Herald strike pt. 5 - The mood in the newsroom began to change... and big mistakes were being made

The newsroom always had a culture of crassness and poor behavior excused by the heavy nature of our work. An editor hid liquor bottles in his desk and smoked Green Death cigarettes, while other editors yelled at anyone who made a mistake.

I once asked a night editor why we were running a replate and he said, “Because Monte Stewart and his fuck up ways got lost again.” Monte was a kind, sweet reporter that was the butt of his colleague’s jokes.

I answered the phone calls the day that the Herald received backlash over the decision to run a photo of a high school student arriving home from school. The photo captured the moment she spotted police, who were about to tell her that her parents were dead in a murder-suicide. There was an unspoken rule about when it is and isn't appropriate to capture moments of tragedy. The Herald had broken it, and Calgarians were furious. Joan Crockatt, Managing Editor at the time, held an open discussion in the newsroom about it. The Herald ultimately issued an apology.

In 1998, a woman was staying at her sister and brother-in-law's house when her violent, estranged husband broke in and kidnapped her in only a night shirt. The Saturday, they announced that her ex-husband was arrested but she was still missing. The city feared for the worse. I was working on the editorial desk when a young crime beat reporter ran into the newsroom and yelled "they found the stiff!" And the newsroom became abuzz with work to be done.

I felt a change in the mood of the newsroom beginning in the spring of 1998.

Working conditions were deteriorating:

Writers were demanding the right to remove their bylines from stories they felt were heavily edited and did not reflect their work. This was one of the main issues debated by the union and management.

The EA desk had a computer we called Spud, which gave us flashing pink-and-green-screen energy one day and random freeze-ups the next. There was a large printer in the copy room that lit on fire at least once and I recall a tie was lot to it like a sitcom skit LOL

Business reporter Steven Ewart was stranded in Japan when reporting on the Kyoto Protocol because the person at the Herald in charge of booking his flights made a mistake.

One night at the Calgary Herald’s Stampede bureau, Rick Mofina, Duncan and I spent the last few hours of their shifts talking. Rick told us that when he and Mike Drew were sent to Iraq to report on a potential war with the U.S., the Herald Management had given them some security reassurances.

Rick told us that Herald management setup an emergency phone line they could call at any time if they were in danger. Rick said they were forced to call it once and got no answer.

Rick’s last byline appeared in the Herald before the lockout. He is now a New York Times bestselling author.