…when they go to someone who you disagree with politically and they’re scared out of their minds? Read this.
QUESTION: Is it going to take a major catastrophe for some folks to see how bitter, venal partisanship which continues to go into areas far behind debate over issues into personal hatred is taking this country down a path Democrats and Republicans would not have dreamed it could ever realistically reach? The Post item that’s quoted would have been axed from any publication I had worked for or contributed to in a second. And they say BLOGS need editors??
Yes, the person who this article is about has given some strong commentaries. But I don’t think I’ve heard him issue death threats.
PS: Independent voters read something like this and begin to think, “Now which side scares me the most so who should I vote against?”
UPDATE: Editor & Publisher was also not amused…
TMV NOTE: As someone who worked on newspapers and in the media and who knows what responsible and irresponsible journalistic behavior is I have moved this post UP — and will be adding a NEW UPDATE of weblog opinion. You will note that this is being CONDEMNED now by most writers on the left and right.
MORE BLOG OPINION FROM SITES OF VARYING VIEWPOINTS (these are excerpts so please read entire posts):
—Ed Morrissey:
I don’t know what Froelich was thinking when she wrote this piece. Olbermann has surely slammed the Post on a number of occasions, perhaps even in personal ways. That doesn’t excuse Froelich from belittling someone who had good cause to be frightened, especially considering the level of animosity he provokes. The anthrax attacks in 2001 went to media offices, something Froelich fails to mention in her schoolground rant.
Being partisan is one thing. Being inhuman is something else entirely.
What they are is terrorism, American right wing terrorism. For that is what the person who sent this letter intended: to terrorize a critic of President Bush. I hope New York law enforcement officials are taking this seriously, and that they track down this criminal and arrest him or her. Because the next time Keith or some other critic of Republican misrule receives such a letter, it might not prove to be so harmless.
It is not funny when any citizen of the United States receives a terrorist threat. It is approrpiate and indeed smart for the recipients of envelopes full of white powder to call 911. The New York Post –itself a victim of an anthrax attack– knows this, but because of its distaste for Keith Olbermann mocks the MSNBC talker for reacting appropriately when an envelope of white powder was delivered to his home.
The Post owes Olbermann an apology, and it needs a new Page Six staff –again.
It really takes a lot of gall for the NY Post to obnoxiously ridicule Keith Olberman for calling the police when some asshole sent some white powder to his house with a note that said it was in response to his commentary against the president. The NY Post was one of the places that the original anthrax killer hit in 2001 — and their own employees got sick.
What in the hell is wrong with these people? Jesus.
The more I think about it, the more displeased I am with Page Six. Ok, so you guys don’t like Olbermann. Fine. But to make merriment of and to take glee in writing up this story (a lollipop?) shows just how classless Page Six is. A crime was committed here. A threat upon Olbermann’s life was made. And you treat it like a joke? Grow up…
—Americablog:”So the New York Post’s official policy is that it’s funny when people send alleged Anthrax, along with implied death threats, to reporters at their private home addresses? I wouldn’t want to be a New York Post reporter checking my mail if this is the kind of thing the boss finds funny.”
—The Political Pit Bull:
As much as “my ilk” and I can’t stand Olbermann and his self-righteous B.S., this is totally screwed-up. Hopefully the Feds will find the douche that did this and deal him or her the proper punishment. In the meantime, get ready for another “Special Comment”; I’m betting Olbermann uses this incident to paint all GWB supporters as terrorists.
These are the people who want to give George W. Bush the authority to round up everyone who disagrees with him and brand them as enemy combatants, then throw them in a prison for the rest of their lives without charges and without trial. They want to do this, ostensibly, because they are afraid of terrorists. Yet if someone makes a terroristic threat against a news personality who disagrees with the president, suddenly it’s a joke.
Um… lol? The people who craft Page Six aren’t the ones who dip their pens in blood to write the paper’s editorials, but maybe they should meet up and explain how this “terrorist threat” stuff really is a big joke. Patch in Bill O’Reilly on that call; he thinks al Qaeda is out to kill him, but News Corp’s flagship TV host has, as yet, gone un-lampooned by News Corp’s flagship newspaper.
—Macsmind:
Now if this is true, it’s not funny, even if Olbermann is a worthless muckracker, playing the “Anthraxâ€? joke isn’t funny or appropriate. But it is real funny to see his leftist buddies come to his defense and bash Rupert Murdoch. Note uber leftist Editor and Publisher lecturing us on “Journalistic Manners…
….Note to Capt Ed, Hugh Hewitt, and others, don’t get too far out on this story until it’s verified.
Yeah, what a nut for wanting to get checked out at a hospital. Do you think the Rupert Murdoch-owned Post would be quite so sassy if it were one of the hosts of a show at the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News that received a threatening letter with faux-anthrax? Something tells me if it were Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity who’d gone through this scare, we wouldn’t be hearing about lollipops, but musing about how the dirty liberal traitors in this country were becoming terrorists.
Yo, Hillary—do you think you can stop gallivanting at fundraisers with Rupert Murdoch now?
Hate the man all you like for his acid anti-Bush punditry, but terrorist-style death threats to any fellow citizen are not what we normal folks giggle about, and are not regarded as ridicule fodder by decent and civilized human beings. The proper response when one learns that an ideological opponent has been subjected to something this sick — if a response is felt necessary — is to repudiate co-ideologues who make recourse to such vile tactics…
…You know, I really cannot wait until I encounter the next conservative idiot who makes reference to the mean, “Angry Left.” There are now so many examples of right-wing grotesqueries, they ought to be ashamed to spew such nonsense.
And all you righties at the Post: way to go in helping the FBI combat terrorism!
There is absolutely no way at this point to make a judgment as to who sent this. It could be a partisan on either side of the political divide. One to scare Olberman, the other to make false accusations about the other side trying to scare Olberman. It could be a jerkoff with a sick sense of humor. Whoever it is, I sincerely hope he or she gets caught and sent to prison for a long, long time.
Olberman may be a jerk, but he still has a right to say what he wants without someone trying to terrorize him. Or without the NY Post making fun of him for being frightened by this. These are both very bad moves.
I don’t kow about anyone else, but I highly disapprove of sending threatening mail with white powder in it to ANYONE. Even to Bill O’Schmucko.
But apparently the New York Post thinks it’s damn funny that Keith Olbermann received such a letter, appropriately called the authorities, and asked to be formally checked out by a physician. Wow, what a laugh-riot.
—Orcinus:
Just in case the folks at the Post have forgotten, what they’re describing here — sending threatening letters through the mail — is a federal crime. Not only that, but fake-anthrax letters are widely recognized to be a form of terrorism, since they clearly “piggyback” off of the still-unsolved anthrax attacks of 2001.
It’s bad enough for some sick bastard to send Lefty looney toon Keith Olberman an envelope filled with white powder. I hope that creature is soon arrested. To make things worse the NY Post’s gossip section, Page Six, mocked Olberman for calling 911 for help… I wonder what employees of the Post would do if they were sent such a threatening piece of mail. Wait, we already know because it happened five years ago..
THE BOTTOM LINE is that the New York Post as an institution that is a newspaper (regardless of what its political stance may be in columns and in editorial pages)needs to take some action or it really can’t be taken seriously as a news source anymore.
Why? Because at the very least, this incident shows it has woefully inattentive, standardless editors.
The Post should:
- Issue a short statement saying it does not take terrorist threats against anyone of any party or group lightly.
- Immediately transfer the person who wrote it to another assignment. For instance, obits.
- Immediately transfer the line editor who let it into the paper to another assignment. For instance, copy desk. Night shift.
Even in a highly politicized election year, at the beginning of century where it seems as if polarization and accusatory and mean-spirited discussion is on the ascent, not the descent, the Post has to choose between being the kind of newspaper reflecting even laid-back standards of journalism or a newspaper having the kinds of standards the most standard-less blog on the Internet (that was linked by almost no one except as a flash-in-the-pan due to its outrageousness)might have…or not have.
If terrorism is a national issue, then those who threaten it need to be found and dealt with by the legal system. And those who receive threats aren’t jokes because they report it or fear it.
Olbermann’s commentary responding to the Post piece is HERE.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.