might have thought you were untouchable because of your longevity or fellatial obedience to corporate dictates. Everyone and anyone, especially those outside the protection of a collective agreement, are now vulnerable and as disposable as a used tissue. Polish up your CVs for jobs that aren't out there. You can be sacrificed on the altar of shareholder value.

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  6. I guess I'm lucky that I look good on camera. I might get to keep my job.

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  7. No worries, 3:35, you'll be safe when they start doing the 'Beauty Audits' in all newsrooms! LOL

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  8. Elizabeth Thompson19 June 2010 at 11:25

    Thanks for all of the nice comments. They are really appreciated.
    Ironically, I have been regularly doing television gigs on the side over the past few years - sometimes several in one week - on CBC, CPAC, CTV and even Sun TV. Christina often appears on CTV's Question Period.
    So it can't be about us not being able to do TV.

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  9. Big salaries, they got to go, make room for Kraft-dinner eating students looking to pay off those student loans and willing to work for peanuts with their own equipment.

    This company continues to disgust me. Why should I put any extra effort into anything? Work hard, get fired is the mantra.

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  10. If heavy-hitters like those three can get the axe, it doesn't bode well for the little fish in the Quebecor pond.

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  11. Can't speak for the others, but Spencer was basically forced out of the editor's job at the Whig when new management took over and she might have enough journalistic integrity to resist the business plan of slashing the newsroom by two-thirds to make it better. Or something. They replaced her with managers who do what the publisher tells them to do based on what Sun Media tells them to do without questioning it.

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  12. @10:47. Robotic 'yes' people, just lovely. Glad I bolted when I did -- and with integrity intact. Yes, there is a sunnier, more appreciative life beyond the darkness of present-day Sun Media.

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  13. Seriously, doesn't someone from the upper company read these views and realize just how pissed off and unappreciated its employees are as a whole?

    When is this going to end?

    I'm looking to find a way a way out because, as the last poster said, there's a brighter side to life than working for this cesspool of morons.

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