David Sirota has written a series of blockbuster stories for the website Pando. He went after the big fish: John Arnold, Bill Gates, Chris Christie. He was fired.
JUNE 25, 2014
Friends:
Just a quick note to let you know that as of this week, I’m no longer working for PandoDaily, so if you need to reach me, please contact me at my personal email address david@davidsirota.com.
This news was unexpected (and I should add, another Pando staffer, Ted Rall, was also let go). That said, the last year has been a career high for me – from the blockbuster series about PBS to the publishing of SEC whistleblower documents to the reports on the New Jersey pension system, it has been an incredible experience, and with real impact.
For instance, as the New York Times reported, PBS was forced to return a $3.5 million donation because of our reporting, and the network’s ombudsman issued a report praising our reporting. Similarly, the New York Times recently credited our work with “show(ing) that secrecy can hide high fees, low returns, excess risk and the identity of politically connected dealmakers.” And after our reporting appeared on the front page of the Boston Globe and then coursed through the national media, the New Jersey state government is now conducting a formal investigation into the pension scandal we uncovered.
As I plan for the next step, I will be continuing my nationally syndicated newspaper column and am already working on the outlines of what may end up being a book. I’m also talking to some folks in the television and film worlds about potential projects, and am aiming to do a few more long features like the cover story I just wrote for Politico magazine about New York’s Working Families Party. And I should add that I’m really looking forward to the premiere of two huge projects I’ve been involved with – I served as a consultant and contributor to National Geographic Channel’s new series on the 1990s, and I was an investigative journalist on the upcoming season finale of CNN’s Death Row Stories.
Those of you who know me know I’m always interested in new projects and challenges, so please do not hesitate to call me to brainstorm and chat (and I’m always around to help out on anything you may be working on). I’m going to be taking a bit of time off to spend some extra summer downtime here in Denver with my wife, my 3-month old baby Zoey, my 3 year old son Isaac and (not to be forgotten!) my dog Monty. But I’m always available to catch up.
Onward!
David
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wish I wasn’t surprised.
Really sorry to hear about this. All the more proof that the concentration of wealth is threatening freedom of speech and democracy.
“…concentration of wealth is threatening freedom of speech and democracy.”
Concise and accurate!
They should change their name to PanderDaily …
Did Pando even offer an explanation?
Gawker seems to have the most color on it currently. Update with comment from Pando’s “managing editor” (seems to be his role, at least) at the bottom.
http://valleywag.gawker.com/pando-abruptly-fired-two-high-profile-staffers-without-1595758189
Being fired must be a measure of success these days. I am very appreciative of Sirota’s work in the service of truth. I am sure we will be hearing a lot more from him.
David Sirota is a hero of democracy and the American worker. If an article has his by-line, I’ll read it. If a publication employs him, I’ll subscribe.
My fairy tale dream- Silicon Valley sinking into the sea, with the oligarchs adrift in a raft, feeding on each other.
They’ve got that covered.
http://timer9.com/nomadic-floating-cities-roaming-oceans/
I never read Pando until Sirota started working there and now I’ll never read them again. Hope Pando loses a lot more traffic, too, so their investors take a huge dive.
This is absolutely a disgrace, making us not much better than Egypt and other countries that stifle those who report the truth. There’s no freedom of the press here–it’s just right-wing, neo-con, libertarian, and plutocratic propaganda. Pando has plenty of money behind them. They don’tneed to be intimidated by threats of any kind. It’s one more indication of our slide into fascism. Sirota had the guts to stand up for what’s truthful and right and he was punished for it. Hopefully, there’s someone left out there who will put him to good use.
Mike Papantonio is doing an event for our Coalition to Restore Democracy this coming Saturday in the Chicago area. I haven’t been able to get one reporter to interview him. I’ve been to hundreds of protests against injustice–the media is never there–but they’re thre for the Tea Party participants, or to put the cameras in front of Boehner or Cheney or McCain and other rabble rousers who stir the masses with their hate and lies, but if it’s anything about protecting the rights of ordinary citizens or the right to have collective bargaining or social programs, the media is nowhere to be found. This country doesn’t even resemble a democracy any longer.
The scariest aspect of these times is the silencing of the press. I still remember how shocked I was when Michael Winerip of the New York Times was reassigned after an article (that he wrote) was critical of educational “reform.”
Silencing of the press by the press.
I’ll never read Pando again or click on the site!
I was actually alluding to the termination of Michael Winerip’s NYTimes educational column that was exposing the fraud of the “reformers”. As for Pando, I only read it because of David Sirota. Obviously I have no reason to read it now.
Reblogged this on Gratifying My Ambition and commented:
David Sirota deserved better.
Arne Duncan should be fired next!
Please read, sign, and circulate this petition: DUMP ARNE DUNCAN. Thank you.
http://www.petition2congress.com/15685/dump-arne-duncan/
Thankfully, THANKFULLY, there are still people of integrity who swallow their hemlock as a matter of principle.
Thank you for being one of them.
As noted in another blog readers of the Columbia Journalism Review for the last couple of decades are all too familiar with this mind numbing myopic short termed mind set by the corporations whose ONLY basic priority is short term profits.
But David Sirota just wrote an article praising the Working Families Party, which just threw the teachers and children of NYC under the bus by endorsing Andrew Cuomo, a friend of education “reform”. I am now sorry I ever gave them a contribution.
Harold, I agree with that. Working Families Party sold out.