A longtime editor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has been fired because, he says, he used his personal blog to harshly attack high-ranking Republicans in the state. A detailed account of the case appeared last week on an alternative-news blog, The Raw Story.
The editor, Roger Shuler, worked at the university for 19 years, including the last 12 as an editor in the publications office. He was fired in May after placing a written request for vacation time on his boss’s chair instead of handing it directly to her, he says. After the boss reprimanded him for that act, and Mr. Shuler complained about the reprimand, he says, the university investigated his use of his university computer and contended he was spending three hours a day on research for his blog. And for that, the university fired him.
But Mr. Shuler denies he was using university time to conduct research or to write material for his blog, Legal Schnauzer, and says that as an editor at the university he must keep up with news in the state. He believes the reprimand for his vacation request and the investigation of his computer use were attempts to punish him for using his blog to criticize the Republican U.S. attorneys in the state.
In particular, Mr. Shuler’s blog has defended Don Siegelman, the former Democratic governor who has been prosecuted by one of the U.S. attorneys with close ties to the White House. On his blog, Mr. Shuler has questioned whether another Republican U.S. attorney in Alabama is “corrupt and racist.”
The university told The Raw Story that Mr. Shuler had not been fired for blogging, but it would not comment further. In June an appeals committee at the university voted to overturn Mr. Shuler’s dismissal. But he says the university recently told him that, while he could be rehired, he would not get his former job back. —Robin Wilson