I also offer an apology to Debrah — I am sorry my posting was so personally troubling that you deemed it necessary to disrupt your social gathering to deal with it.

how longwinded your posts are…..even as you attack me for posting in the same fashion.

I am not sure at what point you inferred I have some disdain for the length of your posts. I have no problem with the length. Actually, I have no problem with your opinion (other than the name calling and personal attacks). I only suggested that you limit your posts to when you have an actual opinion that offers some intelligent perspective. As far as my own longwindedness, I was attempting to respond to all of the matters you brought forth. Since it bothers you, I will try to practice some brevity.

That’s how some editorial page editors work it to elevate their personal agendas.

Conspiracy theorist

They printed a letter from a man in Durham who also chastised Nichol, but it was a cheesy letter and much less eloquent.

So, in your view, it would have been better to stifle the thoughts and words of the man from Durham because you believe his intellect is subjacent to your own? That’s very “BOTH SIDES and ALL SIDES” of you. Everyone is entitled to their opinion unless “Debrah,” the self styled “Diva” declares their intellect suspect.

The difference in these two letters and why one was used and the other one, not, speaks for itself.

Perhaps in your warped version of reality. His letter raises similar concerns in about half the space. Your point “As… a fervent supporter of all forms of expression in the public arena, I do not need someone like Gene Nichol instructing me…” is a little contradictory don’t you think? You welcome all forms of expression except Mr. Nichol’s (and apparently those of one Mr. Goode, Jr.). How can you be so tolerant and intolerant at the same time?

and didn’t live in Nichol’s world.

I can only conclude this statement exists to imply your experience and achievements are in parity with Mr. Nichol. I looked at that mess you call a website and cannot find any reference to any biographical information that provides any basis for this. However, extending the benefit of doubt, the argument itself (aside from directly maligning Mr. Goode, Jr. who I assume you don’t know) is elitist, pompous, arrogant and just not very nice. Where does one find the “Good will?”

as you reveal you are a family man with children.

I should let this one go but that character flaw has it’s elbow in my ribcage. This is a PERFECT example of you reading something into my statements that is not even there. Where did I state that I have children?

It might interest you to know that back in the ’90s a man from McClatchy…

Actually, it doesn’t interest me but thanks anyway. I’m not much for pissing matches but let’s just say I don’t require any education on McClatchy or the history of the paper.

I feel that I was a tiny bit responsible for the very liberal McClatchy to have even considered coming to the Triangle and buying the N&O.

Of course you do. Doesn’t the whole world revolve around Debrah — the center of the universe?

I would ask you to please refrain from giving me or anyone advice on how to conduct our business.

Fair enough. Perhaps you should do likewise.

After this reply, I’m finished with this exchange.

While I find that doubtful, I did notice Dan’s last few entries have been in want of any commentary from “The Diva.” Perhaps you are practicing some restraint? I look forward to your next intelligent posting. I will assume that comes following your personal and degrading attack on me.

In the spirit of Terrell Pryor, how about the way gas prices have dropped, huh?

And I see Oprah’s topped 200 pounds again. In her defense, she’s big-boned and I expect food is a substitute for something missing in her life. C’mon Steadman, get off the schnied man! Lady O needs some lovin’!

And she still looks pretty good - must be the aura of money and power that seeps from her every pore.

I have no quarrel with “mr. question” and “cranky old guy” - I’m just speaking up for a one-of-a-kind contributor to WAW. Where-the-hell-else can a plodder such as myself go for an injection of French in his everyday banter?

She’s providing a freaking public service.

And ascribe nobility to my post at your own risk.

After this reply, I’m finished with this exchange. I do hope that you will begin to accept and deal with the fact that other people have opinions…..and that they will express them.

And there’s not much you will be able to do about that.

I’ve always had good will toward those who run the N&O. I adore John Drescher and am glad that such an evenhanded person is now the paper’s editor.

The editorial page editors are another story. Personally, I don’t have anything against them. Why should I? I don’t know them.

My issue is how they conduct themselves on the job and how that affects the readership’s right to get the whole picture.

Wheeler is a b!tch, pure and simple. Typical rural woman with a sweet surface demeanor who is actually a vengeful simpleton who uses her job to get back at her betters.

I once told her that Joe Neff—who is an excellent reporter—saved the N&O during the horrific Duke Lacrosse Hoax. The editorial staff sat on their hands, editorially speaking, and allowed every Far Left op-ed contributor to run the show with libel and innuendo…..long before there was any evidence of guilt.

That put gasoline on the Hoax and none of them ever uttered one word of regret or apology.

I had been trying to give them a chance to redeem themselves and refrain from such one-sided coverage; however, it was not to be.

Good will has been my goal. I can be as charming as anyone you will ever meet…….however…….

…….I will not be played and treated unfairly by those who, IMHO, don’t have the goods to polish my shoes on their best day.

*****************************************

Here is a copy of my letter in question:

“As an N&O subscriber and reader, I strongly request that you find commentary from a new, fresh, and more inclusive range of local contributors on the opinion page.

Debrah

*******************************************

A copy of the letter from a man in Durham which was printed:

“Can anyone find out what’s in the Kool-Aid at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill that attracts radical lefties to their professorships? At least Duke has shipped its laughable law professor to the West Coast, but UNC continues to humor Gene Nichol, who says, probably with a straight face, in an Oct. 5 Point of View article that “a vote for McCain is a vote … to place the presidency above the rule of law.” What irresponsible nonsense!
Any rational North Carolinian, regardless of political affiliation, should be appalled that our hard-earned money pays this College of William & Mary reject’s salary.”

C.J. Goode Jr.
Durham
*******************************************

The difference in these two letters and why one was used and the other one, not, speaks for itself.

Oh well, I see that you’re continuing this issue, so I will reply; however, this time with a comprehensive view provided.

Last evening a few friends stopped by briefly for a holiday exchange and I asked one of these people who is an attorney by profession to take a look at some of your comments to me……just to get an objective critique from a guy who couldn’t care less about this issue, but is very analytical by nature.

His first comment was how longwinded your posts are…..even as you attack me for posting in the same fashion.

He was struck by your obsession with me and the N&O…..even as you say you have no real connection to the paper.

He echoed my thoughts as I read how long you’ve been keeping up with the “Debrah posts” and how long you have been bothered by them.

And now, to have saved up all that anger and to emerge by attempting to muzzle someone’s comments.

He called you a “chickensh!t”—(his word, not mine!!) for posting these things under a pseudonym to disguise yourself…..as you reveal you are a family man with children.

He wondered aloud if this kind of shielded cowardice is how you raise your children.

Good points. I agree!

This guy is a Harvard Law School alumnus and is also, as luck would have it, quite the Liberal…..so he doesn’t come to his critique with a hostile ideology.

He was disappointed that you seem to want to close down another commenter simply because YOU don’t like what’s being said. The “poll” you mentioned was particularly odious in his way of looking at “argument” or “debate” of any kind.

This was my first thought about you as well as I read your comment. You exude what is almost a caricature of the “sleazy fascist Liberal” who can’t or won’t tolerate any opinion different from his own. A very insular individual who trips over himself as he contradicts himself.

If you go away understanding nothing else from these exchanges which have resulted from your unprovoked attacks on me, know that this issue goes WAY beyond one mere letter-to-the-editor.

I’m not some little disgruntled person writing letters to chastise for no reason. I have a long history of freelance writing as a hobby and have had numerous critiques of praise from those who do it for a living.

Not printing my letter complaining about Nichol had nothing to do with anything but their disagreement with it and not wishing to have someone clearly detail this man’s questionable history.

They printed a letter from a man in Durham who also chastised Nichol, but it was a cheesy letter and much less eloquent. By using his letter—which was full of “acid”—they, and Nichol, could just toss it off and say the man was “anti-intellectual and not well-educated” and didn’t live in Nichol’s world.

That’s how some editorial page editors work it to elevate their personal agendas.

It might interest you to know that back in the ’90s a man from McClatchy—a company who bought the N&O—in California contacted me because he was riveted by a column I had written which was in the N&O at that time. He wanted to meet with me when he came to the Triangle.

You see, during that time McClatchy was “casing the place” for new acquisitions, no doubt, and after reading my op-ed, felt the Triangle would be an interesting market.

I gave the man’s letter to a local politician and referred the McClatchy guy to him for further information about the area, etc…..

So, you see, you know absolutely nothing about the background of this matter; however, I will assure you that “Debrah” has no trouble getting things published when others are not working with their biases and their personal agendas.

I would ask you to please refrain from giving me or anyone advice on how to conduct our business.

In a funny kind of way, I feel that I was a tiny bit responsible for the very liberal McClatchy to have even considered coming to the Triangle and buying the N&O.

Ha!

I will print my letter and the letter from the man in Durham for your benefit….so that you might finally comprehend that writing on a blog is different from writing an op-ed or a letter for the editorial pages.

I posted to the day old topic because, fortunately for me, I was too busy to read the posting on the day it was originally authored. I don’t live and breath to force every single thought that crosses my mind upon others.

I will admit that I have personally come into contact with all the people who make up the Editorial staff at the N&O in a professional capacity, and certainly have a much deeper understanding and appreciation for what it takes to put out a newspaper than anyone who has “… never sought a job with a newspaper.” I can assure you that I have no personal stake, or interest in the success or failure of the N&O (or any other paper for that matter) other than I enjoy reading newspapers every day. I will also admit that I am not, and never have been, a journalist.

It would be fun—and I believe profitable for any news outlet—to have someone like me do a column with an edge. Pop culture, politics, and the arts….all rolled into one.

It’s comforting to know that some people can derive soooo much pleasure from themselves. If I ever find myself at a point in my life when my wife, family and those who care about me, all suddenly decide they hate me, I can just pursue a relationship with myself. I never realized it was possible for someone to fall in love with themselves so completely. I would like to take a poll on this site (which is totally free) to see what percentage would choose to suppress your postings if the option was available. If you truly believe you could author a column so compelling, that it would bring profits to “any news outlet” that carried it, why do you need them? Publish it yourself and reap your own fortunes. Please invest your total net worth (and whatever you can borrow) in this venture.

My intention was not to “defend” the paper. I was only pointing out that all submissions to a print publication CANNOT be included because the costs would be prohibitive. Some things must be discarded. The job, like most in the journalism profession, is not an easy one and I personally doubt that you could do any better (actually, having been subjected to your rantings for months now I have ZERO doubt that you don’t possess the ability to be objective but I was being kind). If the letter you sent was filled with the acid and personal attacks you posted here, it should come as no surprise to anyone that it was cut. Your version of “the truth” is only one side of the story in every case you present. There is more “truth” that you personally choose to ignore or take issue with.

I do not offer any defense for the paper’s coverage (my post was not even about coverage) of the Duke Lacrosse case and whether “innocent men could have been sent to prison for 30 years.” But, if you truly were a fair minded person, you would also concede that they eventually did discover their original error and much of what was investigated and reported by the N&O and other media outlets helped unravel the claims of a crooked prosecutor. It could also be argued that the N&O can take credit for freeing multiple, wrongly convicted people who actually spent real time in prison for crimes they never committed. I don’t think anyone (including everyone employed by the N&O) would not concede that they made some mistakes in their early coverage of the Duke story (actually, I believe they admitted as much in print). It must be nice to never have had a single error in judgment and never said or written anything you later regretted.

AND, my point was not about coverage in the paper, it was ONLY about the letters that get published in the opinion section. Go back and read those printed throughout the Duke mess and I think you would find letters supporting all sides of the scandal from every conceivable angle.

You can now proceed with your personal and degrading attacks on me. You really don’t need my name for that.

Lastly…

… I’ve tried to be civil to you in the past…”

When was that? I’ve not noticed much civility in the postings you’ve made here.

Dear man, you are hopelessly provincial.

FYI, I have never sought a job with a newspaper.

I try to be more creative than that.

I have enjoyed writing many guest columns in the past when the mood struck.

It would be fun—and I believe profitable for any news outlet—to have someone like me do a column with an edge. Pop culture, politics, and the arts….all rolled into one.

I’ve tried to be civil to you in the past; however, as I’ve mentioned, your ilk is far too provincial and morbidly predictable to have very much interesting to say.

Consequently, harassing women is about all that’s left for you and ‘ol Mr. Question, eh?

I am comforted to know that you will never be “editorial editor” of a real newspaper (psst, it is “editorial page editor”). Not today, not tomorrow, not for a thousand years. You see, no “editorial editor” has such authority. The editorial page is the institutional voice of the company. Only one person has the final authority to make such decisions and that is the publisher. He or she may delegate, but the authority and the responsibility rest in the hands of one person.

But I am not surprised that you would make such an overweening demand. One look at your puffed up on line persona is proof that you would never take advice.

But I will offer it anyway: put on some clothes. You look foolish.