Several staff, including Wendy Weitzel, leave the paper in solidarity of Dunning
By CHRIS PONCE — city@theaggie.org
Bob Dunning, a popular columnist with The Davis Enterprise, was let go from the local paper after writing for them for 55 years — Dunning said that he was terminated without an explanation or warning. Since this decision, several popular journalists from The Enterprise left in support of Dunning.
“You can say fired, you can say let go and you could say laid off,” Dunning said. “All I know is I got a phone call and I no longer had a job and that was it.”
Since then, Dunning has moved his opinions over to Substack, a website where writers can publish their work and have readers subscribe directly to them.
“This is a column I thought I’d never have to write,” Dunning said on Substack. “Through these many years, the local owners of this newspaper regularly told me that as long as The Davis Enterprise existed, I would always have a job. I upheld my end of the bargain. They did not.”
Dunning was given no severance and no thank you from the owners, according to his column. He wrote that his articles with The Enterprise were his “life’s work” and that he felt discarded.
“There was no thank you,” Dunning said in the column. “No goodbye. Not a penny of severance. Just stone-cold silence. No golden parachute. In fact, no parachute at all as they pushed me out the back door of what I often lovingly referred to as the Starship Enterprise.”
Dunning said that the paper also refused to provide him his accumulated sick leave.
“Not only did they hurt me, they hurt my family, leaving them to scramble for suitable health care,” Dunning said.
Foy McNaughton is the chief executive officer of The Enterprise and R. Burt McNaughton is the publisher; neither have responded to requests for a comment from The Aggie by time of publication.
On May 19, Wendy Weitzel, popular writer of the “Comings and Goings” column at The Enterprise and their former managing editor, wrote her final column for the paper.
“I am sad for the paper but troubled by its handling of Bob, the person who personifies it,” Weitzel said in her column. “He deserved a severance for his 54 years of service. I waited a week to make this decision, hoping the McNaughtons would make things right. Apparently, that’s not going to happen. In the meantime, several other writers exited the publication without fanfare.”
The column was both in print and online. However, as of now The Enterprise has removed Weitzel’s column from their website. Weitzel believes that this was unfair on their part.
“I just basically said [in the column] that I didn’t approve of the way this went down,” Weitzel said. “The ownership got sensitive to that. But it’s not really fair, because, you know, it was my goodbye column. And now people don’t have access to it.”
Shelly Dunning, Bob’s wife and food columnist, Bruce Gallaudet, Tanya Perez and Julie Cross are among those who left their columns or positions at the paper, according to Weitzel.
Once Weitzel heard the news about Dunning, she was expecting that there would be a goodbye party or at least severance for him. She was surprised to hear that Dunning received none of those expectations.
“I’m sure there would be a nice severance and goodbye party and whatever,” Weitzel said. “And there was none of that; it was very mishandled.”
Weitzel talked about how she loved writing about the Davis community through The Enterprise.
“I realized I just loved it because it was the community I lived in and knew,” Weitzel said. “I got to know people and I think that’s part of my strength as well. Even today as a columnist I know the community. I know the people. I know the news. And it’s really hard to do that as an outsider.”
Weitzel’s “Comings and Goings” column regularly discussed business openings in Davis and news about old businesses closing down, among other updates. She explained why it gained such a following and legacy in Davis.
“I think it has a very practical use,” Weitzel said. “And people love that kind of stuff.”
While she went to college in Sacramento to study journalism, Weitzel lived in Davis and lived the “Aggie life.” This is when she first heard about Bob Dunning at The Enterprise.
“For more than 55 years, he has been the face and voice of The Davis Enterprise,” Weitzel said. “And I think The Enterprise ownership didn’t really appreciate the impact that he had on the community until they laid him off and are now having to deal with the consequences of people canceling their subscriptions, canceling their ads. They created a lot of ill will that really didn’t need to happen.”
Dunning said that Davis was a unique town, “like a town in the middle of Kansas,” and that local journalism and columnists are essential because of how major issues affect it.
“Davis has its own issues as every other town does,” Dunning said. “It has issues going on right now, as we’re seeing politically, even with international things there are major differences of opinion on the campus and in the community about real world issues.”
Dunning has six children and said that Davis is an amazing town for families and that he has been grateful to contribute to the public opinion of the community.
“Everybody feels that they’re living in the best place,” Dunning said. “But I think, objectively, this is one of the towns in America. Davis is one of the best places to live and raise a family.”
Written by: Chris Ponce — city@theaggie.org
