Friday, April 29, 2011

Joplin Globe offers archive of royal wedding, but still no coverage of T. R. Hanrahan firing

From page one of today's Joplin Globe:

Did you miss the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton? Don't worry, we archived the video on our website at joplinglobe.com.
From page one of today's Joplin Globe:

Joplin woman was in London for 1981 royal wedding
From page one of today's Joplin Globe:

Today's deal: Fifty percent off appetizers and beverages at Vinnie's Lounge at Savannah's Restaurant in Carthage.
Not on page one of today's Joplin Globe:

Any mention of Missouri Southern State University's firing of newspaper adviser T. R. Hanrahan. Thankfully, the First Amendment which is under attack at MSSU, offers the Joplin Globe the freedom to print whatever it wants to about the royal wedding.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

You continue to refer to this as a firing. This person was not tenured. He worked for the school under a contract. MSSU had no obligation to offer him a new contract. He was informed that he would not be offered a new contract. He was not fired. He will be expected to complete his contract. If he had been fired he would be gone, he would have been terminated. Your comments are purely and simply untrue. MSSU has no obligation to offer contracts to untenured employees.

Anonymous said...

don't bother randy with the facts...let him go ahead and write his headlines...it makes him feel important

Anonymous said...

You guys are missing the point. Why would a university not renew a contract of an award winning professor who is liked by many student and professional groups. I thought the idea is to get the best to not only teach the present students but to be able to recruit more to the university. In that sense they blew it. By the way I never heard a reason for that decision or was there not one but spite and concern that what they are actually doing was being brought to light.

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous 4:53. You are obviously Debbie Dutch Kelley. Yes had a contract. But was under the understanding that he would be teaching the next semester. Which means he would have been asked to teach his course. HLC was told that there is no retrebution for speaking your mind. Tell that to the growing number of people who have been fired or change positions. (Jack Oakes, John Messick, T.R. Hanrahan, etc.)

Randy said...

Nothing irritates me more than people who try to cover up the truth with a string of euphemisms. Not offering Hanrahan another contract is simply a fig leaf that Speck apologists can use to say Hanrahan was not fired. If you check dictionary definitions of firing, you will find that what happened to T. R. Hanrahan was definitely a firing.

Anonymous said...

where's your defense of other teachers whose contracts were not renewed....this department is nothing special..

Randy said...

Let me see:

-During the past two years under T. R. Hanrahan's guidance, the Chart has been recognized as a top-flight newspaper. Hanrahan has been cited as Adviser of the Year. Brennan Stebbins has received top honors at the regional and national levels.

-The Chart has turned out one story after another pointing out wrongdoing and incompetence in the administration, none of which have been refuted.

-The atmosphere at Missouri Southern is one of fear and that can be laid at the doorstep of Bruce Speck.

-After Joplin Globe Publisher Michael Beatty pulled his newspaper out of the public watchdog mode and became a helpful business partner, the Chart had been the only source of information about the problems with university management.

The department is not only something special, but the recent acts by Speck appear to guarantee that the Chart will become another public relations arm for administration.

While I certainly have sympathy for anyone who has lost his or her job, the firing of T. R. Hanrahan clears the way for even more of this reign of terror.

Anonymous said...

We don't need no stinking euphemisms.

Anonymous said...

Sadly amusing, since the nationally=recognized Chart is older than either Missouri Southern or its current president

Anonymous said...

other departments have not equal success over the years?...I guess since the Chart doesn't have a good record of noting other department success, randy wouldn't know or care about them...it's all about the journalism students...I'm a graduate of Southern and I think my department as done a fine job...they just don't put it on the front page everyday..still waters run deep

Anonymous said...

Maybe Missouri should become a 'Right To Teach' state, K through college. Each year, the performance of their students should determine if the teacher retains the right to teach.

Randy said...

I am getting an idea from some of these comments that a conscious effort is being made to distract the reader from the issue at hand. It's not going to work. I have read many issues of the Chart over the years and I recall seeing dozens upon dozens of stories about successes in other departments. What is important is now it is likely that the Chart will simply be an organ for only that kind of story and not for the type of independent reporting that an institution of higher learning should prize.

Anonymous said...

I don't know Mr. Hanrahan, and have not been the least bit impressed with Speck's tenure at MSSU -- which has often bordered on incompetent.

But just to play devil's advocate for a minute here, could it be possible that there were other reasons not to renew his contract?

It certainly appears to be an act of retaliation on Speck's part, sure. But there could be a hundred other factors that led to the decision. Without knowing all the details (which I doubt by law the university could disclose even if it wanted to), it's all just pure speculation.

Then again, it could be exactly as it seems. Which also wouldn't surprise me.

Anonymous said...

has Mr. Hanrahan got skeletons in his closet..does he have bad or questionable reports in his file?...

you know, acting like your students and being their "friend," hanging out for a beer with students; and supporting them in their youth ideas of underhandedness does not necessarily mean you are a good teacher...

Anonymous said...

10:19, not that there is anything wrong with that. Skeletons in the closet, I mean.

Anonymous said...

This is from The Turner Report earlier for some of you who can't read:

"The department head told him they were going to go in a “different direction.” However, Hanrahan said, Department of Communications chair J.R. Moorman has been vocal in his support of the newspaper."

That is the reason he is being "let go". But it seems to me that "a different direction" for an award winning student run newspaper would be either a "not student run paper" or "not an award winning paper". How is either of these direction an improvement of what we have now?

Anonymous said...

Randy I checked the dictionary, perhaps you should also. A contract is an agreement between two parties. The university entered into one to employ this teacher for a period of time. He is expected to fulfill that contract and the university will pay him the amount agreed to. The completion of a contract does not create an obligation to offer a new one. The point I raised is about your misuse of the word “fired”. I do not know or care about why this person was not offered a new contract. He was not fired and your use of that term impugns T. R. Hanrahan. You are spreading a lie that he has been fired; this could damage him in the future. Mr. Hanrahan does not deserve to have you, in your misguided attempt to defend him to actually liable him.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, DDK.

Anonymous said...

back to the original "story" by randy...perhaps more people are interested in the royal wedding than in the release of a teacher at southern..but then he needs to keep up his image for the Huffington Report...I've never read the Huffington Report but I'll bet the they had plenty of stories about William and Kate

Randy said...

As usual, a comparison that means nothing. The Huffington Post is a worldwide website and naturally is going to offer coverage of the wedding, though I thought it, too, went overboard. The Joplin Globe is supposed to be the newspaper/website of record for Joplin and this area. To offer coverage of the wedding while not dealing with a story that is of interest to many in its readership is an exhibition of misplaced priorities.

Anonymous said...

Is the Globe only the record of the area when it comes to subjects favored by Randy...did they report on every teacher whose contracts were not renewed..at southern and in all the towns in their readership...I'm sure it will be news to randy, but the William and Kate stories are of local interest because local people are interested and the Globe usually finds a local connection to big national and in this case, international stories..If a great many locals are interested, it's a local story

Anonymous said...

Randy I would respectfully advise you to ease up a little bit on this TR thing. You have no idea why he is gone. There is a very big skeleton that nobody is talking about here, and that is the reason he is gone. It has nothing to do with the issues you think you know.

Anonymous said...

Nice try, 7:26. If you had something, you'd spill it.

Anonymous said...

thank you anonymous 1:45 a.m. for getting to the base of the problem...randy and his ilk see anyone who disagrees a "unschooled" while they are the "learned." I don't know about everyone else who posts here but I have a master's degree and several years of experience in journalism...I think I'm as "learned" as the next guy...Also, you misquote Mr. Lincoln, he referred to the Lord making "poor people," not stupid ones. Shame on you, where is you "learnedness."
No one is speaking about the real reason for not renewing the contract..why doesn't Mr. Hanrahan speak out...he didn't mind speaking out, or having his students speak out, on every other subject.

Anonymous said...

Finally, it is determined that the rampant stupidity in the Joplin area is the fault of the Joplin Globe. I always thought it was the water.

Former Chart Staffer said...

Unless TR was found in bed with a live boy or a dead girl, I doubt there is much of a skeleton in his closet at Missouri Southern. If we are going to poke around in someone's personal lives for anything, we shouldn't just do it to TR - we should do it to all of them - admins, too. Trust me, there's enough blame to go around. You won't ever find a group of people without issues. So, 7:26, put up or shut up. There is only one thing I have heard about TR that might fit in to the category of skeleton, and that is that he likes to drink and sometimes goes over the top. But he never does it at work, FWIW, and this is not something that should become fodder for anyone's cannon. And for all I know, he is sober as a judge now. My info is several years old.

Anonymous said...

To 9:39 - Mr Hanrahan was never, to my knowledge, inappropriate with students. Your post implied that you know something, or think you know something, even though you state you don't know TR. But your post was close to being libel. I've watched TR with students on many, many occasions, and he has always been appropriate. They look up to him and they like him because he was good at what he does. In my opinion, he was the new Chad, but unlike Chad, he didn't have a champion in the corner office. Speck has been gunning for the Chart ever since he tried to do away with the International Mission and failed. Truth is, if Jesus or God were advising the Chart, they would have lost their contracts, too. So just don't go there.

Anonymous said...

Hanrahan didn't lose his contract, he still has it, he is just not getting a new one. This blog reminds me of Orwell's 1984. Words don't seem to mean anything and are changed to reflect a point of view. Hanrahan has in fact not been fired and he did not lose any contract he ever had. These are facts inconvenient to those who want this to be an issue, or for whom it is an issue, but facts none the less.

Randy said...

If you don't like the way this blog is written, please feel free to try another one.

Anonymous said...

Even if Chad had been under fire, which he might have been a few times under Leon, he had tenure. The reason TR didn't have tenure is that he has a master's degree and wasn't hired during a regular search for a tenured position. This is how MSSU gets around giving teachers tenure. There is another, at least one other, professor there in communications who doesn't have tenure, but his job keeps him under the radar. If you are high-profile and/or if you tick off the department head or become dispensable for some other reason, such as making too much money for their precious budget, your job gets on the line. I know this from experience.
Tenure is the only way to protect yourself from this.

Chad Stebbins said...

Just for the record, I advised The Chart from 1984-94 without having tenure. I received tenure in May 1994. But I did have the support and backing of Richard Massa all those years. While Dr. Leon didn't always like what The Chart printed, he never attempted to censor the paper.