Judgement, and the Lack Thereof
The Washington Post has, as a result of the Charlotte Allen piece on how dumb woment are, been receiving a barrage of complaints from their readers.
Instead of seriously addressing the issue, editor John Pomfret sends Allen herself out to take the abuse:
In all honesty, I'm torn. Partly I'm tired of this jihad, and was tired of it two days ago. Partly, I feel a smidgen of compassion for Pomfret not knowing what to do, who did express regrets if the piece offended, and for whom I never had anything but respect until I deduced he was responsible for the Allen piece Sunday. But mostly, I am still fuming that the Post as an institution is now hiding behind Charlotte Allen's knickers, and stubbornly continues to refuse to answer tremendous reader demand (thousands of comments, several thousand blog posts) for an explanation and an apology for running the piece. It's cowardly. It makes their and my profession look bad. It's unnecessary.
Instead, comically, truly, they're hauling out Charlotte Allen (who can be faulted for writing the tripe -- but not for publishing it!) to take the first bullets during a chat today which I honestly don't see why anyone should dignify, except possibly to interrogate her about how the interactions with the Post went down exactly as her essay thesis got clarified.
There seems to be an appalling lack of judgment at the Post. Not just over this issue, but this has been the most egregious example of late.
Technorati tags:
|