Letters to the Editor
Joan Walsh
Published Letters: 459 Editor's Choice: 15
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From Joan Walsh
[Read the article: How did baseball botch its tribute to Willie Mays?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Larry T., I don't enjoy insulting our readers, especially our paying members. I appreciate your support. But what makes you think I was talking about you with the "tedious, unworthy men" comment. There are men (and maybe women) on this thread attacking Bonds with wit and intellect, and I enjoy it. I'm talking about a tendency for mediocre sportswriters, most of them men, to blather on about Barry Bonds, some of them out of envy, some ignorance. But I certainly didn't call YOU or anyone personally a "tedious, boring man." There was no call for you to reply the way you did. It's sexist, and I'm sick of it.
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From Joan Walsh
[Read the article: How did baseball botch its tribute to Willie Mays?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]lonewolfy, read the post again. I only singled out men because I had criticized Jeanne Zelasko for her Bonds snark, and wanted to be clear that in fact I was criticizing "tedious" folk of both genders! So the point you're asking me to make here is actually the point I was making. Isn't it?
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From Joan Walsh
[Read the article: Goodbye to Audiofile]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I appreciate all the Audiofile fans out there; I am one. But as much as some of us loved the daily music downloads, they actually had very low usage. We'll try to bring you great things when we find them. And it's true Video Dog has been pared down to five regular outside contributors, but we're going to be ratcheting up, experimenting with much more staff-driven video within the month. Thanks for your patience.
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From Joan Walsh
[Read the article: The Salon Interview: Elizabeth Edwards]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]John Carson, I think you're probably right -- I was the one who remembered "safe, legal and rare" being part of the controversial (to some) speech where Hillary Clinton called abortion "tragic." My mistake, not Elizabeth Edwards's. Thanks!
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From Joan Walsh
[Read the article: Will Rudy Giuliani's marriage hurt his chances?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ben Sen, in the end, we didn't discuss Rudy or Judi -- it was Hillary's letters, McCain's chances and Bill Clinton's amazingly adept deflection of the Obama-Clinton foreign policy faux-clash at the DLC this weekend. I'm not terribly worried about being pigeonholed on the gossip beat, though -- there were two men on with me, and I'm normally on MSNBC talking about Iraq and other hard news.
As I stated up front, I have my own reservations about whether Giuliani's marriages should matter in this election, but my point is, it does and it will continue to.
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From Joan Walsh
[Read the article: More bad news for Rudy Giuliani]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]kansasgirl, you make a good point about the Washington Post profile. I didn't find it that negative, but Thompson himself seemed to feel he had to reply and apologize (that was the NRO link).
Ben Sen, I was on Hardball talking about the Hillary letters, and didn't wind up posting on it. But I agree with you. I thought they were really humanizing -- she's always been depicted as someone who was a superstar, academically and politically, and it was interesting to watch her struggle. I really think they helped her. And I've seen amazingly little snark about them.
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From Joan Walsh
[Read the article: Thank you, Hank Aaron]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]briblack, I don't think that Aaron forgot what he'd said before about Bonds. I think over time he made some sort of peace with the situation, and as an elder statesman of baseball, he did a kind and generous thing, and I'm grateful to him. He will always be a hero. To have snubbed Bonds would have diminished him.
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From Joan Walsh
[Read the article: Welcome TV Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you, Silenced. And thanks for picking a screen name and giving up on Anonymous. I appreciate your participation here.
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Did anyone else...
[Read the article: The Bush-league economy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]think it was also weird how he was going on and on about eBay as though he'd just heard of it? Guess he still doesn't get on the Internets all that much. Deeply discouraging.
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From Joan Walsh
[Read the article: Thank you, Hank Aaron]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you, garcohsf. Your letter made my day.
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From Joan Walsh
[Read the article: McCain backs Imus, but not Bonds]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks, BackOfBeyond, for that note about Barry at ASU. I've heard both kinds of stories from people there and at Serra. I should also say -- as I've said before -- in my limited dealings with him he's always been nice to me, and incredibly wonderful to my daughter. I hesitate to throw that out there, but it's as valid, I guess, as the stories of sports writers who hate him because he snubbed them.
On the Facebook question: Yes, I think a diary is totally different, no question. I would never read my daughter's diary; I know parents who go both ways on the Facebook issue. My deal with my daughter has been if she leaves either MySpace or Facebook open on my computer -- and she's done so -- I'll consider it a cry for help (!) and look at it. But I won't go looking. Re: Facebook, yes, most kids keep it semi-private for their schoolmates and other authorized groups, so I'm not sure you can snoop, anyway. But I've impressed on the teenagers in my life that their presumption of privacy on these things is silly. As Caroline Giuliani learned the hard way this week.
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From Joan Walsh
[Read the article: McCain backs Imus, but not Bonds]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You know, goferit2, you're misrepresenting what I said with those ellipses. I said I don't think it's racism on McCain's part. Later in the post, I was talking about other people who hate Bonds, and saying, in fact, it's not racism on MOST of their parts, either. But somehow you depict me as using a Foxism, as though my "Is it racism?" question was about McCain. No fair.
I know black people who hate Bonds. I don't think the enmity against Bonds is primarily racism. But I think McCain's willingness to forgive Imus but pronounce judgment on Bonds comes from an insider, he's one of us mentality that cuts a guy like Imus a lot more slack than a guy like Bonds -- and race is one of the reasons. That's all.