NEW YORK A former Boston Herald sports writer, who was laid off in May as part of a string of newsroom cutbacks, now has lost his part-time teaching job at Boston University after posting Web comments about a student, which described her as "incredibly hot."
Michael Gee, an 18-year veteran of the Herald, confirmed the incident, but declined comment to E&P Friday. Bob Zelnick, chair of the B.U. journalism department, said he heard about Gee's posting on Wednesday from a university publicist, who had received a phone call about it from a blogger.
Although Gee declined to comment on the Web posting, he said his layoff included a good severance package, amounting to about 15 months of salary. He also said he was writing freelance articles for the Village Voice, and had been to Thursday night's New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox game in Boston for the Voice.
Zelnick told E&P he had met with Assistant Dean Tobe Berkovitz before confronting Gee. "We concluded that there were no extenuating circumstances and the conduct involved was not anything we could do anything but disassociate ourselves with, and to terminate the teaching arrangement. We both used the term 'zero tolerance,'" Zelnick said. "I think he was mainly upset with himself and his lapse of judgment."
The comments, which appeared on
www.sportsjournalists.com, but were later removed, included the following: "Today was my first day teaching course 308/722 at the Boston University Dept. of Jounralis (sic). There are six students, most of whom are probably smarter than me, but they DON'T READ THE PAPER!!! Not the Globe, Times, Herald or Wall Street Journal. I can shame them into reading, I guess, but why are they taking the course if they don't like to read.
"But I digress. Now here's the nub of my issue. Of my six students, one (the smartest, wouldn't you know it?) is incredibly hot. If you've ever been to Israel, she's got the sloe eyes and bitchin' bod of the true Sabra. It was all I could do to remember the other five students. I sense danger, Will Robinson."
Word of Gee's firing, and a copy of his posting, first appeared on
www.bostonsportsmedia.net.
Zelnick said Gee had taught only two or three classes of the summer course, a combined graduate and undergraduate class in newswriting and reporting and advance journalism techniques. He believed the part-time teaching stint paid $3,500 for the entire summer course, a portion of which Gee will receive on a pro-rated basis.
"He was an adjunct to begin with and this was his first involvement with Boston University," Zelnick said. "We rarely get full-time faculty to teach summer courses. He was recommended as someone who knew the basics of journalism."
Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is a senior editor at E&P.
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