"I think it was a long time coming," says Littman, an author of books for teens. "The atmosphere of the paper has changed since it was taken over by MediaNews. It's more conservative." The 40-paper chain operates Greenwich Time and its sister paper the Stamford Advocate. (More disclosure: When Littman started writing for Greenwich Time in 2002, it was owned by the Tribune Company, which owns the Weekly.) Though she didn't exclusively write about politics in her bi-weekly bit of space, Littman was the only dyed-in-the-wool liberal on the op-ed page.
Littman says she doesn't see how editors "could have not known" that last September she hosted a "friend-raiser," where Himes introduced himself to potential supporters. She says she's given about $700 to Himes in donations and the cost of the event. "It's something that Lee Whitnum brought up to them," she says. It was mentioned in an email exchange between Littman and political reporter Neil Vigdor. And bad blood between Whitnum and bloggers is no secret; she's mentioned Littman, the event and her position at Greenwich Time on her campaign website. Littman believes the paper may have been giving her enough rope to hang herself when they published the column without inserting or asking for a disclosure note.
"It may have been naive of me not to put something in [the column] that I gave to the Himes campaign," she contends. "But the point was not 'vote for Jim Himes,' it was to point out the dangerous ideas [Whitnum] was spreading."
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