Colorado Springs Gazette reporter Barrett Tryon has been receiving grief from his employers for posting an LA Times story on his personal Facebook page. According to Carmen Boles, content director of the Gazette, the Facebook post violated the social media policy of Freedom Co. Tryon refused to remove the post. He tells Jim Romenesko he’s meeting with his employers  at 11:30 this morning to discuss the issue, and that he expects to be fired.

Beyond the absurdity of attempted censorship by a newspaper, traditionally an institution that promotes free speech, is the issue of employee rights. A story on Poynter notes that these kinds of overreaching attempts by employers to place restrictions on worker’s social media have drawn the ire of the National Labor Relations Board:

In at least six recent cases, according to a memo from the general counsel, the independent federal agency that investigates unfair labor practices has found provisions of employer social media policies to be unlawful.

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In the wake of 2100 Trust LLC’s acquisition of Freedom Communications Inc., a journalist at one of the transacted publications chose to link on Facebook to an LA Times article by James Rainey and Walter Hamilton. The Colorado Springs Gazette breaking-news specialist, Barrett Tryon (pictured), also highlighted this passage:

The new owner hopes to spin off the smaller papers in separate deals by the end of the summer to help finance the purchase of the Register, according to an editor at the paper who was not authorized to speak publicly. These are the Gazette in Colorado Springs, Colo.; the Appeal-Democrat in Marysville, Calif.; the Desert Dispatch in Barstow; the Porterville Record, Calif.; the Daily Press in Victorville; and the Sun in Yuma, Ariz.

As subsequently detailed by Bryce Crawford of the Colorado Springs Independent, Tryon was quickly asked by his paper’s content director Carmen Boles to remove the Facebook post. He refused. “Because it’s on my personal account, and from an LA Times article,” he said later via email, “I’m not removing it. It comes down to perception and we could argue that all night long.”

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