St. Louis Newspaper Columnist Returns - Without an Apology

December 30th, 2009 | Awful Publicity, Followup

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Remember back in November, when we brought you this story about Kurt Greenbaum, a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who had a school employee fired over a comment on his newspaper’s blog?

Well, Mr. Greenbaum is back, and he seems to think that the Internet has a short memory, as he simply tries to return to his blog and Twitter account after a six-week hiatus with no mention of the incident or an apology for what he did.

Unfortunately, for Mr. Greenbaum, the Internet met his return yesterday with an overwhelmingly negative response on Twitter and other social media sites - so much so that it overwhelmed his server and took his Web site off-line for several hours. Although Greenbaum does not seem to be allowing comments on his blog entries, the jabs against him on Twitter and social news aggregator Reddit were coming fast and furious in the late afternoon and evening.

Greenbaum seems clueless about the hate that his actions have stirred up on the Internet. In fact, in a move that reeks of hubris, his most recent blog post outlines the job loss trends in the St. Louis area - does he not realize that HE IS RESPONSIBLE for one of those job losses?

Feel like telling Greenbaum and his bosses what you think about this?

Let the publisher know:
Kevin Mowbray - Publisher, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Phone: 314-340-8970
E-mail: kmowbray@post-dispatch.com

28 comments ↓

#1 anon on 12.30.09 at 5:54 pm

I just sent the publisher an email.

This is what I wrote.

Kurt greenbaum is a pusssy. He violated the internet code of ethics. He is a coward. Stupid moral crusader. Npthing wrong with that, but that pussy did it in a worng way. FUCK YOU! I have stopped reading to your fucking newspaper since that incident happened and will never read it again until you fire that pusssy. If you don’t condemn it, you condone it. FUCK YOU PUSSY GUY AND YOUR BOSS> FUCK ALL OF YOU!

FIRE THAT PUSSY OR WE WILL BANISH YOUR NEWSPAPER FOR LIFE!

PUSSY!
PUSSY!

#2 Robert on 12.30.09 at 5:57 pm

This is starting to spill over into the STLToday comments - take a look at comments to their recent article on job losses in St. Louis:

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/mound-city-money/st-louis-economy/2009/12/st-louis-lost-2800-jobs-in-november/

#3 Matt on 12.30.09 at 6:08 pm

I think it’s disingenuous to say he cost the teacher their job… he may have, but the teacher resigned. The teacher may have just been looking for a way out. Had the school fired the teacher, there’d be some negative reactions to the school as well I think from the internet community at large.

#4 dtn on 12.30.09 at 6:22 pm

@”anon”
I seriously hope you didn’t fucking send that. You made yourself, and by extension the masses that disagree with Greenbaum’s actions look like the bad side.

I wish I could take your keyboard away from you.

Dolt.

#5 Bill on 12.30.09 at 6:25 pm

@anon:
Dude, spellcheck is your friend. And grammar checking should be at least a passing acquaintance.

#6 Anon on 12.30.09 at 6:49 pm

“Amazed at the readers who comment in defense of a jackass who posted a vulgarity on our site — and lost his job. ”
http://twitter.com/kgreenbaum/status/5778019649

You seriously used vulgarity in a post condemning vulgarity?

#7 Ryan on 12.30.09 at 6:52 pm

Matt-

To suggest that the teacher was “looking for a way out” and used a post on a website and leverage to leave his job is absolutely ludicrous.

Technically, he did “resign”, but only because the custom is to allow teachers to do so before actually firing them, as being fired from one district can seriously hinder one’s chances at finding a job at another. It’s on your record.

In summation and conclusion, this guy got a teacher fired and you’re an idiot.

#8 Matt-is-Dense on 12.30.09 at 7:09 pm

Hey Matt, or should I say Kurt Greenbaum. Good try Kurt but why not stick to actual facts and not speculation and “what if” type rhetoric. Fact is that Kurt/you directly caused a man to lose his job. You can make up the rest of the story in your head the way you see fit.

#9 Matt on 12.30.09 at 7:58 pm

For the record… not Kurt Greenbaum. I think the guy’s an idiot, but that the reaction to him has still been over the top. Terrible things happen every day and the internet community has chosen this to go nerd rage over?

I was not aware that teachers were often given the option of resigning before being fired, as Ryan mentioned. Though I believe I was misunderstood, I don’t think he put pussy in the comments to get fired, but, maybe he resigned when confronted about it because he wanted out anyway. This may not be true, but I haven’t seen anything from the teacher about it, though I could see why someone wouldn’t want to call attention to themselves over it.

Why is the school getting a free pass? They snooped into an employees records, found something stupid, and, according to the assumptions made, were going to fire a teacher over them. That to me is just as bad as what Kurt Greenbaum did.

It feels to me like the internet likes to jerk themselves off and enact vigilante justice on random people sometimes for small injustices. Sometimes the internet mob does good, and sometimes it does bad. This time feels like it’s just retribution aimed at one person for all the times someones been judged for cursing.

#10 youngluck on 12.30.09 at 8:47 pm

Just Sent this:

Hello Sir,

You are stripping your readers of vital information regarding the social web because the person in charge of reporting it is being ostracized by the community that creates it. I am speaking, of course, of Mr. Greenbaum. It’s like asking Glenn Beck to head the department responsible for reporting on the DNC. I’m just curious as to how your “social media expert” is handling the actuality of social media literally defecating on his existence within said society? Do you realize that by having someone appointed to a position responsible for reporting on an area that loathes him, it makes your news organization look like a joke.

Thank you for your time,

#11 John on 12.30.09 at 8:48 pm

I sent a well worded letter. Thanks

#12 Matt Is Kurt on 12.30.09 at 9:01 pm

Nice try again Matt, or should I say Kurt, or better yet: Pussy.

awfulmarketing should do a filter and ip scan on “Matt” comment and send his employer a notification about how douchy he is….

#13 Matt on 12.30.09 at 9:29 pm

Totally should , I give you permission totally awful to do just that… you can use my email address which will show up as the same for each post to verify it’s me.

#14 Matt on 12.30.09 at 9:30 pm

eh… don’t know why I put totally awful… I just got the name confused with something else * awful marketing, sorry.

#15 David on 12.30.09 at 9:47 pm

Don’t contact the newspaper. Pay attention to who is advertising with the newspaper, and contact them. Let them know how poorly Kurt Greenbaum represents their products/services, and that you have no interest in anyone or anything associated with Kurt Greenbaum.

#16 Matt on 12.31.09 at 1:12 am

Jackass is much more offensive than pussy. How could anyone ever find cats offensive? They’re adorable. Kurt should be fired for using the word jackass publicly. It only seems fair considering he got someone fired for using a less offensive word anonymously

#17 Matt on 12.31.09 at 1:26 am

Jackass is a much more offensive word than pussy. Who would find cats offensive? They’re adorable!

Kurt should be fired for using the word jackass publicly. That’s much worse than using the word pussy anonymously. Why would the newspaper want to be associated with such a potty mouth?

#18 saul tanner on 12.31.09 at 7:44 am

I called Kurt’s boss when this story first hit and told his admin. asst. that Kurt should be fired.

Greenbaum is the source of all his problems and he deserves what he’s getting.

I’ll be calling his boss again after the New Year.

#19 Sebastian on 12.31.09 at 12:33 pm

youngluck, are you sure people are “literally” defecating on him? That sound nasty. If you use a metaphor, then don’t explicitly say it’s not a metaphor!

#20 Scott on 12.31.09 at 4:00 pm

He doesn’t get it. Today he posted again without acknowledging the issue. Even worse he makes a snide comment about a story where a police department is suing people for making bad comments. Does he not get it?

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