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| Sean Holton |
Here is Sean's obituary from his friend Craig. Here is Jeff Kunerth's detailed and awesome obituary in the Orlando Sentinel. (There is also a Guestbook to sign).
In 2003, he created his "Half-Assed Guide to Mediocrity" and passed out copies to his fellow reporters and editors at the Sentinel. Thanks to Lisa Cianci and Mark Schlueb at the Orlando Sentinel for passing this along. It is good advice for my fellow journalists and my journalism students.
Your goal for today is to neither be half-assed nor mediocre. Oh and maybe to sip some Jameson's. Do it in memory of my friend, Sean.
SEAN HOLTON’S
HALF-ASSED GUIDE TO MEDIOCRITY
(Version 3.0:
Release date, Jan. 6, 2003)
40 ways to
promote mediocrity
1. Don’t care.
2. Don’t try.
3. Be
negative.
4. Tolerate mediocrity in others.
5. Rationalize mediocrity in yourself and others.
6. Hide
out in your job.
7. Build up a small piece of your job into more than it is,
and hide behind that.
8. Be
blithe about your mistakes.
9. Hide
your mistakes.
10. Make
people afraid to admit and correct their mistakes.
11. Don’t
connect the quality of everything you do to the quality of the overall
paper.
12. Don’t
connect the quality of your colleagues’ work to your professional
self-interest.
13. Don’t
respect deadlines.
14. Don’t
learn and respect the newsroom process all the way through the copy
desk.
15. Don’t
make that next phone call.
16. Don’t
read that story printout one last time to make sure everything is exactly right.
17. Believe
“good enough” is actually good enough.
18. Dwell
on the shit that flows downhill, and don’t set the fires that will burn
uphill.
19. Kid
yourself that mediocrity deserves an “achieves standards” review.
20. Take no
responsibility for your decisions, especially the stupid ones.
21. Cultivate your own martyrdom and encourage martyrdom in
others.
22. Be a
duplicitous backstabber.
23. Relish
the blame game.
24. Be
afraid to speak your mind.
25. Be
afraid to think big.
26. Be
afraid to be an aggressive editor.
27. Be
afraid to kick back a story when it’s not good enough.
28. Be
afraid to be edited aggressively.
29. Throw a
snit when a story is kicked back to you.
30. Hoard
power.
31. Confuse
power with leadership.
32. Manage
through fear and control.
33. Kiss up
to your bosses and kick down at your subordinates.
34. Treat
full-grown adults like children just because they happen to work for
you.
35. Forget
about all the people around you who are working their asses off.
36. Don’t
treat colleagues with professionalism and respect.
37. Don’t
get reviews finished on time.
38. Make
everything personal.
39. Take
everything personally.
40. Bitch
about the law of gravity.
2 comments:
Hi Kathryn:
I never really knew Sean. In fact, I can only recall meeting him once, briefly, during my time at the Sentinel, but that's a great list.
I was particularly interested in #17 - "Believing 'good enough' is actually good enough."
At my last paper, our executive editor called a newsroom managers meeting one time after yet another round of staff cuts to inform us that, due to diminished resources, we were all going to have to get comfortable with the idea that "good enough" would have to be good enough in almost all cases.
I've experienced a lot of depressing moments in my career, but that one is right near the top.
StBlue: I am sorry that exec editor was such a moron. That thinking helps no one. Maybe Sean's list can cheer you up a little.
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