'Was my writing not good enough?': Mickey Huang rage quits writing job after his work was edited without his consent
Earlier this week (May 2), Taiwanese host Mickey Huang took to Facebook to reprimand Taiwanese news portal CommonWealth Magazine, which prides itself as "Taiwan's most influential economic news media".
"If you don't like what I write, I'll quit right now. Thank you CommonWealth Magazine for giving me this platform, but if you want to strip my clothes and turn my microphone off, this platform is just too heartbreaking for me," wrote the 51-year-old star.
So what happened?
He sacrificed his time with his daughter Little Corn to write the column only for it to be heavily edited
In his post, Mickey shared that he's been wondering for a long time if he should continue writing his column for the magazine, especially since becoming a father. Mickey's wife, actress Summer Meng, gave birth to their daughter 'Little Corn' last year.
"However, [I] can't bear to part ways [with the column]," Mickey said.
But here's the deal-breaker.
According to Mickey, he was furious when he realised that the published version of his column was completely different from the draft he had submitted.
What's worse was that CommonWealth Magazine didn't even have the decency to inform him about the changes before publishing it.
"Did I do a terrible job or were you guys unable to contact me? You're such a huge publisher and I'm just a small fry, was my writing not good enough?," questioned Mickey.
He said he would understand if they had trimmed his words for the print version of his column but he wasn't able to accept how the magazine had edited out his words for the digital copy.
"It doesn't make that much of a difference whether it's 400 or 4000 words. Thinking about the time I took to write each and every word after my daughter fell asleep, only to have you guys just remove them so effortlessly... I really have to protest!," he fumed.
Mickey then ended his rant by tendering his resignation.
"I might get high blood pressure looking back at my past 19 articles. It's like I was writing for ghosts to read," snarked Mickey.
"However, I won't reject the fee, including for this [issue]. I will donate all that I've made from them [to charity] and take it as I've never written for them before," he added, before requesting for CommonWealth Magazine to remove all the edited and incomplete columns.
CommonWealth Magazine's official apology to Mickey
CommonWealth Magazine has issued an official statement on Facebook to apologise to Mickey, adding that they will "reflect on their editorial training and process control" in the future.
The chief editor of the magazine also left a comment asking if he could get in touch with Mickey.
However, the host declined to speak to the editor. He also said he was "advised" by CommonWealth Magazine to edit the words in his original post.
"Why should I change what I wrote," asked a furious Mickey.
The next day (May 3), Mickey reiterated his points in a new post.
He first explained that he decided to stop writing for the magazine because he thinks what he's written was not interesting enough and hence not up to standard.
Mickey also emphasised that he will no longer be publishing any of his writing.
"This morning, other publishers invited me to write a book or start a column. I'm flattered and touched but I've made up my mind and won't be writing anymore. Thank you for your invite," he insisted.
Photos: PBE Media, mababy, baike.com
