Read other letters about this article

• Monday, April 7, 2008 10:50 PM

  Sweet Jesus Christ this is ridiculous

  Spare me the drama, and your high-horse, too. You want to talk about civility and ad-hominem attacks? Why hasn't your publication said one word about what appears on Taylor Marsh's website or NoQuarter blog (just to name two) every goddamned day of the week?

  You're proud of tripling your readership, but you publish crap like the Wilentz piece without even checking the math behind his central claim (Hell of a correction you got there) or disclosing in the footnote that the author is a historian and longstanding Clinton supporter?

  You personally cite the "iron my shirt" incident as evidence of a sexist campaign against Hillary Clinton - without including the context that the guy saying it was a morning radio idiot/host who did it only as a stunt for his show. As an editor, do you think that detail does not matter?

  Joan, I think you've turned Salon into the cyberspace version of the WaPo Op-Ed page. You don't enforce even the most casual editorial scrutiny on contributors whose positions you support, you ignore conflicting incidents, you magnify and distort isolated events to bolster your position, and you then broadly paint those who disagree as vulgar and unworthy of being taken seriously.

  (The cherry on top of this analogy is that both you and the WaPo somehow employ the two most relentless and intelligent media critics in the business. If you think that makes you immune to that kind of scrutiny - read through the 109 pages of comments on the Wilentz piece and think again. Greenwald focuses on the mainstream press but the lessons are not being lost on your readers.)

  —baldheadeddork Read baldheadeddork's other letters
  Permalink
  Flag
  Click "Submit Flag" if you feel this post is inappropriate. Explain why below if you wish.

  Cancel