Jim Brandstatter’s firing has bothered me. I think it’s bothered a lot of people, mostly for one reason: You don’t treat someone this way who has done his job well for 31 years.
You don’t blindside someone like this. You don’t give them some weird non-answer out of the human-resources playbook like “we’ve decided to go in a different direction,” as WJR-AM did Tuesday.
First, this was a firing. WJR can try to call it a contract termination if it prefers, but it was a firing.
Second, this was a firing without warning or justification.