skippy the bush kangaroo

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

washington post ombud won't respond to critics

via americablog, the washington post's ombudsman shows her true colors: yellow. she won't respond to critics any more because those meanies pointed out her factual errors and the problems with several of the post's stories, including the stenography work of bobby woodward. from media matters:

washington post ombudsman deborah howell has reportedly posted a comment on the post's internal message board announcing that she has learned the following "lesson" from exchanges with media matters for america: "from now on, i don't reply."

years ago i was at a fire hall in a backwoods community sitting in the hollows of western maryland. the county association had cracked down on the volunteer company because too many "incidents" involving wrecked trucks and teenage firefighters drinking at the hall. the community was called to a meeting to hear the complaints of the residents, who donated funds to the department.

the locals gave them hell - so much so i turned to a sheriff's deputy friend and said "if a fight breaks out i'm hiding behind you." and he replied, "if a fight breaks out i'm running for my cruiser."

the firefighters were shouting down the critics when bang bang bang the president of the fire hall, a big, unkempt ogre of a man hammered his gavel down. "QUIET!" he roared. "i'm still runnin' this meeting and there will be no more interruptions. these people have the right to be heard."

and he turned to the speaker and said, "the floor is yours."

and the speaker went back to criticizing the president's tenure. and he listened and later in the meeting passed measures to make the department better and at the end of the meeting he resigned.

that president of a small, rural fire station had a better concept of the principles of free speech and the importance of hearing out critics and responding to them than the ombudsman at the washington post.

posted by Carnacki at 5:05 PM |