• good On Mother’s Day, The Capital Newspaper, an Annapolis, Md. daily paper, ran a story about a lesbian couple raising children. A progressive move for the paper.
• bad Unfortunately for them, the comments were scathing. “You are not disenfranchised, except by virtue of your own insistent anomaly,” one comment read.
• worse Stunned by the reaction, the editor/publisher tried to apologize for the story (saying it didn’t reflect the community), only to have his staff kill his column. Wow. source

• » To put this simply: A good newspaper doesn’t back down from criticism when the reasons for publishing something are valid, even when the community has pitchforks out, ready to stab whomever it doesn’t like. That the editor tried to back off due to the reaction to the column is a bad sign. You need to respect your community by sometimes telling them things they aren’t always ready to hear. That couple is part of the community too. They deserve their story told just as much as anyone else who lives near Annapolis — no matter the comments. Shameful.

Posted by Ernie Smith • Permalink