Recent blogs have discussed the issue of nepotism at deaf schools, but deaf schools are not the only places where nepotism is a problem. Here in Rochester, N.Y., we suffer from a truly amateurish publication called Deaf Rochester News (DRN) and its affiliated website, http://deafrochester.com/, both of which are run by people who got their jobs simply because they had a family member working there.
I founded DRN’s precursor, Deaf Rochester, in 1994 when I was editor of Silent News. I got the idea when I saw a similar publication while visiting Southern California. I came back and made a presentation to the staff and we decided to go for it. Many people worked on Deaf Rochester and it was a valuable and professional monthly newsmagazine.
Deaf Rochester suspended operations in 1996 when Silent News fled to New Jersey, but it returned as a bimonthly community publication the following year. Under editors Sally Taylor and Peter Hauser, it continued to be a fine publication. But when Hauser resigned, the job was handed on a silver platter to the current editor without anyone else having a chance to apply. And the job of webmaster was given to the editor’s spouse.
This may be okay in a private business, but DRN is a nonprofit organization. The Rochester deaf community has many highly qualified people who would do excellent work running this operation, but no one was given the chance to apply.
So if you go to http://deafrochester.com/, you will see that the same message, in which the editor “deepy” apologizes for a minor matter, has been the main message for more than two months. And the “eNews in Headlines” consists of news from November, four months ago.
Rochester and Washington, D.C. are considered leading cities in the deaf world, but go ahead and compare Rochester’s deaf website to Washington’s – http://deafdc.com/ – and you’re bound to notice a big difference in quality.
The latest DRN, which is pictured below, has to be one of the ugliest publications I’ve ever seen. I feel sorry for the trees that had to die to make this awful rag. (And I really hate when deaf publications make a big deal about themselves on the front page.)
Just for the heck of it, last summer I submitted an application to be editor of DRN, even though the job wasn’t open. Of course, nothing came of it. I also considered starting a new publication to give the local deaf community something we could be proud of, but I decided I wasn’t interested in going in that direction. I just want the current publication and website to get its act together.
If you think nepotism is no big deal, I invite you to consider Deaf Rochester News and http://deafrochester.com/. You will see what happens when people get their jobs not because they are good at what they do but simply because they have family who already work there.
3 Comments
March 8, 2007 at 12:53 pm
In the world of web design, we have a word for that. “Nephew art.” Eew. You have my abject sympathies.
October 5, 2007 at 8:57 pm
[...] was both predictable and preventable. I wrote about the problems with DRN and nepotism on my advocacy blog, but the situation only worsened with [...]
September 10, 2009 at 10:02 am
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.