Bankruptcy filings show where the money really is

I discovered much to my dismay Friday that I once again have missed out on the big money.
For the past few years I have been blogging and receiving no dollars and no cents per hour for my efforts, mainly because this enables me to keep my hand in at journalism, something I have always loved, and at the same time fulfill my promise to my students that if I made them write everyday, I would do so also.
It appears, however, that the real money is not in writing the Turner Report, but in reading it. Documents filed Friday in U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia, indicate that Patrick F. Gallagher, who works for the public relations firm of Edward Howard & Company is being paid $330 an hour to read this blog.
Fortunately for anyone trying to hold down costs in the ever ballooning bankruptcy of O'Sullivan Industries, Gallagher, a senior vice president with the company, only put in a half hour of work, charging $165 to "review court docket, Turner Report, and other media." All right, I will admit, if it weren't for the fact that a lot of my friends in Lamar are facing a fight for their economic future because of what is going on with O'Sullivan, I might be a little pleased that the documents mention The Turner Report by name and apparently link The Joplin Globe with other media, but this is ridiculous.
The public relations firm's bill was included in the documents filed Friday. It was for $8,227.50 for 24 hours of service done by four people, whose hourly salaries ranged from $330 to $420 per hour. (Apparently, one of the cheaper ones was assigned to read this blog.)
The item about The Turner Report was dated Dec. 9. The Howard firm also spent some of its time preparing to deal with the media on the firings of numerous workers at the Lamar and South Boston plants, according to the documents. On Dec. 30, the company met to "review draft of document outlining talking points for potential media interest in Lamar and South Boston re workforce reduction." More work on preparing for dealing with the media on the firings was held Dec. 31, meaning that a P. R. firm knew that these people were going to lose their livelihoods and was working on the best way to make the O'Sullivan officials come out looking good.
If that was their assignment, whatever their strategy was certainly doesn't work. Maybe O'Sullivan should have hired a more expensive firm to handle its PR.