Posts Tagged ‘blunders’

Think your job sucks? At least if you get fired for browsing porn, you can conveniently leave it off your references page when you send out a new resume. These idiots were so irresponsible and incompetent that Wal-Mart wouldn’t even hire them.

5. Jayson Blair

Occupation: Journalist for the New York Times

Screw up: Remember that time it was 3 in the morning and your midterm was due the next day? You probably went on Wikipedia and stole a few lines changing a word here and there. If only Jayson Blair was so crafty because he decided to rip off other sources verbatim and use the tried and true technique of making sh-t up.

Aftermath: Blair resigned after a national editor pressed him on proving he’d interviewed the woman quoted in a particular article. Of the 73 national articles written by Blair, 36 were found by a NY Times committee to be suspect or completely fabricated. Jesus, he even failed at being good at plagiarism. Where do you go from there? USA Today?

4. George B McLellan

Occupation: General for the Union Army (Civil War)

Screw up: After some of McLellan’s men accidentally discovered papers displaying Lee’s divided forces, he prophetically told fellow General John Gibson, “Here is a paper with which if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home.” Unsatisfied with that kind of unapologetic boasting, he telegraphed his boss, President Abraham Lincoln and told him, “I have the whole rebel force in front of me, but I am confident, and no time shall be lost. I think Lee has made a gross mistake, and that he will be severely punished for it. I have all the plans of the rebels, and will catch them in their own trap if my men are equal to the emergency. … Will send you trophies.” McLellan, apparently suffering from amnesia, decided against his own words and failed to take action. Sort of like the small kid at the basketball courts that continually talks trash but refuses to ever take an open shot.

Aftermath: McLellan’s reluctance to go on the offensive, left them vulnerable to Lee’s divided armies at the Battle of Antietam. The result? 12,401 casualties with 2,108 dead on the Union side. The less equipped, undermanned Confederates managed to escape with 10, 318 and 1,546 respectively. McLellan was soon sh-tcanned by Lincoln and replaced by a much smarter, drunker Ulysses S. Grant.