Glenn - again, right on the money. I expect that kind of crap from King and the arrogant, spoiled and detached MSM, but I was surprised by and really appalled by this one - in other words, "real questions" amount to 6th grade stuff!

"But because of that accessibility, you don't have to go into every interview asking him about the time he cheated on his sixth grade math test."

Anytime someone responds to your writing with the word "drivel," you know they are puttin' on airs. You can almost smell the powdered wig on their skull. Dressing up their outrage with Englandisms so as to sound all high 'n mighty. To me, when someone says "drivel" and seriously? It sounds like they are drooling over a word. Usage of "Drivel" as a response is the verbal equivalent of spit slipping over your lip as you speak.

What an ass.

Keep on keepin' on, baby.

I have been observing John King for the past few weeks and he has become a true and disheartening disappointment as has most of the American Press, that once set the standards for the entire world.

Interesting that he repeatedly accuses you of not doing your research, but doesn't bothing researching you or what you do before sending you that letter.

He probably said "research" because he heard it once in school and people kept saying he had to do it, so now that he's in a position of authority he says it to you without actually knowing what it means.

"Maybe the next time he interviews McCain, he'll remember this on some level. And maybe not."

Hopefully so.

I'm sure John King's heart was in the right place when he started his career. A nudge of the sort you gave him might, might be all he needs to remember why he got into journalism in the first place......and I doubt very much if his journalism professors spent much time telling him how to pass the canapes.

Maybe a One-On-One with Helen Thomas would remind him of what his job really is.

... and described how starting in sportscasting and dealing with highly paid athletes gave him a high degree of skepticism.

Isn't it ironic that the best journalists, the people with the most skepticism about the lies behind the propaganda, come from Rolling Stone, from a guy who started at ESPN, and from Comedy Central?

Rather than confront how hilarious it is that the best current journalists are those who happened on it accidentally, it's easier to simply gate the community and claim that critics "don't know anything about journalism" than to confront the question of why your profession got it so wrong and why the amateurs (whether they be blogger/attorneys, former sportscasters, comedians or people writing in Rolling Stone.

Probably the best advice for Mr. King comes not from a real journalist but from Lester Bangs, former Rolling Stone Writer Cameron Crowe's character from Almost Famous. As he's talking to young aspiring journalist William Miller he says,

"My advice to you. I know you think those guys are your friends. You wanna be a true friend to them? Be honest, and unmerciful."

And "You CANNOT make friends with the rock stars... you will get free records from the record company. And they'll buy you drinks, you'll meet girls, they'll try to fly you places for free, offer you drugs... I know. It sounds great. But they are not your friends. These are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories about the genius of the rock stars, and they will ruin rock and roll and strangle everything we love about it."

Like Matt Taibbi, doesn't Lester Bangs get what keeps the profession professional more than Mr. King and most of his colleagues?

Better yet, King should remember the two words I.F. Stone used to tell his audiences to never forget: "Governments lie."

Maybe if the professional journalists had remembered these two words approximately 3900 American lives wouldn't have been lost in Iraq nor about 29,000 wounded. Maybe if King remembered these two words, he'd be criticizing John McCain or George Bush instead of Glenn Greenwald.

I was once given a maraca. A colorful maraca is a dry gourd percussion instrument, consisting of dried-seeds that rattle.

It's a pretty gourd. It sounds as if there are pebbles inside the dry-plant hard-shell pumpkin gourd.

I'll leave for awhile and shush-up.

Maybe visualize me as a 6th grader?

Innocently, pretending, I can play a violin?

I'll go to the greenhouse and just practice.

The water does sizzle-sound from a water-hose. It's time for watering greens and other farm time chores. It's nice to be honest. I agree. The dishonest people need to simply say thanks.

Cha-cha. Can-can, 'um.

You do do a calm waltz,

and where is dear Matilda?

There are so many weird "tells" in his testy letter that it's hard to pick just one, but this jumped out at me: <<[Credibility] is what allows you to cover six presidential campaigns and be viewed as fair and respectful, while perhaps a little cranky, by Democrats and Republicans alike.>>

So that's the goal? Being viewed as fair and respectful? To me a good journalist is smart and persistent and savvy and canny and a million other adjectives. To King, though, a good journalist is someone who's well-liked.

As Bystander wrote earlier, King has joined Boylan in the Unintentionally Revealing Hall of Fame.

Not content to allow that a teensy part of their "work" might not have been up to snuff, these absurdly pampered and narcissistic bozos go on to reveal, extravagantly, that they are also out of touch with reality and downright repulsive people.

The air of superiority that drips from that childish, poorly written, and self-discrediting diatribe finally erases any feelings of compassion one might have had for its "wronged" author. Not to mention respect.

Best of all, I'm sure he thinks he really "showed" Glenn. He probably forwarded that letter to all his "friends."

Let's all forward it to ours.

Glenn, you have the best pen pals in the world.

In private exchanges of emails, be it between friends, foes, or casual acquaintences, grammatical standards, tonal qualities, and general communicative etiquette are relaxed, and mistakes given wide latitude. In this exchange between Glenn and Mr. King, however, tacit acknowledgement of its likelihood of wide distribution and comment should be a given. Why Mr. King did not have another person review both his message and his tone surprises me, especially since the exchange reflects upon CNN's reputation in general and his "image" in particular.

Most of us learned relatively early in our lives not to place into print what we would be hard-pressed to defend in public. Even the perception of pettiness and incivility needs to be blunted as much as possible. A deep breath and an hour or two of reflection oftentimes rescues correspondence from that which Mr. King now suffers.

Not that he doesn't deserve it.