BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Thursday, May 20, 2004
WE POST, YOU DECIDE. Lowell
Sun assistant editorial-page editor Ann Frantz
writes:
Hey, Dan!
Any writer knows it's a snap to
extract a sentence and use it out of context for effect - as you
did with my column, which does not apologize for that photo, but
supports it.
I try to recognize the
motivations that prompt people on different sides of an issue and
address them, maybe even change a mind or two. I don't screech
like a banshee at them....
GOOD journalists don't alter
content to give themselves something for their own juicy column,
just media hacks.
Wishy-washy? Here's something
that you, with your simple black-and-white head, can understand:
Up yours.
And thanks for reading! Didn't
know you actually did much of that.
Ann Frantz
Hey, Ann! As you know, I posted a
link to your entire column so that Media Log readers could decide for
themselves what you were up to. I also did not say, suggest, or even
hint that you "apologize[d]" for the photo. [See
clarification below.] Uh, GOOD journalists don't put words in
other people's mouths.
posted at 11:28 AM |
3 comments
|
link
3 Comments:
This is very interesting, Dan. It woke me up enough to comment even though I had been complaining how tired I was and my fiancee (two e's!) made fun of me for being addicted to Media Log.
One thing I don't understand is why in the world a professional journalist like Ann Frantz would send such a comment in writing to a man whose job is blogging about the news. Did she not stop to think that you would inevitably publish her ungracious and immature reply?
A second thing that strikes me is, I've always wondered if those people who are "wishy-washy" (her word) on gay marriage are as dumb as they seem. Now I know (at least in Frantz's case).
Thirdly, though I, too, try to see all sides of every issue, I don't have any patience with people who regard a picture of those two angelic-looking guys kissing (and I know what they looked like because I was there) as "too memorable," "in your face," "confrontive" [sic?], and something that possibly "we don't condone." I can see what Frantz is trying to do. But in her eagerness to understand the people who don't understand the photo, she's on the wrong side of history--"thank you very much."
Secret Agent Cathy
Just for the record, I posted Frantz's e-mail only after getting her permission.
Secret Agent Cathy: You made a mistake by putting "professional journalist" and "Ann Frantz" in the same sentence. If you knew her, this makes perfect sense...
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
