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Comment by scarmig | Hacker News Reader

True, but I'm betting more than a few HN folk qualify as a "person who's had white-collar job for years [who] doesn't get how difficult service jobs are."

I'm actually impressed that we don't (yet) have a chorus of people saying he's overpaid or that he deserves it.

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The guy was a reporter who made racist jokes and comments about people he was supposed to be covering, and subsequently got fired for it. And then, surprise, no one else wanted to hire him to do reporting. [1] "deserves" is a strong word, but actions have consequences.

[1] Until now, I guess?

Source? I'd never heard of this guy before.

http://www.politico.com/reporters/JosephWilliams.html

Apparently, Politico doesn't remove biographies of people they fire (he was fired two years ago).

He discusses it in the first few paragraphs of the article.

I mean, do you think that the job conditions described are meant to be a punishment for his misdeeds as a journalist? Because I think you'll find that many people who did not do such things also labor under them.

Actually, he made a fairly accurate observation about the behavior of a guy he was covering. Some extremist supporters of the guy he was covering were not very happy with that, but it doesn't matter if 95% of the population says "duh, obviously".

(edited to add, reporting that the emperor has no clothes is not just a firing offense, but an economic death penalty, or if not an economic death penalty its at least incredibly harsh... I saw that fable as a theatrical play as a child, and have often thought the inevitable conclusion, as shown in this example, is more interesting than the play as portrayed.)

Racist jokes? Can you please link or quote some of these racist jokes? In the article, he quotes himself saying: “Romney is very, very comfortable, it seems, with people who are like him. That’s one of the reasons why he seems so stiff and awkward in town hall settings … But when he comes on ‘Fox and Friends,’ they’re like him. They’re white folks who are very much relaxed in their own company.”

Which I don't think is racist. Presumably, he also could have said "they're men", or "they're middle aged", but would not have been accused of being sexist or ageist.

This while article adds weight to my opinion that the USA is not a civilized country. Sure, there are the trappings. But a society that can afford to, but does not, look after those on the margins, is not civilized.

Sounds a little ridiculous, all right, but that's politics these days. I paid more attention to this stuff in the early 2000s, and was more on the right, so I remember what seemed like countless examples of Republican figures being hounded to the destruction of their careers for having made some statement that could be interpreted as being vaguely racist once in their lives. Now people on the center-left are getting the same treatment. I wouldn't say they deserve it either, but I have a hard time feeling sorry for them. Maybe someday we can all learn to back off from these ridiculous media feeding frenzies powered by dug-up dirt, but I'm not holding my breath.

I don't think it's racist either, but imagine a white reporter saying "they're black folks who are very much relaxed in their own company". I don't think that's automatically racist, but the torches and pitchforks would be out in full force.

First of all, what he said wasn't racist. Even if it were, should someone be banned from his profession for life, for one mistake? That is a very cruel punishment.

If we banned people for life for saying dumb things, we would have no politicians, movie stars etc left.

Huh, that's a lot of downvotes. Sorry for, you know, mentioning an event that occurred that provides context for the article.

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