In these days of instantaneous news cycles, a news media that literally needs to be fed every minute, and Internet blogs, lashing out at someone who isn’t a supporter by making a joke about his race DOES does have political consequences.
And it’s especially damaging when you and your staff do the political macarena for days trying to find an explanation that is best accepted — rather than simply admitting you made a terrible mistake, asking for forgiveness and moving on.
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, writes a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.