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You Buy the Ticket,
You Take the Ride…
ANYONE WHO IS in the news business or the entertainment business, and sometimes the line between those two is very blurred, knows you can be fired at any time, for any reason. Such is the fate I suffered April 24. Stay tuned, this won't be a rant. In fact, I wouldn't even bring it up, but people, and I'm proud to say a lot of people, have been asking what happened.
 Here's the station's spin: "Casey Smith is leaving Channel 8 to further pursue his professional career…" Here's my version: I was fired after being blamed for "erosion in the ratings." The fact is the Channel 8 morning show won the February sweeps outright, for only the second time in its history. (I was involved in the first sweeps win too.)
This of course, happens to a lot of people every day. In today's society it's not uncommon for bellhops, cooks, chefs, cops, carpet cleaners, information gleaners and just about everyone else to be fired "with or without cause."
For the record, I was one of those "without cause" statistics. You can ask anyone at Channel 8 and they'll tell you I didn't do anything wrong. It came down to managerial preference, or whim, if you will. The entertainment people reading this right now are nodding their heads and saying "yep, when your number's up it's up" or "I remember when I was the 'flavor of the month' and suddenly the tastes changed." That's the biz and I knew that when I got into it.
Feces occurs. That's what happened here, but I'll be just fine.
I've certainly watched the news with a more critical eye on the product, a more compassionate eye on the story subjects and a more understanding eye on anyone who hasn't been as lucky as I've been. This is a mere speed bump for me, but it's often financially deadly for people my age in America. It puts things like General Motors' many layoffs, the Enron debacle and movements life the United Farm Workers movement into perspective. It's a shame that as life spans get longer, the trend for hiring people 50-65 is almost dying out. Why? Because of perceptions, pure and simple. There is, and always has been movement toward a youthful workforce, but it sure seems wrong that just when some people hit their stride, they're forced to hit the unemployment line.
The other reason is progress. Take the employees of the Stardust, for example. They're all going to be out of a job soon and many of them have been at the Stardust for up to 30 years and more. Doing the math, that means there will be many 50–60+ men and women looking for jobs in what so-called economic experts say is a "young person's environment." I feel for those people and not just because I now, for the first time ever, know how they feel. I can empathize with them because they are near retirement age, but some are nowhere near retirement ability. We all know Social Security is a good thing, but if it's the only thing people have to live on, it's going to be rough.
I loved the vegascommunityonline appreciation get-together we had the other night. There were some true survivors there, and obviously a wealth of talent. Most of those folks know exactly what I'm talking about here and most of them have already weathered the storm thousands of Stardust employees are about to experience. I wish them all well, as I do everyone.
Don't cry for me Las Vegas! I'll be popping up again, perhaps sooner than most people think. And now that I don't have to worry about having an employer's logo next to my name on this site, I can speak more freely and bring the readers more of the Las Vegas I truly know and love!!
P.S. Feel free to write me at caseysmith3@hotmail.com. 
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