You're fired!

- - - - - - - - - - - -
by Wayne Laugesen (letters@boulderweekly.com)

At age 41, Bob Greene was the star columnist at the Chicago Tribune. Then he had sex with a 17-year-old girl, and the fix was in.

It was the spring of 1988, and Bob was interviewing the teenaged Catholic schoolgirl for his column. She aspired to become a journalist and quickly became enamored with Bob.

After Bob's story hit print, he and the girl had dinner. Sexual energy coursed between them, and dinner led to a hotel room. Then man and girl had sex.

It was perfectly legal, by the laws of Illinois. It wasn't terribly shocking or unusual, either. Hordes of teenaged girls are sexually attracted to much older men—even fat, sloppy, balding men—and middle-aged men are easily attracted to girls in their late teens.

Bob and the girl kept their fling a secret. The girl went back to school, and Bob went back to the Tribune as if nothing had happened.

Problem is, 14 years later the girl still harbored feelings for Bob. She began calling Bob, Fatal Attraction-style, threatening to harm his reputation if he didn't pay her more attention. Bob eventually contacted the FBI, fearing for his safety. The FBI had a chat with the woman about blackmail, and soon the old May-December fling was no longer a secret.

When Tribune management found out about Bob's sexual escapade with a teenager, Bob was fired. Tribune management made issue of the girl's age at the time of sex and questioned Bob's journalistic ethics.

The company's official statement was: "Journalists have a special obligation to avoid personal conflicts that undermine their professional standing and their trust with readers, sources or news subjects. We concluded that trust had been violated."

In that statement and others, the Tribune argued that it was inappropriate for Bob to have sex with a "source" or a "news subject." In subsequent statements, management continued to stress the girl's age at the time of the fling.

Few in the publishing and journalistic communities could understand why Bob was fired for having lawful, consensual sex with a teenager. Arguments about the ethics of sex with sources are weak to begin with, and this was particularly lame because the affair occurred after the story was published.

Even some of Bob's greatest detractors couldn't understand his firing. Wrote Journalist John Bloom: "It's not about journalism, that's for sure. I don't see anything in what has been revealed that indicates a single word of what Greene wrote was infected by bias caused by secret motives. He was punished for his sex life."

It's difficult to argue that lawful May-December sexcapades—known in PC lingo as "intergenerational" relationships—are unseemly or inappropriate in a culture that's learned to accept homosexuality, bisexuality, the trans-gendered lifestyle and a variety of other sexual preferences that vary from the norm.

Bob's not alone in getting fired for a sexual fling. In August, President Bush fired four-star General Kevin P. Byrnes, commander of Training and Doctrine for the United States Army, for cheating on his wife with a civilian—even though Byrnes was separated from his wife. Arguments about the stupidity of Bush firing Byrnes abound in the blogosphere. Most people opposed to the firing simply can't understand why anyone should care who Gen. Byrnes sleeps with.

The Byrnes firing is nothing unique. Military brass have long been canned for cheating on their wives. When three-star Air Force General Thomas Griffith was fired in 1995 for cheating on his wife, it became yet another impetus for criticism of the military's policy.

"It's just like these guys to interfere in someone's personal life," said Grace Bukowski, an activist with the Rural Alliance for Military Accountability.

At the Tribune, management tirelessly reminded the public that Bob had sex with a teenager. To which most people said, "So what? It was legal." When that didn't resonate, the Tribune stressed the fact that she was a source. Again, a big so what?

What the Tribune didn't say was this: "We fired Bob Greene because he cheated on his wife, and he can't be trusted."

The Tribune didn't say that because, unlike the military, the private sector has no precedent for boldly firing employees who cheat on their wives, and society is numb to infidelity.

Who cares if a middle-aged man has consensual sex with a teenager who's legal to consent? Nobody should, unless the man is married. If he's married, he's a lying, cheating, dishonest person who violated his marriage vows. He's a person of questionable character. He's someone who will violate the most important promise he ever made, harming the person he promised to love most.

If an employee will do that to his wife, imagine what he'll do to the petty cash drawer. Imagine what he'll do to the company's clients. If he's your accountant, imagine what he might embezzle.

It's too bad the Tribune, in firing Greene, felt the need to contrive excuses rather than publicly scorn him for cheating on his wife. In American business, the response to marital infidelity should be a bold and unapologetic, "You're fired."

Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com