Boston Globe's beleaguered online sister site, Boston.com, is reeling from its latest viral blunder, and it's high time the rudderless ship finds an experienced captain.
Boston.com yesterday fired Victor Paul Alvarez, an associate editor who posted a story making fun of death threats against House Speaker John Boehner and accusing the Ohio Republican of being a heavy drinker with a "pickled liver" who could survive being poisoned.
Globe CEO Mike Sheehan wouldn't comment on Alvarez's ouster but said no other Boston.com staffers were disciplined over the site's latest mishap.
"It's onward and upward," Sheehan said.
Sheehan, who sent an apology letter to Boehner, said they are in the "final stages" of interviewing candidates to fill the Boston.com editor job, which has been vacant since the end of November.
Boston University School of Communications Dean Tom Fiedler said it's "prudent" that the next Boston.com editor have a strong journalistic background to "avoid the kinds of embarrassments" and "controversy that has come up in recent weeks."
It's also important, Fiedler added, that the next editor run Boston.com "in alignment with the journalistic values of the company in general."
Alvarez confirmed his ouster yesterday but said he was surprised by the firing. He declined to elaborate. As for Boehner, Alvarez said, "I'd like to apologize to the man in a way that is sincere, and I don't think a tweet would do it. He deserves more than that."
In an emailed statement, Boston.com's GM Corey Gottlieb said, "We do not comment on individual personnel matters. Any decisions made are far less about one employee than they are about the collective Boston.com team and maintaining and strengthening the standards and values they share."
Sheehan said he has "100 percent confidence" in Gottlieb leading the site.
Last month, then-deputy editor of Boston.com Hilary Sargent was suspended after hawking T-shirts that mocked a Harvard professor embroiled in a $4 flap with a Chinese restaurant owner — a story she doggedly covered. Sargent, now a senior columnist, also posted a piece that was quickly taken down that accused the professor of sending a racist email.
A contrite Alvarez took to Twitter to address his firing — and critics.
"The story I wrote was awful. Tasteless. Mean. Bosses felt it was inexcusable. They fired me," Alvarez wrote in a tweet. "I did not pine for murder. I made a tasteless joke that I clearly regret. Before I was fired and now."
Alvarez tweeted: "Also, in case it wasn't abundantly clear, I'm looking for a job. I doubt there will be any offers. But I am available."
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