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Responding to Negative Newspaper Editorials... Do you or don't you?
"Whenever there's a vacancy in the city or county Fire Department, there are literally thousands of applicants for each position. Why? Because firefighters get high pay, fantastic benefits and unbelievably generous pensions, which start as early as age 50.
But the main reason is that firefighters work only 10 days per month. They are off a full three weeks each month. Yes, they do put in 24-hour days, but with so few emergencies to respond to, firefighters have plenty of time on their hands during each shift for reading, sleeping, video games, watching TV, etc.
Because a huge part of the city and county budgets go for fire protection, this is where deep budget cuts must be made. But people get nervous at the thought of laying off firefighters.
So, what to do? Simple: Increase their work month from 10 to 13 days, which will require fewer firefighters. This still will give them 18 days off each month, which is a heck of a lot more time off than many of us get.
Local firefighters might threaten to strike, but they can easily be replaced from those thousands of applicants. After all, what other occupation would offer full pay and benefits for working only 13 days per month?
But we'll have to elect fiscally conservative majorities to the City Council and county Board of Supervisors to get such a needed reform because the current liberal majorities are the pawns of the fire (and police) unions."
- How would you respond to this or would you?
- Do you think it is a good idea to just leave it alone?
- Have you dealt with someone who does not like firefighters that writes editorial replies to the local newspaper
Feature: Notable Firefighter's Opinions...
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- My opinion is that any response should come from above, either a Chief or the PIO. It becomes risky when someone from the rank and file decides to counter anti-firefighter editorials or sentiment. Angrily and/or poorly written letters can do more harm than good.
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Update: What kind of replies did the local newspaper receive from the public?
03-30-10 Comments: Responding to a letter writer's comments about firefighters, let's do some math. He said a firefighter works 10, 24-hour shifts per month, equaling 2,880 hours yearly.
Suggesting they work 13 shifts per month, equates to 3,744 hours yearly, about 30 percent more. Not missing something in the letter, that would be with no pay hike. In comparison, typical 40-hour/week employees put in 2,080 hours yearly, meaning firefighters work more than a 9-to-5 employee. Is it fair to increase that?
Firefighters aren't out on emergency calls for their entire shift, but do have other responsibilities. They have vehicles and equipment to keep clean and maintained, and have housekeeping chores around the station.
Firefighters don't have janitorial services coming in, cleaning the station. It's their job. Remember, the station is their home. They also are required to attend ongoing training, sometimes during their shifts, but often it's on their off days. They also have community responsibilities. They perform citizen training and education, work fairs and open houses and perform inspections for residences and businesses.
Now, let's talk about major emergencies, as with the Gap or Jesusita fires, or La Conchita mudslide. Firefighters remain on duty 24/7 until released, whether it's days or weeks. Add that to their 2,880 hours yearly and it can go well beyond the 3,744.
They need our support, not making them a target for saving money. There are other places to look. Cutting firefighters would be detrimental to us all.
03-29-10 Comments: I have been watching with interest and curiosity the mess our local politicians have put us in. How many of our city politicians have rushed into a burning building to save a child or fallen through a collapsed roof while doing their duty? None.
As for our Police Department, I don't think any of our City Council members or our mayor have had a gun pointed at them or removed hazardous material from a school or any public building. I could go on and on. (Read the front page of the March 18 News-Press). Every day the police put their lives on the line for us. The mayor and City Council did not hesitate to give themselves a hefty raise plus bonuses when they should have given themselves a 25 percent cut. But they chose to possibly dump almost two dozen officers from the department.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Joseph Anderson on
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Me personally agree with pretty much what everyone else says let the Fire Chief or the PRO or Public Relations Officer handle it. Anyone of lesser rank can voice their opinion but should do so at the station.
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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For generalist rants such as the ones above, I'd ignore them.
However if there was damaging misinformation then (such as response times, lack of haste in FF's efforts to quell a fire, etc) it should be dealt with quickly, and with facts.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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I really loved your description of FF's efforts to "quell" a fire. It's uncommon jargon in the states and refreshing to hear from someone from the land down under.
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Permalink Reply by capcityff on
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I work in DC and being a large city with news cameras everywhere and several major newspapers, there's almost always something about us in the newspaper. Of course 90% of it is bad. If we pull 4 kids out of a fire it doesn't make the paper but then the new bs that our new/bad chief makes us do gets a whole page and unfortunately his opinion reflects the entire department.(even though most of the dept doesn't agree with anything this moron does) So I'm kind of used to the bad press by now. I really do think DC is one of the worst cities as far as press goes. Only a few larger cities like NYC, LA, and Chicago have the same problem.
One of my biggest pet peeves is the part that says we sleep at work. I know many departments do get to sleep, but some of us don't. I ran over 20 runs last tour and slept for 1 hour in 24 hours. If I'm on the ambulance for the tour I usually don't even make up my bed because I won't get to lie in it. Hell on the ambulance, many times I don't even get to eat lunch and dinner comes at 11pm. On top of getting no sleep or breaks, that's actually pretty dangerous. In addition to that, that large urban east coast departments still have night watch. So if you are at a single engine house and you some how get no runs throughout the entire night, you will still only get 2-3 hours of sleep since you have a night watch shift where you stay up at the watch desk.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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One of my biggest pet peeves is the part that says we sleep at work. I know many departments do get to sleep, but some of us don't
Along the same lines, even if you DO get to sleep, how much of a quality sleep is it? I know I've still woken up tired because you still kept an ear open for the tones. Also even if if you do get say a single run in the middle of the night, the run can take up to an hour sometimes with paperwork, etc to do. Also then try going back to sleep afterwards and it can be difficult to do.
What tends to work with those giving flak about "sleeping at work" or "paid to sleep" is asking if the person would like a phone call when we get up for a run and when we are going back to bed and see how well it works.
On the PC end of things (I do a talk to neighborhood groups on the fire dept etc) one of the slides address "Being paid to sleep". Quite simply, if we were paid to sleep, then sleep would be a guarantee, it isn't as we all know. We are paid to be there, to respond quickly with enough personnel to mitigate an emergency. That really is all that is needed to be said.
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Permalink Reply by Mongo on
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I only know of one newspaper article that we had a negative comment posted on their webpage, it wasn't a bad message or comment from the paper/writer it was from a pissed off former member. I was happy to see that our chief and president didn't comment online, they took action directly with the newspaper to have the comment removed.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Allen on
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If we establish relationships with the local media they can actually be utilized for good purposes. Two huge issues are all too common. The first is, many agencies either don't allocate one person as a contact for the media (usually called an agency PIO) or when they do, they put a person in front of the camera who either can't speak good clear English or doesn't know how to put a solid sentence together. The second is, make it very clear to the media that if they are going to do a story on a local issue that even mentions the fire department, you would like to be contacted to make sure what they are going to go public with is accurate. We've had many cases of local firefighters saying things to the media that they never should have said as they were terribly inaccurate. We have a tough time keeping our citizens straight as to what we do; we certainly don't need bad information muddying up the waters. Be safe all.
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The second is, make it very clear to the media that if they are going to do a story on a local issue that even mentions the fire department, you would like to be contacted to make sure what they are going to go public with is accurate
There in lies the issue in itself. The media has no obligation to confirm with sources first off, secondly, there can be guest columnists writing in where they do not work for the papaer, or just a letter to the editor from a citizen. When such letters are submitted (I did a few myself) the paper gave a call to see if they could print your letter. The thing is with such letters, many can be blatantly wrong or filled with ignorant rumors and so forth.
So the issue I see, even with this thread, is that the said letter here does not state if this was a letter to the editor by a citizen, an out of area guest columnist, or just an op-ed piece from the paper itself.
Besides, such controversy means readership. When such an article is printed and get's people irked, it may mean more people writing letters in as well as people buying papers etc to follow the issue. Which in turn means money and that really seems to be the only thing a business cares about.
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Again back to my point, if the paper checked with the local Fire Department first before printing the article, they would be closer to getting the facts right. Most of the time they do not, and subsequently they offer incorrect information that is assumed by the reading public to be fact. One of the biggest problems we have in the fire service today (and all of public safety) is our lack of communications through the media. We need to be working with them all of the time, getting a good and positive message out, so that when they need to check on something they contact us for verification. When somebody writes as a guest columnist and they offer information that is not correct, it's imperative that we offer a counter letter to correct what is not right. It's not easy, but it's up to us to help make this happen.
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Again back to my point, if the paper checked with the local Fire Department first before printing the article, they would be closer to getting the facts right.
Yet, why should they? It is the opinion of the writer after all and goes towards freedom of speech and press. Besides, you can have several different depts operating within a circulation area and things can be different. Yet, why again would a paper check with the FD anyway, especially if it isn't an article they are writing? If an opinion, then isn't it the writer's responsibility to ensure facts are set? If the paper checks with the FD for each and every op-ed or opinion on a govt service and said letters either get tossed or re-edited beyond the writer's intention, is this really the can of worms to be opened?
While I agree that facts should be right, I do agree with the personal freedoms afforded us in this country, even if I disagree with the author or speaker. The beauty is that anyone can retort such an article and today, comments can be easily made online.
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You're missing what John is saying. Just because you ask them to talk with you first doesn't mean they will. The local news channels serve a metro population of over 5 million people here. Their goal is to keep ratings up for themselves. Do you really think they care what we think?
Your idea might work in a small community, but not in any large city.
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I'm not missing what anyone is saying here guys. I have experienced the frustration that you are all discussing. What I'm trying to suggest is that we need to work with the media instead of just crucifying them. I have dealt with the media on a national basis and in a city of 5 1/2 million people so I don't really need anyone's lecture about small communities. One of the key issues here is the high turn over of the field reporters in most areas. It's hard to develop relationships with people when they are constantly changing, however it can be done. And it works for me. If it doesn't work for you then maybe you're not approaching it correctly. If you have a good PIO who is available 24/7 and the management at the media outlets learn that he/she will give honest answers in a timely manner, you can establish a good foundation for accuracy in reporting. That's the reality of it; like it or not.
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