Publisher flexibility — except when it's not?

OK ...

I've moved from the Eastern Front to the MCM Elegante hotel chain.

Combo editor-publisher position.

"We don't intervene a lot with individual publishers" I heard pre-hiring.

"We go straight by the rate card" on ad rates I heard post-hiring.

Just leaving that out there.

That said, I can ... blame others for that, on the issue of ad sales rates.

On the issue of quotes, whether direct quotes or nearly so?

Just leaving that out there. I'm not blaming myself for what I misheard, and my interpretation of the first quote based on previous experience in a similar editor-publisher role.

(That said, to be fair, the person who made the two quotes may have been influenced by a phone call concerning the information behind the second quote.)

As for legal advertising being "cleaned up"? Well ....

I'm still trying to figure that out.

Maybe I'll ask Clevinger some day.

I wrote all the strike-through before giving two weeks notice after noticing even more stuff, then getting fired when two weeks notice wasn't good enough.

I suspect if the money were right, someone in Hearne named Dennis Phillips would sell his own grandmother to Clevinger, too.

Clevinger runs the Lawflog blog. From what I know, it has a fair degree of accuracy on Hearne and Robertson County issues. That said, as Clevenger is both a lawyer and a former journo, he knows just how far to push something on the side of opinion or speculation while getting close to calling it fact, or on stuff that is fact but controversial, he knows just how much legal footing he has.

And, the further away from Robertson County you get, the less trustworthy he is. He's a gun nut, from what I can tell on Twitter, enough of one to do the "David Hogg Hitler salute" meme. He's also a Seth Rich conspiracy theorist and a MAGA-head, one who touts right-wing and even far-right-wing blogs.

All of this adds up to make him less than 100 percent trustworthy even on Hearne issues and even given the reality of what I know about Hearne. There, even, he's ... he's Joey Dauben with a brain and a law degree. Or, a more acerbic, low-rent, wingnut Glenn Greenwald.

Clevinger reminds me a bit of Dauben in other ways. Dauben would cybersquat on misspelled versions of website URLs. Clevenger creates websites like "Booger County Mafia" and "Dirty Rotten Judges" then lets them expire after a year or so.

On the third hand, per TPM, as well as the link below, he does take on Republicans as well as Democrats.

On the fourth hand, I'm not sure how much in the way of civil rights case work he does, and how broadly he defines that term.

And, while part of it may be contempt for being held in judicial contempt, he — he of liking to expose financial irregularities – owes $150K in judicial fines. If he refuses to pay, the DC court, on that fine, should convert his now-completed suspension into a disbarment.

He also has too narrow of a focus about some things in Hearne.

But, that's for him to figure out, not me.

And, as for that sale? Clevenger would reject Phillips' offer. And, would then write about it. And after that, both sides would engage in innuendo.

Besides that, Hearne's got other issues which even Marlin doesn't. Still the place where Walmart first (I think) CLOSED a store ... big enough for a NYT piece.

Meanwhile, I have my own reasons to distrust both Dennis and Teresa. In my opinion, adjectives like sneaky, snitchy, suck-uppy and even pretentious might apply. Yes, even that last one.