Trapped in the meltdown (continued): NPR's "Doyenne of Dirt" is one of 64 employees laid off

Ketzel Levine's aptly named new blog, at www.ketzel.com

by Ken

Don't worry, we've got some more substantial, hard-core measurements of the spreading economic gloom coming up. And while, except for Ketzel, this is hardly the most dire life-or-death manifestation (hey, it's only gardening, and it's only public radio), for a lot of NPR listeners it's pretty personal.

As I noted yesterday, for the present I'm more or less settled on (stuck with?) NPR's Morning Edition to help get me out of the house in the morning. This morning, while I was finishing up my earlier post about the bailout fun 'n' games, I was only half-listening, and so missed most of a report that turned out to be by NPR senior correspondent Ketzel Levine. I guess it was about layoffs, because somehow Ketzel had my full attention when, at the end of the report, she said she hadn't expected to become part of the report, and explained that she has been laid off.

Now we have to give NPR credit for allowing her to remain on the air. The usual situation in the broadcasting world when an on-air person is terminated is to hustle him/her off the premises and never let the poor bastard near another microphone, at least not one of your microphones, as protection against what he/she might say. Instead, she was allowed the dignity of announcing her own separation. And it appears she'll continue on the job for a while. (Her termanation takes effect January 12.)

I remember first hearing Ketzel doing garden reports with Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday, I shudder to think how many years ago. Here's what "The Doyenne of Dirt" had to say yesterday on her NPR blog:

Talking Unemployment

In case this is the first you're reading of this, I'd like to confirm the rumor that I've been laid off.

Or, to put it as it suddenly occurs to me, That's no rumor! That's my life!

And on the outside chance you've just stumbled onto this year and a half old blog and want to catch up -- fast -- my name is Ketzel Levine, I'm a senior correspondent for NPR and my job ends January 12th, 2009.

I was given the news 36 hours ago and I've been on the proverbial roller coaster ride ever since. Earlier this morning, when I took my first shot at this blog item, I wrote something to the effect that my being rift was not personal, "it's just what it is." And that, wait for it, "I've been one lucky woman, why should it end now?"

What was she on? I could use some of that tonight, as I look over at the clock and see that in the last hour I've written three sentences and chewed my nails and cuticles down to stumps. I've also been eating compulsively, only the richest most fattening things: organic peanuts, candy-coated toxic peanut M&M's, and for my last act before sleep, organic raw cashews.

In truth, there is no reason on earth why I shouldn't continue having a long and lively career. It could be in radio, in print, online or in public lectures, on tv shows and in books.

But there's a journey in-between and it heads right through the land of loss, which is where I'm reporting from tonight, live! and up to my neck in decades of memories of the people I've met and the places I've been because of this job...and the nail-bitten terror that the loss will drown me and I won't be able to breathe.

Which reminds me of breathing deeply and fully and one of the happiest moments of the last year. And that's how I'm going to get to sleep tonight in anticipation of a far better day sometime soon. Maybe even tomorrow.

I missed the Dec. 11 Washington Post report that NPR, "faced with a sharp decline in revenue," has announced organization-wide cutbacks:

The cutback of 64 of NPR's 889 employees is designed to close a $23 million shortfall in the operation's current fiscal year, Dennis Haarsager, NPR's interim president and chief executive, said in an interview. The cuts will affect all departments, including reporters, producers, researchers and digital media employees.

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