Say Anything Blog

That’s about the gist of the Fargo Forum opinion editor’s latest Sunday column.  If you thought his previous “you’d better stay out of my face while I’m sipping wine” defense of red-faced, girl-hitting loudmouth Ed Schultz, get a load of this one entitled “Must we respect stupid readers?”

That’s quite a statement coming from someone who works in a medium that is hemorrhaging readers.  And from a guy who was just grousing about the “coarseness” of public discourse just a few weeks ago.  But really, you’ve got to see the portrait of the guy that lines up right next to the headline:

Now, granted, the communications Zaleski describes in his column sound rather nasty, but no worse than anything those of us engaged in public commentary on current events get on a routine basis.  I got far worse in my inbox (up to and including death threats) after one of Zaleski’s colleagues at the Grand Forks Herald called me a “backhanded bigot.”  It’s the way the world works, unfortunately.  There are mean, hateful, unintelligent people all over (including among the ranks of the newspaper industry).  It’s hard to imagine that Zaleski is just waking up to this now.

I’m going to go a step further than simply accusing Zaleski of faux naivete, though, and say that I don’t think he got the calls he’s claiming.  I think he made it up.  I flat-out don’t believe him.  They’re just too convenient, too pat, to be believed.  I think Zaleski wanted to launch an attack on critics of the Fargo Forum so he fashioned some wacko phone calls as a strawman to then ruthlessly attack in his column.

But I’m just not buying it.