Rosenthal out at MLBN

[bean5302]

5 hours ago, Sconnie said:

This is a news reporter, not an executive. He’s only a security risk if the executives in the room let him be one.

If employers canned every low level operations employee for disparaging their employer on social media, most companies would have to close up shop because they fired too many workers.

Oh, he's only a security risk if executives in the room let him be? It's pretty clear you don't work in any kind of intellectual property or security field, haha. Rosenthal was a business risk and I'm sure Manfred did not make the decision to not renew/terminate/whatever Rosenthal unilaterally.

Employers can and do fire every low level operations employee for disparaging the company online. It's in your employment agreement and social media policy at every major company, and it happens every day. Most people know better than to directly call out their employers by name. Also, employers can terminate those "low level" employees because they're easily replaceable and the termination is for cause, meaning the employee is not eligible for unemployment in most cases. Aside from that, Ken Rosenthal was not, in any remote way, a low level operations employee. There's no way that guy was making less than $200,000 from MLB (only) when bonuses and non-qualified benefits were coming into the picture.

 

[nicksaviking]

Yeah, this is a black eye for the league.

If I'm honest, I never quite trusted Rosenthal as he seemed to be quite similar to the NFL's Adam Schefter. They both often seem to be the mouthpiece for whatever propaganda one party or another wanted to disseminate. I was never very confident if corroborating sources were used or if he was just regurgitating whatever a GM or agent wanted him to say.

But clearly that's not why he wasn't re-signed, and clearly he did have his own opinions he was willing to (unpopularly) share.

[nicksaviking]

1 minute ago, bean5302 said:

Employers can and do fire every low level operations employee for disparaging the company online. It's in your employment agreement and social media policy at every major company, and it happens every day. Most people know better than to directly call out their employers by name. Also, employers can terminate those "low level" employees because they're easily replaceable and the termination is for cause, meaning the employee is not eligible for unemployment in most cases. Aside from that, Ken Rosenthal was not, in any remote way, a low level operations employee. There's no way that guy was making less than $200,000 from MLB (only) when bonuses and non-qualified benefits were coming into the picture.

That's not how the media can or should handle employees though. Read a newspaper, they publish plenty of pieces critical of their own interests, because, it's news and they are trying to be objective. MLBN is supposedly a media outlet.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

2 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Oh, he's only a security risk if executives in the room let him be? It's pretty clear you don't work in any kind of intellectual property or security field, haha. Rosenthal was a business risk and I'm sure Manfred did not make the decision to not renew/terminate/whatever Rosenthal unilaterally.

Employers can and do fire every low level operations employee for disparaging the company online. It's in your employment agreement and social media policy at every major company, and it happens every day. Most people know better than to directly call out their employers by name. Also, employers can terminate those "low level" employees because they're easily replaceable and the termination is for cause, meaning the employee is not eligible for unemployment in most cases. Aside from that, Ken Rosenthal was not, in any remote way, a low level operations employee. There's no way that guy was making less than $200,000 from MLB (only) when bonuses and non-qualified benefits were coming into the picture.

 

Ok, the social media thought was a bad example.

 

however regarding IP, if I were to share my employer’s trade secrets with Ken Rosenthal, and he writes a news story about it, Rosenthal wasn’t the leak. That would be me. I would be the one in hot water for violating confidentiality, not Ken Rosenthal.

[bean5302]

2 hours ago, Sconnie said:

Ok, the social media thought was a bad example.

 

however regarding IP, if I were to share my employer’s trade secrets with Ken Rosenthal, and he writes a news story about it, Rosenthal wasn’t the leak. That would be me. I would be the one in hot water for violating confidentiality, not Ken Rosenthal.

...and when the source is confidential, how do you hold that source responsible? Like when sealed, confidential lab test results are supposedly leaked and nobody ever knows where it came from.

It's very much like your spouse wanting to hang out with their close friend (who is also their ex) alone all the time. Sure, it would be your spouse's fault if something happened, but it's risky and irresponsible to put people into that situation to begin with.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

21 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

...and when the source is confidential, how do you hold that source responsible? Like when sealed, confidential lab test results are supposedly leaked and nobody ever knows where it came from.

It's very much like your spouse wanting to hang out with their close friend (who is also their ex) alone all the time. Sure, it would be your spouse's fault if something happened, but it's risky and irresponsible to put people into that situation to begin with.

That’s when you have a frank conversation with your spouse, not do something rash about their ex…. 

[bean5302]

5 hours ago, Sconnie said:

That’s when you have a frank conversation with your spouse, not do something rash about their ex…. 

and that's exactly what MLB did. See you later, Ken Rosenthal. You can still report on baseball (hang out with the spouse), just not this close to MLB operations (alone at your place). This analogy is getting tough... 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

5 hours ago, bean5302 said:

and that's exactly what MLB did. See you later, Ken Rosenthal. You can still report on baseball (hang out with the spouse), just not this close to MLB operations (alone at your place). This analogy is getting tough... 

Rosenthal is the Ex. Rosenthal was an MLBN employee, not an MLB employee. MLB employees like union negotiators and lawyers are the spouse.
 

[KirbyDome89]

On 1/5/2022 at 11:21 AM, Cap'n Piranha said:

But Rosenthal is not a "low level operations employee".  He is a very visible,  customer-facing entity.  A better analogy to a "regular" company would be a senior PR rep who routinely speaks to the press in an official capacity.  If that person made disparaging comments about the CEO, would it really be so shocking to see them fired on the spot?  Also, as has been pointed out, the comments in question came more than a year before his contract was allowed to lapse, so there's not any real strong connection linking one with the other. 

That said, even if the August 2020 criticism is directly tied to his "dismissal", should that be a surprise?  As an MLB employee paid to produce content for public consumption, it should be obvious that the content needs to paint MLB in a favorable light; would any organization pay someone why was portraying them in a negative light?  Would Amazon continue to pay a PR rep who blasted the company for anti-union activities?  Would Target continue to pay a PR rep who said Walmart is a better run company?  Would Google continue to pay a PR rep who wrote about bias and favoritism within the company?  I think all of us know the answer to that, and would have no problem with those companies firing an employee failing at their job (to increase the favorable public perception of their employer);  if so, why would it be expected that MLB act otherwise?

He's a journalist, by definition that job demands a certain level of objectivity that isn't comparable to that of a PR rep. There's almost no way the decision to suspend Rosenthal for 3 months had nothing to do with MLBN opting not to renew his contract a year later. We can quibble over Rosenthal's individual integrity but firing a journalist because you don't like what they're reporting on warrants criticism. 

[old nurse]

On 1/6/2022 at 6:54 AM, Sconnie said:

Rosenthal is the Ex. Rosenthal was an MLBN employee, not an MLB employee. MLB employees like union negotiators and lawyers are the spouse.
 

That could best be described as a strange exchange