Word: fiedler
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...While DeFede was in the midst of transcription, the executives at the Herald were holding a transcontinental conversation with Executive Editor Tom Fiedler, who was in San Jose, California at the annual meeting of the editors of the Knight Ridder chain, of which the Herald is a part. Says Fiedler, ?I was called out of the meeting literally minutes after 6 p.m. to be told about the suicide in the lobby...
...Fiedler swung into action. He left the editors meeting and went to a private office to discuss the situation in greater detail with Diaz and Beatty. When he learned DeFede had made a tape without Teele's knowledge, their discussion turned from Teele to what to do with DeFede and his tape. Fiedler saw the issue in stark terms. ?Making a tape recording without telling anybody is a subterfuge,? he insists. ?We talked about wow, we have this, what do we do?? Fiedler says. ?Is this a firing offense? Are there sanctions short of that? Is there precedent here...
...first time such an incident had ever happened at the Knight Ridder newspapers, Fiedler says. ?Not within Knight Ridder is there a precedent for somebody coming forward saying I have done wrong and I did it on purpose,? he says. From Fiedler's vantage point, DeFede had committed an unpardonable journalistic sin that would have ramifications years in the future. ?Jim had committed a major breach of trust knowingly with a source in the news,? he says ?This was almost certain to come out publicly.? That's when they decided they should fire DeFede...
...respond as the keeper in the newsroom?? Fiedler asks. ?I ultimately agreed and Jesus agreed and Robert Beatty agreed. We talked to smart people in San Jose.? He adds that the decision to fire the columnist was made by Herald executives. ?Nobody in San Jose said you should do this,? he says. ?We were looking to see if there was precedent here...
...went from consoling this man, to finding he was dead. To them sneaking me in through the back entrance, the freight entrance, of the Herald to avoid the police out front. They are firing me and they're still cleaning up Art Teele's blood in the lobby.? Fiedler says his decision to fire DeFede was based solely on the taped telephone call. He denies that it had anything to do with criticism of DeFede from the expatriate Cuban community in Miami. The Cuban exile community had been angered by DeFede's column about a trip to Cuba to report...