Top ABC news producer leaves network puff piece has internet commenters bite back

Oh dear.

The news is that senior producer for ABC's World News and a network vice president, Mimi Gurbst is leaving to pursue another career, namely one of a career counselor , and the gloty-bit says she has helped ABC people so generously with career advice over the years.... The comments respond, "and how". If you are to believe everything the comments ay, Mimi helped people with their career choices by terrorizing them right out of the office due to race, religion, sexual preference or the fact that she was plain having a bad day. Right now there's nine pages of angry comments, and it doesn't look like it's stopping anytime soon, as the comment section has turned into a ABC-employees whistleblower corner.

Some choice comments - where even the decline of journalism today is explained by the sub par leadership at ABC. From "FormerABCer"

Having worked for ABC for more than a decade, I am flabbergasted by the article on Mimi Gurbst. Even the most cursory reporting would uncover that Mimi is a producer who, when she oversaw the newsdesk, ran her operation as a high school clique. Popularity factored more into news gathering than either talent or understanding of journalism. Let me be clear: she was not--and is not--an effective leader of the news division and did not further journalism (or mentorship of journalists) in any way.
Sadly your lack of even the most basic reporting skills seem to coincide with ABC cutting some of the most experienced journalists in the field and both incidents indicate troubling times ahead for reporters of news. This is incredibly disheartening.

from "Disclosure time" written by the named journalist Richard Gizbert who had the unfortunate displeasure of being fired by Mimi Gurbst for refusing assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan - something he had all right to do and the UK employment tribunal agreed.

Finally: Don’t you just LOVE the internet? Don’t you just LOVE seeing this whole thing backfire on Mimi and the underhanded underling who tried to get away with this piece of fiction?
Mimi's so toxic that she's not just damaged the ABC brand. She’s taking down The Observer too!

The most interesting part of this story is that ABC is making sure it doesn't spread. Alas, that doesn't work these days. Or does it?

MSM Cowers, ABC News Execs Hunker In Bunker As Whistleblowers Attack

Reading though the comments, one has to wonder if Mimi Gurbst’s close friendship with Huffington Post Senior Editor Willow Bay — who is married to Disney CEO Iger — provided Gurbst with protection from corporate interference in her actions. “Mimi does have a personal relationship with the Igers, particularly Mrs. Iger, which she has shamelessly flaunted over the years and played a part in her protection,” posted one commenter. Likely, Iger’s avoidance will come back to haunt him when he faces Disney stockholders demanding information about the workplace practices of ABC News executives.
Until now, ABC has successfully kept these very specific, detailed and believable accusations of illegal discrimination and workplace harassment story from being reported in other media outlets.
The ABC staff repeatedly asks on The Observer’s website for their fellow journalists to come to their defense. “I’m astounded that this thread has been up for a week and NOT ONE journalist has written a serious article about it,” posted a commenter on Tuesday. “THAT is the big, ugly picture here folks: journalists afraid to report the truth.”
To date, not one major newspaper, magazine, TV network, cable network, talk radio show or major website new organization has reported on the specific allegations against ABC News management (except an item in The New York Post gossip column Page Six).

It's interesting how this little puff piece about retirement has sparked such a flood of comments, not all only directed as Ms. Gurbst but to the top of the network and how it is run. The web and all its "blog culture", so often blamed for killing journalism, is now more journalistic than that Observer piece, revealing mismanagement at the top as a more likely cause of the death of real journalism. What do we call this? Cancel culture?