Deborah Howell is Hopeless

By: Gustavus
Published On: 6/17/2007 7:21:56 AM

The Washington Post's Ombudsman, Deborah Howell, is hopeless.  She will never understand what people want from their newspapers.

In today's Post she writes about the horrible column the Post printed about Gore's new book.  Here is how she begins it:

"Al Gore partisans were furious about a piece..."

Ms. Howell thinks one has to be a "partisan" before one can be upset about inaccurate journalism.  Why not start with "Newspaper readers were furious about..." or something similar which doesn't imply that one must be a partisan to want honest journalism?

Comments



Howell ignores critics and then whines about their response. (Andrea Chamblee - 6/17/2007 9:26:58 PM)
She actually wasted a column on this that added little or nothing to the issue.

"(A sample reader comment on my column last week: "I think we can all agree after reading Howell's lame comments week after week that the Post should save money by eliminating her position entirely. She is worse than a dupe.")

She is worse then a dupe, by being a "beard" to legitimize poor and biased reporting.



Update (Gustavus - 6/18/2007 5:54:01 AM)
I received an email from Howell agreeing that she shouldn't have used the phrase "Al Gore partisans." I hope she will try to be more evenhanded in her future columns.


Well ... (A Siegel - 6/18/2007 11:37:51 AM)
She hasn't sent me that e-mail yet ...


Couple things ... (A Siegel - 6/18/2007 11:39:04 AM)
First, thank you for doing a focused e-mail to her. Mine was much longer/involved.

Second, so she agreed she shouldn't have used the term.  Hmmm ... is she going to write another (false) apologia on this?



You might be interested ... (A Siegel - 6/18/2007 11:37:27 AM)
in the piece that I just cross-posted from Daily Kos:  http://www.raisingka...

This was the fourth (I hope last) piece that I've written re the Ferguson disingenuous 'mistake' and The Post's mishandling of it.