| Greenwich Time/Stamford Advocate published an editorial today taking Senator Chris Dodd to task for not being forthcoming on the matter of his mortgage from Nationwide Financial. I agree that Dodd should have been more forthcoming.
But let's all remember that this is the same newspaper management that fired popular progressive columnist Sarah Littman and steadfastly refused to tell their readers that they had fired her, and refused to tell anyone the reasons why they did it. It's been seven months, and even after Littman was named one of Connecticut's "Jewish Movers and Shakers for 2008" for calling out Lee Whitnum for her anti-Semitism and anti-Israel rhetoric, GT/Advocate management still won't explain themselves. Indeed, in the editorial they write that, "This week, the Dodds finally responded to requests they have dodged since last summer to reveal their Countrywide dealings in detail." Yet it was last summer that GT/Advocate fired Sarah Littman and they have "dodged since last summer" all requests that they "reveal their...dealings in detail."
Let's be clear here: for GT/Advocate to remain silent about their truly dirty actions in firing Sarah Littman, but criticize Chris Dodd for not being forthcoming on his mortgage from Nationwide is an example of blatant hypocrisy. They have no standing to criticize anyone for not coming clean.
Let's hope that those papers' new publisher displays a little more- no, a lot more- journalistic integrity than her predecessor John Dunster, and that she begins to require a minimal standard of journalistic ethics from her staff. In addition to explaining what GT/Advocate did to Littman- and apologizing for that indefensible action- she could also come out and state that her editorial page editor will not publish any altered texts without the permission of the author from now on. That is the simple standard adhered to by New York Times. It should be good enough for GT/Advocate. And not a difficult policy to implement. She should also end the practice of altering the texts of articles to insert "D-Conn" after Joe Lieberman's name when the original text reads "I-Conn". Again, it's a deliberate slap at Democratic voters who loath the guy. And she could also force political reporter Neil Vigdor to be fair in his articles. Yesterday Vigdor was up to his old tricks in his article about Jim Himes' support for salary caps for businesses (mostly banks) receiving federal bailout money. The first four sentences were about Himes' position. But the next eight sentences were all criticisms from Connecticut Republican Party chairman Chris Healey. So the article was really a critical Fox News-style screed against Himes. Balance does not consist of most of an article being a criticism of the person about whom the article is supposed to be.
There's so much more. But suffice it to say that Greenwich Time/Advocate have no standing to call out Chris Dodd or anyone for being less than forthcoming when those papers' management have stonewalled the truth for so long. They're working in a glass house. They should put down the stones. |
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