The Local Rag Hits a New Low...
Just when you thought, dear reader, that it was impossible for the local rag, aka Yellowwich Time, to get any worse than it's been for lo! these many years, it has sunk to yet another new low. The Amazing Incredible Shrinking Dollar has nothing on the morons who bring you the daily swill, fresh from the overflowing sewers of the seamy side of Greenwich. Now they have fired probably the most talented writer in Greenwich, Sarah Littman, at the behest of one of the slimiest, nuttiest, most virulent anti-Semites in this or any other state, the unspeakable Lee Whitnum.
Your scribe used to think of Loopy Lee as a joke. See, for example, his post a few months ago entitled "The Silly Season Gets Sillier," [2/15/2008 02:05:00 PM]. She was always good for a few laughs, and not to be taken seriously. Or so it seemed.
But now the local rag has taken her seriously, and one of our Town's noblest and most honest citizens has been harmed as a result. Loopy Lee is no longer a joke; she is a toxic hate-monger. And she is running to represent you, dear reader, in the halls of our United States Congress.
You can read her latest rant, if you have the stomach for it, on the op-ed page of Yellowwich Time today. It has been considerably redacted, not to say censored, by someone at the rag in order to remove some of the more flagrant falsehoods and glaring libels. But Loopy Lee has been playing fast and loose with the truth for many years, to the point where your scribe doubts she is able to tell the difference between fact and fiction any longer.
In any case, the local rag has given her one-third of today's op-ed page, and Sarah Littman the boot. Instead of Sarah's concise, well-reasoned, and elegant prose, we are treated to Loopy Lee telling us that Jim Himes "[barks] like the trained seal he is," how Alan Dershowitz "capitalizes on American ignorance," and how Sarah's thoughtful assessments of the Whitnum candidacy are "hateful onslaughts." And that's just the cleaned-up censored version. Makes one wonder what the original screed must have been like.
Your scribe is all in favor of free speech, as he has made clear on many occasions in the past. But hate speech is not protected speech. In fact, it is a crime. In your scribe's humble opinion, Ms. Whitnum is utterly unqualified to spend time serving this district in Congress. But she might be qualified to spend time serving in jail. What a story that would make, if only we had an honest newspaper in this Town to report it!
Instead, the local rag has sacrified its best op-ed commentator in order to bring us the rants and raves of what a clinician might describe as a borderline personality. Shame on the pusillanimous Yellowwich Time! All of us in Greenwich, dear reader, are the losers because of the utter disgrace this tabloid has brought upon itself, and the drivel it is now trying to foist off on us. The time is now, if it ever was, to cancel your subscription to the Time.
Your scribe used to think of Loopy Lee as a joke. See, for example, his post a few months ago entitled "The Silly Season Gets Sillier," [2/15/2008 02:05:00 PM]. She was always good for a few laughs, and not to be taken seriously. Or so it seemed.
But now the local rag has taken her seriously, and one of our Town's noblest and most honest citizens has been harmed as a result. Loopy Lee is no longer a joke; she is a toxic hate-monger. And she is running to represent you, dear reader, in the halls of our United States Congress.
You can read her latest rant, if you have the stomach for it, on the op-ed page of Yellowwich Time today. It has been considerably redacted, not to say censored, by someone at the rag in order to remove some of the more flagrant falsehoods and glaring libels. But Loopy Lee has been playing fast and loose with the truth for many years, to the point where your scribe doubts she is able to tell the difference between fact and fiction any longer.
In any case, the local rag has given her one-third of today's op-ed page, and Sarah Littman the boot. Instead of Sarah's concise, well-reasoned, and elegant prose, we are treated to Loopy Lee telling us that Jim Himes "[barks] like the trained seal he is," how Alan Dershowitz "capitalizes on American ignorance," and how Sarah's thoughtful assessments of the Whitnum candidacy are "hateful onslaughts." And that's just the cleaned-up censored version. Makes one wonder what the original screed must have been like.
Your scribe is all in favor of free speech, as he has made clear on many occasions in the past. But hate speech is not protected speech. In fact, it is a crime. In your scribe's humble opinion, Ms. Whitnum is utterly unqualified to spend time serving this district in Congress. But she might be qualified to spend time serving in jail. What a story that would make, if only we had an honest newspaper in this Town to report it!
Instead, the local rag has sacrified its best op-ed commentator in order to bring us the rants and raves of what a clinician might describe as a borderline personality. Shame on the pusillanimous Yellowwich Time! All of us in Greenwich, dear reader, are the losers because of the utter disgrace this tabloid has brought upon itself, and the drivel it is now trying to foist off on us. The time is now, if it ever was, to cancel your subscription to the Time.
posted by Bill Clark | 7/25/2008 12:57:00 PM
6 Comments:
I completely agree with you. And it seems that John Dunster has seized upon a pretext to fire Sarah Littman. When Dunster appeared before the Greenwich Retired Men's Association about two months ago, which was broadcast on community television channel 79, he was asked about GT's "liberal" editorial page, meaning Sarah Littman. In response, Dunster first admitted that he's "on the conservative side of the spectrum", then went on to say that he was going to had plans to deal with the editorial page's ideological make-up. Then he apologized for the rather liberal cartoon on the editorial page, but said that there were very few conservative cartoonists around.
So he was just waiting, apparently, for some reason to get rid of Sarah. In her stead, we are being treated to some of the most mindless drivel from the paper's managing editor Jim Zebora the paper's editor.
I've canceled my subscription as a result, and I hope that many more people will also.
What Dunster did was disgraceful. He hasn't been working in town very long, and I fervently hope that he doesn't work here much longer.
One has only to Google "Lee Whitnum" to find out how disturbed she really is. Apparently the new editorial staff at the Yellowich Time haven't heard of the Internet. Or else they don't care--whatever sensationalist crappola they can dredge up from the the local sewer to get people to stop and gawk and buy a paper, right?
Sorry to hear Ms. Littman is out of a job, but I'm sure you'll agree she's better off somewhere else. Her talents are wasted on that rag anyhow.
I, for one, am not surprised at the evident political rise of "people" like Whitnum. Scum does rise to the surface of the pond after all. Just look at the jackass in office--he's set us all back economically several decades, he's trying to turn the clock back on women's rights, he's made many attempts to unravel the U.S. Constitution all in the name of "security" and "fighting terror"... the list of his crimes is voluminous, as Rep. Dennis Kucinich demonstrated to us all not too long ago. Political imps like Lee Whitnum coast along in the wake of the bigger, more powerful Trolls like Shrubbie & Co who have cleared the way for crazy to come in and stay. And the biggest problem is that for the most part, the citizenry tolerates it. I don't know if it's apathy, or fear, or like-minded insanity (depends on the citizen) that is most to blame, but whatever is responsible is killing us as a nation. Under "normal" circumstances, I doubt creatures like Whitnum would even gain a foothold. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much in the way of "normal" in this country for the past 8 years. Welcome to 1984.
To Thomas Hooker:
This is very interesting news. It seems as though the fix was in. But it still doesn't excuse the rag from using Lee Whitnum as a pretext. That's jsut gutter politics. But why am I not surprised?...it's been the rag's M.O. for as long as I can remember....
P.S. Are you related to the Thomas Hooker who founded Hartford a few centuries ago? If so, we're probably cousins....
To Anonymous Bob:
As always, a pleasure to hear from you! Your points are well-made and well-taken. And you're right - I personally am glad that Sarah is not a part of that slimeball non-newspaper any more.
I may end up blogging on your blog but I thought I would share with you our local scandal and the personal connection I had with him last year.
Here in Delaware, we really do not have our own news station. Well, we do, but it's not worth a hoot. If you want the news, you have to watch the Philadelphia stations. They cover us too, so it's all good.
So last year Dawn Stensland, an anchor for Fox Philadelphia 10 pm news said a stupid thing (innocently but she got burned bad) She has young kids and they were not sleeping well, thus her lack of sleep and while on the air, she said she felt like a "retard" because she couldn't function due to the lack of sleep. Sooooo, you can imagine the uproar this caused throughout the disability community.
My friend who helps with our annual Autumn Auction for Autism called or emailed Dawn and basically got her to agree to come to our auction, along with her husband to be our honorary chairs. She agreed! She was actually rather sweet and came with her husband who also happens to be a news broadcaster, but for NBC in Philadelphia. Who is her husband? Why it's Larry Mendete, the same anchor in the middle of that little scandal where he was caught reading private emails on his co-anchors computer. (She had since been fired for having a bit of a scuffle with the po-po in NYC.) Never mess with the NYPD...especially while drunk.
So Larry and Dawn were our co-chairs last year. Larry is facing Federal charges, even made CNN. I feel bad for Dawn, but she had to broadcast on the Fox News show that had to run a piece on her husband, all while smiling and prentending everything is ok. How horrible! And their poor kids. Bad Larry, bad!
Just goes to show or point out...who in the hell in the media can we trust anymore?
Ok, that was my blog. :)
Nice to see you back, I had missed your reporting!
Hey, M.I.!
You can blog on my blog any time!
Everyone has feet of clay, it seems, except for those of us who are gods or goddesses. :) Seems to me that your Philly people have done some dumb things, but aren't really malicious. I mean, Larry and Dawn agreed to co-chair your fundraiser and all.
Unfortunately, here in Greenwhich the people at the local rag are just purely and simply and downright malicious. Always have been, always will be, I guess. The names and faces may change, but the nastiness remains a constant. Must be something in the water cooler over at their office. Or maybe in the ink supply, since they seem to dip their pens in vitriol half the time, and stupid juice the other half. My guess is that the rag is losing money hand over fist, and will be closed down by its new owners sooner or later. My vote is for sooner!
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