Business Journal death spiral

I apparently missed the best meeting of the year. Here's an excerpt from today's IM chat with Sarah:

spacylacy2002 (01:11:47 PM):I just read your cover letter and am typing up feedback. you missed a firework-ladden meeting today- I ran out in tears at one point- mullins was insane- tim's entire budget got shut down

spacylacy2002 (01:11:58 PM): shot down I meant

ken_brown_98 (01:12:53 PM): You're kidding.

spacylacy2002 (01:12:56 PM): no

ken_brown_98 (01:12:57 PM): What happened?

spacylacy2002 (01:13:09 PM): can you imagine ME crying? mullins said he never thought he'd see the day

ken_brown_98 (01:14:19 PM): Thyat's why I can't believe it myself.

spacylacy2002 (01:14:27 PM): It's been horrible here the last few days- you have no idea. I almost just quit this morning.

spacylacy2002 (01:14:56 PM): I'm going to have a meeting withcarole tomorrow am.

ken_brown_98 (01:15:01 PM): I wish someone had recorded the meeting.

spacylacy2002 (01:15:31 PM): I know- mullins started pressing her on why she laid you off in particular- it got really uncomfortable.

spacylacy2002 (01:15:55 PM): for some reason- sharon once again - was praising and defending all management- why does she doe that in meetings?

ken_brown_98 (01:16:30 PM): Maybe that's why she still has a job. Robert is going to get himself fired. So did Carole respond?

spacylacy2002 (01:17:50 PM): oh i'll fill you in on the whole thing tomorrow- she didn't really say much on that topic- but what really got me upset before the meeting was I walked in the door and she was like "kent wants only local breaking exclusive news on this budget and if it doesn't happen he's going to come out here and make it happen" I was like fine- we have a few empty seats.

ken_brown_98 (01:20:08 PM): Why didn't they tell everyone months ago? Even last week Carole was insisting that she was in charge and that the coverage wouldn't change. Even after we talked about the mixed signals we were getting?

spacylacy2002 (01:21:29 PM): I know- and this week my breaking news story was on five and my big picture industry story was on one- I was like "this doesn't make any sense!" and she kept trying to justify it then she admitted that I was right and she was getting mixed signals and she started to cry and said she's trying to fight for our staff but she doesn't think she can fight hard enough and that she didnt think she knew what news was anymore either- can you imagine?

ken_brown_98 (01:22:28 PM): Oh my gosh. That;'s bizzarre. It sounds like Kent was the one who didn't like my stuff.

ken_brown_98 (01:23:07 PM): That is the strangest meeting I've ever heard. I would have given anything to habve been there...

spacylacy2002 (01:23:09 PM): I don't know- she said she made the lay off decisions- but I got the impression that dick has been driving a lot of this stuff- and going through charlotte to do it

spacylacy2002 (01:23:33 PM): she said she isn't even getting the sales numbers anymore

ken_brown_98 (01:23:43 PM): Death spiral.