Quite Frankly, Stephen A. Smith Was Unjustly Let Go

Vociferous former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and ESPN talking head (not to mention sometime blogger) Stephen A. Smith at last has seen a small measure of victory following what has been mostly a sharp decline in his career the past few years now that an arbiter has ruled that his dismissal from the Philly paper was unjust and violated the collective bargaining agreement with the Philadelphia Newspaper Guild.
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↵The ruling may spell a return for Smith to the paper with backpay, or simply financial restitution.
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↵Smith was fired in January 2008, almost three years after he was offered a daily show by ESPN, an offer which resulted in Smith asking the Inquirer to modify his contract so he could do both the show and write his column.
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↵From the Editor & Publisher article:
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↵↵⇥According to the Guild account, the news agreement↵⇥called for Smith to write a minimum of 75 columns a year for an annual↵⇥salary of $125,000. At the end of one year, in February of 2006, Smith↵⇥would have the option of resigning, of extending the agreement, or of↵⇥returning as a full-time columnist, at a salary of $190,000.
↵↵By the terms of that deal, his salary ballooned to $225,000 by June 2007, a raise of $20,000 from the year before. Editor William Marimow (who many believe is the inspiration for a certain inept police lieutenant on

, though creator David Simon has denied this) was not comfortable with the raise, given newsroom layoffs that happened around that time. Smith was then reassigned to the position of a general assignment reporter, though the paper said they did not consider that a demotion.↵