Last year, veteran TV news producer Joe Halderman was sentenced to six months in jail for pulling a failed $2 million blackmail scheme on David Letterman, who was having an affair with a staff member. Now, the ID Discovery network's "On the Case With Paula Zahn" has hired Halderman as a producer. He's experienced, so he should be fine, as long as he does not blackmail Paula Zahn for $2 million.
Russ Stanton is stepping down as editor of the LA Times, a job he's held for the past four years, through some of the shittiest layoff-plagued times in the history of the newspaper industry, and under the ownership of the thoroughly incompetent Tribune Co. He'll be replaced by Managing Editor Davan Maharaj. Perhaps the biggest story here is how small of a story this is, in 2012.
Poor middle-aged six-figure recruitment executive Gary Chaplin was only trying to be helpful and honest when he told a prospective job seeker via email to "fuck off" for being "too stupid to get a job, even in banking." Unfortunately, the 4,000 other people he sent the email to by accident didn't appreciate his candor.
Today you all learned that we here at Gawker are looking for a trio of slaves to spend their days with us in terrible, seemingly endless servitude. Who among you is up for such a task? According to one commenter, we should immediately disqualify the eight Horsemen of the Apocalypse you see pictured below.
Are you a total news junkie? Do you know Gawker's voice inside and out? Would you willingly—and more importantly, would you happily—spend hours glued to a computer screen scouring the internet for the newsworthy and noteworthy?
Wherefore the laid-off journalist? Thousands of well-trained, conscientious, and skilled reporters and editors have been laid off in the past few years, fallen victim to the recession and the euphemistic "changing nature of the media." Countless others saw the way the cookie was crumbling and got out by choice/ necessity.
Add this to the list of Wall Street's problems: kids these days don't think banks are "cool" any more, for some reason. (Kids. You know?) The NYT says that even Yale kids are protesting when Morgan Stanley comes to campus to recruit their peers who know how to pick out a decent suit, which is probably... the best thing Yalies have ever done.
As a rule, you'd best avoid peering behind the scenes of your favorite online pastime; you probably won't like what you find. Drill into the backstory of "Mafia Wars" creator Zynga, for example, and you'll find a sweatshop where ruthless managers closely monitor the performance of even cafeteria workers, and where employees are pitted against one another and bullied into emotional breakdowns.
Unemployed? Enjoy apples, fresh air, and exercise? Then here's some good news: There are plenty of jobs to be had in America's apple orchards, at this very moment. Orchards in New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Virginia, and probably a few other states can't find enough laborers to help harvest their crops. They're looking for you!
Young people: will they ever stop evincing their painful ignorance of life's fundamentally tragic nature? Everybody old enough to pay taxes and be killed in a foreign war should understand that what we call "life" is nothing but an endless treadmill of mind-numbing and unfulfilling work followed shortly thereafter by the loss of one's mental faculties, and death.
No! There. That was easy. But the San Jose Mercury News reports on a growing movement among San Francisco restaurant workers to make the addition of a 25 percent gratuity to high-end dining bills mandatory. (What's with San Francisco's obsession with tips legislation? First the circumcision ban, now this.)
And, like clockwork, PR-addicted porn company Vivid Entertainment makes Amanda Knox an offer she can refuse: "We would like to offer her the opportunity to be our vivid.com spokesperson and represent the studio at trade and retail events.This would involve no nudity or sex. Of course we would welcome talking to her if she wants to pursue this direction, but the decision is totally hers to express." So, booth babe at porn conventions? Lame. I've come to expect better from your stunt job offers, Vivid. [TMZ, image via Getty]
Online reputation managing company Reppler surveyed 300 "professionals" who participate in "the hiring process at their companies" to figure out the relative importance of job applicants' social media presences. Their findings: 9 out of 10 employers report using social media to screen prospective employees. 7 out of 10 report rejecting candidates based on their social media presences—and roughly the same number report accepting candidates based on their social media presences, too.
Looking for just the right sentiment to hand a recently sacked executive assistant this Used-To-Be-My-Secretary's Day? Perhaps Hallmark's new line of unemployment sympathy cards will fit the bill. As Derek McCracken, creative director with the Hallmark Greeting Card Company, told NPR, "A job, like any loss, is a grieving process. We offer more ['you'll get through this' cards], versus dwelling on the loss of the job itself."
America! A land in which our most treasured popular cultural symbols are just candy coating for our other, far darker cultural symbols. Maybe Mickey Mouse is worth a shit, after all.
