No, seriously. It does happen occasionally, and the particular circumstances are instructive.
The Kirkland Reporter, a weekly newspaper covering the suburb where I live, just published this explanation and informal apology.
Here's the lead paragraph:
Two weeks ago the Kirkland Reporter ran a column from Andrew Villeneuve in the editorial slot of the opinion page. Villeneuve is a regular columnist in our other papers, such as the Redmond Reporter. He is a Redmond High School graduate, so seeing his words in his hometown newspaper takes on more meaning for those to the east. We at the Kirkland Reporter do not publish Villeneuve's columns regularly, as his columns are usually very partisan and we do not have a conservative columnist to present the other side. We feel we have a good pulse on the Kirkland community and what our readers want. Our stance on this topic is not one that was known to the interim editor, who was in place during the first two weeks September. Both longtime editorial staff members were out of the office on maternity and paternity leave during that time.
Note, please, that the newspaper says it doesn't ordinarily publish such columns because they don't think their readers want hyper-partisan columns. They believe that such columns would be bad for their business, especially without balancing columns.
And that's interesting because so many news organizations seem determined to offend their conservative and moderate readers and viewers, who, after all, are in the majority nationally. If the Kirkland Reporter can figure that out, why can't, for example, the Seattle Times or NBC?
Cross posted at Jim Miller on Politics.
(Here's the Villeneuve column they were discussing.
PS - I hope both new babies are doing well.)
Posted by Jim Miller at September 23, 2012 03:11 PM | Email ThisHey Andy... do us a favor and provide the link here in the comments to the column you wrote trashing your fellow fringe-left nutters for THEIR efforts at trashing democracy with their bogus return of God and Israel to the DCC Platform vote.
What's that? Didn't write one? Hypocrites don't write fairly?
Nah. Didn't think so.
Posted by: Hinton on September 23, 2012 07:14 PM(And, of course, nothing is too trivial for Commisar Hinton to enforce the Party line, but we knew that already.)
Posted by: tensor on September 23, 2012 10:58 PMLeftists lack the ability to respond with truth, reason and/or ideas, and thus can only offer mindless ridicule.
It is sort of like their president attempting to defend his policies and record. He obviously can't, so he attacks Romney.
Posted by: Saltherring on September 24, 2012 07:27 AMThank you for continuing to call attention to the duplicity and outright dishonesty of the nauseating NW media.
Posted by: Saltherring on September 24, 2012 07:32 AMWasn't it George W. Bush who looked into Vladimir Putin's eyes and pronounced him to be his soulmate?
Can anyone point to anything in the article that is factually incorrect? You can't -- unless you lie -- which Republicans have no problem with.
Posted by: Herb Pease on September 24, 2012 12:30 PMSound Politics is now "moderate?"
wow!
Posted by: THE-Ave.US on September 24, 2012 03:24 PMWell, first I'd actually have to give a damn what he had to say. And I don't.
Posted by: jimg on September 24, 2012 10:09 PMPerhaps the most telling bit from this Kirkland Reporter story is that there must have been feed back from the subscriber base and, unlike the Times, the Kirkland Reporter is interested in keeping their subscribers.
Posted by: Burdabee on September 25, 2012 09:18 AMNews media trustworthiness is at an all time low. These are partisan cheerleaders, not serious reporters. And the commingling of editorials and reportage further complicates the matter. Both think they are the other.
Posted by: Jeff B. on September 25, 2012 09:25 AMThe problems with Leftists isn't the lack of brains. It's the lack of common sense.
Posted by: Jeff B. on September 25, 2012 01:18 PM"Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen."
Now add this, "Many of those who refuse, or are unable, to prove they are citizens will receive free insurance paid for by those who are forced to buy insurance because they are citizens."
Think about it when you vote in November !
Leftists lack knowledge of history, given their universal support for a political system (socialism) that has abjectly failed wherever implemented.
They also lack moral values, due to their support of infanticide and homosexual "marriage".
Leftists lack the ability to evaluate, in that they so easily adopt their media's talking points without verifying the authenticity of blatent and continual falsehoods.
They lack honesty, given their willingness to support totally flawed candidates and political positions while condemning opposing candidates and views for minor improprities.
Leftists lack the ability to reason, due to the fact they so willingly hand matters of regulatory authority over to the government.
They also lack integrity, in that they fully support a totally failed president while bashing his successor, a man whose record was quite good until confronted and compromised by a hard-left congress.
Leftists lack personal initiative, given they demand the government reward they and their comrades' laziness by appropriating and redistributing the labors of others.
And they lack fortitude in that they so willingly trade their constitutional liberties for government crumbs.
And there are oh so many more.
- due to their support of infanticide and homosexual "marriage". -- False
- in that they so easily adopt their media's talking points without verifying the authenticity of blatent and continual falsehoods. -- False
- given their willingness to support totally flawed candidates and political positions while condemning opposing candidates and views for minor improprities. -- False
- due to the fact they so willingly hand matters of regulatory authority over to the government. -- False
- they fully support a totally failed president while bashing his successor, a man whose record was quite good until confronted and compromised by a hard-left congress. False.
Every point that you've used to support your biases is a falsehood, and all but one of them are true of your side, not mine.
Posted by: herb pease on September 26, 2012 08:37 AMDo you have anything besides an empty reactionary response to put up ?
Posted by: KDS on September 26, 2012 08:57 AM"Low Information" voters like 23 is why we find ourselves stuck with the "leaders" we have now. I laughed when I read a recent Drudge story on noted "shock jock" Howard Stern, who recounted excerpts of on-street interviews his contemporaries conducted with self-described Obama supporters. What was "shocking" was the responders' total lack of awareness of what was going on around them. Some believed Romney was a Muslim, Obama a Mormon. Others believed Paul Ryan was black and the Democrat VP nominee. 23 seems a good fit with that crowd.
Posted by: Saltherring on September 26, 2012 09:19 AMYes, I do, but I'm not going to that sort of effort when all you are posting is your own benighted opinions with no facts of your own besides some anecdotal information collected by Howard Stern on the streets of New York.
It's transparent that you are taking our talking points against you and attempting to redirect them at us. But using the Drudge Report and Howard Stern as your information sources is hilarious.
Posted by: herb pease on September 26, 2012 10:00 AMYou appear to the average person as an ideological crank, not as a serious person.
Posted by: herb pease on September 26, 2012 10:39 AM@27 Don't feed the low information trolls.
Posted by: KDS on September 26, 2012 11:01 AMGood luck with your degree from Howard and Matt's University of Really True Stuff.
Posted by: herb pease on September 26, 2012 12:50 PMToo bad the latest polls by CBS/Quinnipiac and NBC/WSJ are throw aways - they oversampled Democrats by 10% and project a turnout like 2008 - not happening. What the public will have is an unrepresentative sample of the electorate on Nov 6th if this keeps up. Beware of the forthcoming backlash...
Posted by: KDS on September 26, 2012 04:20 PM