Capitol Hill Blue's The Rant: An apology to our readers

Capitol Hill Blue's The Rant: An apology to our readers

An apology to our readers
By DOUG THOMPSON
Apr 15, 2006, 16:49
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In recent days, I have penned some angry columns -- over the top even for me. I also asked some friends who are writers, editors and journalism professors to review the archives of Capitol Hill Blue to see if any columns or articles didn't meet what they consider to be acceptable standards of journalism.

Their first report came in today and they found a number of recent Rants that they felt crossed the line or, in their opinion, were written when Amy and I were preoccupied with the declining health and approaching death of our brain-damaged kitten, Loki.

Upon review, I agree with them, and have removed several columns from our archives. In additon, some others will be edited.

Much of what they felt went beyond the bounds of acceptable journalism involved several recent columns.

Amy and I have spent the last six months trying to save Loki and I was unaware of the toll the battle was taking on my psyche, particularly in recent weeks.

The deleted columns include three on 9-11 and two on President Bush. The links remain active but the columns have been replaced with a noticed that the content has been deleted from our archives. It doesn't matter, at this point, if I believed what I wrote or not. What matters is the way I wrote it. Truth is not served by off-the-cuff rants and I have been striking out in anger at many people in recent days because of grief and that is not right. I misdirected the anger and frustration I felt over our inability to save a pet. That is not right.

My apologies to our readers. Journalism requires logic and a clear head. I have not had one for a while and it was bad form for me to try and write while trying unsuccessfully to deal with grief.

We put our kitten to sleep Wednesday but we have not yet stopped mourning the loss.

I'm taking a break until we have put Loki's death behind us. When that is done I will revisit the topics I wrote about before and, hopefully, write about them in a more coherent and reasoned way.