This just gets better (and sadder)
What follows here is the complete text of an email message I got from News & Observer senior editor Linda Williams, in the wake of two posts last week that brought into question the N&O’s public stance of non-partisanship. (You can see those previous posts here and here.) I publish Williams’ email at her urging, as you’ll see, and exactly as it was received.
What a sanctimonious, phony gasbag you are. Your recent posts are certainly revealing of your own utter lack of integrity. I recall an e-mail I received from you once in which you were praising me for a comment I made which you interpreted as being anti-liberal. I also recall that you sent that message to several people here at the paper.
Now you have seized upon a short commentary I made on how some of readers might discuss stories on our front page because of their own experiences to puff up your skinny little chest in outrage. Your interpretation was wrong then and it’s wrong now. But why the double standard?
I can only conclude that like so many of your ilk who cowardly rail from the safety of your keyboards that you have concluded that perpetuating the big lie is more lucrative.
I have absolutely no doubt that my professional integrity would hold up to any serious scrutiny of how I do my job. You’re shown during a series of inaccurate posts recently that you have no integrity, professional or otherwise.
Whether you choose to share this with your readers in its entirety will also shed light on your character.
If it’s possible for something to be simultaneously both laughable and disheartening, this qualifies. It’s amusing because one rarely sees such unprofessionalism and over-the-top personal invective on display. (I’m considering having new business cards printed announcing my services as a “sanctimonious phony gasbag.”) It’s also funny to see someone who supervises a roomful of people sitting at computer monitors churning out copy by the minute express disgust with those who “rail from the safety of your keyboards.” You don’t encounter that kind of irony-laden cluelessness every day.
Then there’s the mention by Williams of some long-forgotten (by me) note of praise I must have sent on the rare occasion when she apparently managed to set aside her own biases and acknowledge someone else’s point of view. I don’t know what we’re supposed to make of that, but what I take from it is that my feeble effort at positive reinforcement obviously had no effect.
Most amusing, though, is Williams’ claim that her opinion-riddled “short commentary” was, in fact, an effort to channel “how some of readers” (remember, she’s a senior editor) might think about the day’s news. Those weren’t her thoughts — she was getting mind-beams from subscribers!
But for all the amusement, it’s disheartening to realize that one of the top people at the state’s most influential newspaper doesn’t appear capable of forming a streamlined, logical response to an issue — much less understanding what actually unfolded last week.
The “interpretation” of Williams’ memo — which I printed without attaching any thoughts of my own about it, and also without identifying its author — came from other people who left comments on my site. Unanimously, they saw it for what it was: An unvarnished bit of snidely partisan opinion. The second post identified Williams as the author only because some readers had mistakenly concluded that the offending memo had been written by N&O editor John Drescher.
Let’s review: I print Williams’ memo, in full and without comment, and I am devoid of integrity. She responds with a semi-coherent, invective-ridden email containing the absurd claim that she was only expressing the thoughts of imaginary readers — and her integrity would “hold up to any serious scrutiny.” That might be the most laughable part of all.
Ladies and gentlemen, the posts on this matter have been your peek into the mind of the N&O’s second-ranking editor. And it comes to you through her own words, in full and verbatim. The real tragedy here is that many highly capable people labor under her supervision.
September 15th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Well, to Linda’s credit, this email has far fewer typos than she usually has. It’s not coherent though, but she is taking baby steps in learning to write.
She was far beyond her capabilities when she was promoted to Metro editor, so they moved her on up the chain to get her out of the way of the real workers. Now, she is taking on those who “rail from the safety of your keyboards.” Well, that’s pretty much what her entire industry (and big fat paycheck) are based on. We can hope she won’t have one of those for long
I cannot believe Drescher or Orage would allow one of their employees to send such a message to a reader. No wonder the numbers are dwindling.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:08 am
IIRC, Linda Williams was the senior editor on duty when the NandO ran the famous “Dancer gives details of ordeal” story that helped launch the Duke Lacrosse Frame. History will eventually show that - in my opinion - the NandO was just as culpable as the Durham PD and Nifong’s office for fabricating the Frame. And I suspect we’ll find Linda Williams’ fingerprints all over it.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:19 am
I assumed that her supervisors were about to take some appropriate corrective action in response to the previous, egregious email. Perhaps I was wrong — otherwise, would she really have thought it wise to send you this risible message?
Appalling.
September 15th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I cannot believe that a newspaper executive would write such a rude and illiterate letter. Are you sure it comes from her, because I cannot believe anyone in an editor position could write something that would not pass high school English classes. Read the last paragraph, which makes no sense.
September 15th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Ah, so she was simply “channeling” readers of the N&O and not expressing her own opinion in that email to the staff. Wonder if the N&O can now eliminate the need to use valuable newspaper space for printing actual letters from readers. They can just let Williams’ emails convey their point of view and save everyone the effort.
September 15th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Linda Williams will turn out the lights at the N&O.
She’s virtually immune from being held to account for her vitriolic bias. So this is what the N&O has come to. As an alumnus (’71-’73), at least I get to remember the newspaper when it earned that distinction with every issue.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Dear “Sancty”:
My friend is my friend and the enemy of my enemy is my friend ….. so “Sancty” you qualify on both counts. “BobLee” will be wading in to my readers with both guns blazing by Tues AM.
As Re: Linda’s role in the N&O Nifong Cluster F***, she was indeed front and center along with disgraced former Editor Madame Sill. It was Linda that insisted on making Crystal Mangum a Joan of Arc from Day One.
Batten down the hatches, this is gonna go enfuego.
BobLee
September 15th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Wow. This would be unbelievable aside from the fact that I read the initial e-mail. Still, to reply with such a vicious and personal attack on you just makes you wonder, what the heck is she thinking?! It takes a strong degree of confidence/job security to go from blatant unprofessional partisanship internally to a complete disregard for appearances. She had to know you would report this, and still unloaded in a petty and well, sanctimonious, manner.
Do Orage Quarles, John Drescher and McClatchey stand by and let the N&O be exposed like this? (Apparently so.) It’s as if Ms. Williams is standing up and daring them to do something. Sad commentary on the world of journalism and the quaint notion of fairness and objectivity.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
In short, I don’t even pretend to understand her 2nd paragraph. Enough said. She is the Senior Editor? Really?
September 15th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I just cannot believe that anyone in the news business would write this sort of email. It reads like the nutsy stuff I get all the time.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Some of us have known for a long time about Linda Williams. See below for an N&O Editor’s Blog post by Williams regarding the Crystal Mangum rape hoax and the subsequent Mike Nifong rape frameup.
http://blogsarchive.newsobserver.com/editor/index.php?title=march_25_interview&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
——————–
Thursday, October 5, 2006
March 25 interview
Our March 25 article that included an interview with the woman who accused Duke lacrosse players of rape has been the subject of questions and speculation on blog posts. There is a mistaken assumption that the N&O conducted an extensive interview with the woman and deliberately withheld a substantial portion of the interview.
Those assumptions are false.
The reporter’s interview with the woman was brief, an encounter that lasted a few minutes outside the woman’s parents’ home in Durham. Only two things the woman said at that time did not make publication. She provided a description of the then-unidentified second woman who had also been hired to dance at the lacrosse team party. She also offered an opinion about the other woman’s actions that night. The latter was clearly an opinion, offered without any substantiation. Omitting from published news articles unsubstantiated opinions is a standard, normal part of the journalistic process. The description of the second woman proved to be accurate when Kim Roberts exposed herself at a later date. That description was withheld in March, not because of doubts about its accuracy, but because it was deemed irrelevant since we had no other information to tell readers about the second woman.
The decision made prior to the March interview to limit it to the information in the police report was the correct decision and I stand by it. Our purpose was to hear from the woman in her own words the accusation she made to the police. We also wanted to know if she would say anything that contradict the police report. In the brief interview, she repeated the information we knew to be the gist of the police report that we had access to at that time.
The fairness issue we discussed was that we would not allow her to use the interview for unlimited comments about the men she accused. That would have been the governing decision in any situation where we were interviewing a subject about formal charges made against another person and that other person is not immediately available to respond.
(snip)
Posted at 06:47 pm by Linda Williams in The Editor’s Blog, Today’s news, N&O coverage of Duke lacrosse case The Editors’ Blog
128 comments | Permalink
————————–
Here’s a link to the article in question
Dancer gives details of ordeal
News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC)
News A1
Samiha Khanna
Anne Blythe Staff Writers
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=110949AF2BB0FF60&p_docnum=9&s_dlid=DL0108091612492318114&s_ecproduct=SUB-FREE&s_ecprodtype=INSTANT&s_trackval=&s_siteloc=&s_referrer=&s_subterm=Subscription%20until%3A%2012%2F14%2F2015%2011%3A59%20PM&s_subexpires=12%2F14%2F2015%2011%3A59%20PM&s_username=FreeAccess&s_accountid=AC0107030117170502657&s_upgradeable=no
———————–
Read the comments from the Editor’ blog. The short form is that rape hoaxer Crystal Mangum also accused Kim Roberts/Pittman of stealing her stuff including a substantial amount of cash. All Mangum’s wild, inflammatory and unsubstantiated accusations about the Duke lacrosse team made it into the paper unfiltered, but the N&O suppressed an accusation that might have cast doubt on the two sister strippers appearance of solidarity. Information that didn’t fit the story they wanted to tell was left out. And Williams defends it.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Wow.
I’ve come to this a bit late.
So Linda Williams has openly admitted that she was the one who sent out the “instructive” memo the N&O staff?
Remember that this is the same person who was keeping score on the media coverage regarding the brutal murder of UNC-CH student body president Eve Carson before she had even been buried.
Every inch of this woman’s existence is always about “race”.
I’m so sick of people like this……which is why I send their bile right back to them to illustrate how ridiculous they are.
No one like this Williams person should be allowed to handle serious news. The public deserves better.
And if Orage Quarles doesn’t drop this dead weight, he’s doing everyone a disservice.
She is diabolical.
Just recall for a moment how she handled the Duke lacrosse coverage.
You don’t think Drescher, Barkin, Riley, and others are uncomfortable having to work alongside such an unprofessional hack who is also so openly bigoted?
September 16th, 2008 at 9:42 am
“Puff up your skinny chest”? Nice. Are your feelings hurt?
September 16th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Debrah - to your closing statement:
“You don’t think Drescher, Barkin, Riley, and others are uncomfortable having to work alongside such an unprofessional hack who is also so openly bigoted? ”
When all this started, I was shocked and angry that this level of unprofessionalism and bias was permitted at the N&O. I still believe there had to be an atmosphere that enabled it, so that is at the foot of the N&O and likely predates the people you’ve mentioned. However, I must admit I feel a bit of empathy towards the people like Drescher and Orage Quarles. If I were in their situation, I don’t know that I would behave differently. I’d be afraid any corrective action would result in a public firestorm which I might not survive (regardless of the truth). It would be miserable.
I’ve enjoyed reading Drescher’s columns in the N&O and believe he strives for fairness but also a hardcharging press corps. I’ve worked with Mr. Quarles on a charitable function and he was always tremendously nice to me (and I’m not someone he’d need to be polite to if he didn’t want to; i.e., I think he’s a genuinely good man). They cannot do anything because Mrs. Williams is likely to raise a huge embarrassing stink. So life goes on, uncomfortable and likely unproductive.
In the end, I agree with what others have said. We all have our views, political, religious, etc. You can take a hardline stance on controversial subjects, but you’ll win over more fencesitters if you make your case with respect and fairness. I don’t believe Ms. Williams subscribes to that theory.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:27 am
TO GF–
I like both John Drescher and Orage Quarles and believe that they are good men.
Both have always conducted themselves very professionally.
I disagree with you on what both men need to do.
They need to cleanse the staff of trouble like Williams.
Employees like this create ill will and cause readers to doubt all news coverage there.
No self-serving news hack like Williams has the power to do much of anything she is not allowed to do.
She has to go.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Let me add my votes to the Drescher & Quarles Admiration Society. I’ve always found both to be very fair and above board and professional. They are also both essentially middle managers in a corporate bureaucracy.
If this was still “Frank Daniels’ paper” he could do whatever he pleased however he pleased and often did. Orage answers to Sacramento. If he and/or John axed Linda Williams there would be hell to pay to ACLU and NAACP ….. at a time when McClatchy has survival issues far greater than a rogue middle manager with a hard-core racist rage.
Linda was a running buddy with Madame Sill and no doubt her personnel file is filled with plaudits from her like-minded cohort. For John to build a case against her would take years. Williams knows the race cards she is holding and how to play them.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Williams has already raised the huge embarrassing stink. The N&O should fire her.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:28 am
It’s hilarious the way some people live their lives.
LOL!
I noticed that recently the Rev. William Barber—(who, btw, kept libelous commentary he knew to be false on his obsolete website for months after Roy Cooper declared the lacrosse players INNOCENT)—pulled away from the table long enough to make comments about the Bizzell story.
An opportunity to jump on any bandwagon involving “race” is the only thing that will divert him from what he enjoys most.
September 16th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Check out J. Peder’s latest post:
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/zane/attacking-mccainpalin
A good, even handed offering.
It almost seems as though he presents this issue as a way to distance himself from the behavior of Williams.
March 5th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
[…] Update II: McClatchy Watch notes that the new unit will be led by Linda Williams, who got into quite a dust-up with a blogger last fall. […]