DUMPING ON MISS RUN AMUCK

Judy Miller gets no sympathy from us, for all the obvious reasons. Still, the “Dump on Judy” movement, as an editorial in the New York Post puts it, does make the powers-that-be at The New York Times look pretty shabby (despite wrongly contending that “partisan politics” has trumped “journalistic ethics” ). Even our poet, who takes his inspiration from Elizabeth Barrett Browning, above, and not from the Post, says so:

HOW DO WE LOVE THEE?
LET US COUNT THE TIMES
“We’re behind you, Judy, 700 percent,”
Aver both Bill and Pinch
As they greet her in the city room
And embrace her in a clinch.
Days later, “We’re with you 300 percent,”
Affirm both Pinch and Bill.
And when the honeymoon goes kaboom:
“Judy, make that nil.”
— Leon Freilich
But here’s one more reason not to have sympathy for Miss Run Amuck: Anyone who has ever worked in a newsroom knows there are plenty of lamebrains and boneheads — call them editors — eager to assert their authority (and that’s not counting the smart but spineless ones) over reporters who challenge them. All these editors have to do now to get their way is point to the Judy fiasco.
— Tireless Staff of Thousands

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