My old job for the West Hawaii Today was found posted on Journalismjobs.com. Looks like West Hawaii Today editor Reed Flickinger has chased off yet another talented reporter — It’s about time someone who experienced it firsthand said this publicly — with what I believe to be mental, emotional and verbal abuse. Of course, Jim Quirk, who moved from Iowa to take over the position when I vacated it in December 2006, is not giving the gory details about his departure. He is providing the gentlemanly response of “it’s time for me to move on” and explaining that he would like to live closer to his six-year-old son who is living with his former partner in his Pennsylvania hometown. Still, Jim Quirk doesn’t have another job lined up, and is basically jumping off the cliff into the unknown, much like I did when I reached my wits end with Reed Flickinger two years and three months ago, and much like others did both before my time at the West Hawaii Today and while I was working there.
I wonder when West Hawaii Today publisher Rick Asbach will finally see things for what they are. It’s like he is in La-La land or something. All those talented reporters, photographers, city editors and copy editors that have high-tailed it, even without a job lined up, are leaving because, like me, they find that Reed Flickinger is mentally trying and, yes, abusive, hello, Rick? Don’t you get it? Reed is machiavellian. He has no loyalties, not even to you, Rick. Reed decides for one reason or another to put a writer, photographer, copy editor, or city editor on his shit list and makes work life completely miserable until you can’t take it anymore and you quit for the sake of your sanity. If that isn’t a hostile work environment, I don’t know what is.
I can understand why Jim Quirk doesn’t want to speak publicly going on with him and Reed. Right after I quit the West Hawaii Today, both Hunter Bishop and Andrew Walden contacted me to tell them about what happened, and I really didn’t want to air my dirty laundry. Jim Quirk just wants to get out of here, and he wants to spare himself in last weeks he serves as the West Hawaii Today Hilo Bureau chief.
Two years and three months ago, before I quit my post, I went to Rick Asbach. Rick did absolutely nothing, even treated me like a nuisance and acted resentful that I was not a willing sailor on the Good Ship Lollipop and had told him the truth about how poorly Reed treated me. Telling Rick was the kiss of death for me, in retrospect. Reed made my work life even more miserable after I went to his boss. Verna Lee, Rick’s secretary, will recall my phone calls detailing the mental, emotional and verbal abuse as it was happening. It was like I was drowning, and people were standing there watching but nobody was throwing me a life preserver. I met with a lawyer and a therapist. I held on tightly to my job — because I actually really liked my job when I was left to do it — until I reached the point where the stress of Reed and his henchman, then-city editor Travis Loop, hounding me took a toll on my health and well being. (In retrospect, I have no hard feelings against Travis Loop because I know now that he was going through is own share of mental, emotional and verbal abuse, and was only doing what he did in an effort to keep his job.)
After I quit my job, I entertained the thought of but opted not to head down the road of filing a complaint with the Civil Rights Commission. I tried to go beyond Rick Asbach and Kona, reaching out to the Stephens Media executives in Las Vegas, providing Geoff Schumacher, Stephens Media director of community publications and the Big Island Weekly publisher, a multi-page letter detailing my grievances against Reed Flickinger, including multiple instances of mental, emotional and verbal abuse, in the five and a half years that I worked as the West Hawaii Today bureau chief. Nothing ever became of that letter, not even an acknowledgement that it had been read. Like my formal complaint to Rick Asbach, when I was still trying to hold onto my position, my letter went down the “we could give a shit” chute.
And, now, my replacement, Jim Quirk, is packing up his belongings and heading back to the mainland, and Reed Flickinger is going to hire someone — probably a woman — who he thinks that he can manipulate into writing what he wants the way he wants it written. I feel sorry for his next victim because I can imagine that, about six months after this person is hired, the honeymoon will be over and Reed will start up the abuse. The reporter will write a story that is too soft on Public Works or Mayor Billy Kenoi for not getting a road built or a project completed on the Kona side. Or the reporter will take issue with the hack editing job Reed or one of his night editors will do on the county government story he or she wrote on deadline, and he or she will make the mistake of saying something to Reed about the tweaking of his or her story. Challenging Reed is a no-no. He will say mean things, even fly off the handle and yell into the phone at the reporter telling him or her how worthless of a reporter he or she is, how he or she doesn’t know how to ask the right questions, etc. It will be interesting to see how long the next person to take the position lasts before he or she has an epiphany and realizes the predicament he or she is in. That’s right, it’s a predicament because the job is $45,000 per year, and a job like that is hard to come by on the Big Island. As we all know, there aren’t that many newspapers here. As the person being abused by your boss, you keep trying to make things work in the interest of paying your car loan and your mortgage, until you realize that life is too short to be treated like shit by an asshole bent out of shape about life and taking it out on you. I bet you the next reporter to fill that position is going to be a woman. I think Reed finds women easier to control and manipulate. Meanwhile, for a company so concerned about the bottom line, it is mind boggling to me how the guys in Las Vegas do nothing about the loose cannon in Kona. When will Stephens Media see that Reed Flickinger and the way he treats his reporters, photographers, city editors, and copy editors is a lawsuit waiting to happen? When will they see that Rick Asbach’s do-nothing-turn-a-blind-eye approach to the mental, emotional and verbal abuse of staff is actually doing a dis-service to the company he has been so seemingly faithful to all these years?
Oh, how interesting, I just went to find the job posted on Journalismjobs.com and it is not listed anymore. Looks like Reed Flickinger has already identified his next victim. Now we just wait, watch and see. My heart goes out to the person he has chosen, especially if it is the woman I think it is… Stay tuned. This story is definitely not over.
March 13th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Great Caesar’s Ghost!
I’ve worked in the commercial printing business, off and on, for 30 years.
I have had my share of working with types similar to the one you have described here, Tiff.
Like daily newspapers, the work can be an intensive process. Many things can go really, really wrong. You have to focus, a manini error can cost hundreds if not thousands. And there is not always the time needed to do it right, or to re-do a big wrong.
All this can turn an ordinary Joe into an extraordinary as- (oh wait, let’s be polite) monster, unless Joe has the proper upbringing, training, and sense of humanity. It sounds to me like he may not really be cut out for what he does, one would think being able to work constructively with your people would be a prerequisite. But as this mainland entity has shown in the past, they’re not really too concerned with doing the right thing, IMHO.
March 13th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Most revealing. Congrats in coming forward, it took guts after all this time. WHT is never gonna reach potential. Count those who left in recent years including top trooper Bobby Command
March 13th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
[...] it is certainly troubling to hear that Jim Quirk will not be WHT’s Hilo Bureau Chief for not much longer.Especially since reportedly WHT’s editor, Reed Flickinger, had a major role in Jim’s [...]
March 13th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
You’re one gutsy wahine, Tif. You’re doing a great job with your blog! Stir it up, girl. Thanks for adding me to your blogroll. Hope you and yours are feeling better soon. Coco is adorable.
March 13th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
…I didn’t think Stephens Media was that off….
March 13th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Gee, I knew Reed was somewhat of a crankwad… I had no idea it was this bad. Probably just a matter of time before someone does turn him.
Sorry his wrath had to be directed at you but as you know, when one door closes another one opens. Now you’re a freebird in Puna and Reed still has to go home to himself. I’d say you got the better part of the deal.
March 13th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Holy Macaroni! Mahalo Nui for adding me to your roll also! I just noticed! =)
March 13th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
[...] I’m clucking my tongue at Stephens Media because of Tiffany Edwards Hunt’s Commentary. [...]
March 14th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Its like my Auntie alwaaays said, “Every organization’s best assets have two legs.”
No one deserves the kind of grief that lousy managers cause. That speaks volumes about the sr. management.
My bet is once the turmoil ends, the person responsible for it will be kicking an empty can down the road.
March 14th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Thank you Tiffany for confirming what many of us already suspeected – that Reed biases stories against County to serve his own personal agenda and drives away talent. Sorry for the typos, but I’m typing on my cell phone. Thank you again – you are such a talented writer, I enjoyed reading your stories (although they were a bit biased, now we know why) and it’s a loss for our local papers to not have you on the team. I think the FBI blogger project that Damon is starting up will probably replace WHT someday.
March 14th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
It would be no surprise if Reed Flickinger found another reporter right away given the recent layoffs of reporters in Honolulu and elsewhere. What would be surprising would be an experienced reporter willing to risk his/her reputation and also their ethics by subjecting their copy to Reed’s agenda-driven manipulations.
I was the Hilo reporter for WHT when Reed was made editor 20 years ago, which occurred during a union organizing effort there. He immediately turned from a union supporter into a union buster – and proved quite adept at spewing forth the usual fairy tales (very grim ones) that companies put out when its workers dare to organize. Unfortunately for the employees, his intimidation efforts worked, as they have several times since, which is why the Employee Free Choice Act is so critical to level the playing field. And if there ever were/are workers who need union protection from management abuses, it’s those working for Stephens Media (then Donrey Media).
June 24th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
[...] Having worked under Reed for five and a half years, it was no surprise to see Reed’s column this morning. It could have been published the same day as the news story, but Reed has to have Publisher Rick Asbach sign off on his columns. [...]
June 28th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
[...] of West Hawaii Today editor Reed Flickinger’s redeeming qualities is that he is opinionated. Now. too often those opinions bleed over onto the [...]
July 11th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
[...] a West Hawaii reporter tried to make Ted Hong come off as “unusual.” Could this be another Flickinger set up? Ted and I do not always agree politically but I have found him for more than a decade or more [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Stop your bitching, if you don’t like it, then move back to the mainland!
February 18th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
I used to work for Reed and can vouch for everything Tiffany is saying. I also quit because I couldn’t stand the abuse and freakish nature of that man. Words can’t really describe it, although Tiffany comes about as close as you can. You’ve got a lot of guts for writing that Tiffany, Bravo!