Friday, June 09, 2006

Letter to the Editor

In an effort to out state employees that take excessive overtime, the Tennessean (Gannett Press) has put a searchable database up on their website of peoples salaries and what they actually took home last year.  This made me very angry.  So, I turned green, swelled up, my pants (now capris) turned purple.   I flexed my intellectual muscle and wrote the following letter to the editor.

I really must object to the listing on your website stating the amounts of money that state employees make.  I understand the public has a right to know how tax dollars are spent or misspent as the case may be.  But, as a state employee that gets lower pay than my counterparts in every other state, I see my rights as an individual citizen have been violated. 

In the search for people who abuse overtime and your decision to out them, you have punished people who are not guilty of taking advantage of the system.  Your reporting would have been just as effective had you not published the persons name except in the most serious offenses.

I do not tell people how much I make because it is none of their business.  The Tennessean, in their much better judgment, decided to just go ahead and tell people for me. 

I realize that as a state employee my pay is public record and anyone can obtain this information.  In the past this was always protected by the effort that it took to do so.  The Tennessean has made it accessible online for anyone, not just the citizens of the state of Tennessee, to see.

This is irresponsible journalism.


3 comments:

Stealth said...

You won't like me when I'm angry....

State by Budd in an ominous voice before writing this post :-)

You always make me smile, Budd.

Stealth said...

FYI, I am really sorry they did that. What assholes. The solution is simple. Start a flyer, with all the journalists salaries on them.

Staple it on every light post you can find. Maybe then people won't waste the untaxed part of their money buying the paper.

I think I might be a little too vindictive.

mllnclly79 said...

Another serious problem that can lead from this is that TN state employees include Probation & Parole. I don't know any Parole office who would like for the criminals they're in charge of to know how much they're making. It would make it too easy for the parolees to come up with effective bribes. i.e. "you only make $30,000 . . . "

The stupid Tennessean. Damn them!!!