SJ.com's favorite Southern editor retires

I know she was a board favorite a year or so back, so I present this piece of news with hopes that it isn't a DB.

Huntsville (Ala.) Times editor Melinda Gorham retires. Publisher Robert Ludwig (256/532-4271; bob.ludwig@htimes.com) adds editor to his responsibilities.

 

Was mentioned in passing on the Huntsville job opening thread.

Apparently she is ill, battling chronic fatigue syndrome. Not glad about that. Otherwise ... someone else can finish the sentence.

 

Throwing one's sports writers under the bus with absurd 1A editorials tends to make a person tired all the time, I guess.

Maybe someday I will share with the board the SCATHING e-mail I wrote said "editor" in the immediate aftermath. Suffice to say, in my eyes it was a bridge worth torching.

rb

 

I, for one, would like to read that memo.

Reminds me of the Akron guy, name escapes me, who wrote a blistering email to Tony Ridder some years back. It was a classic.

Oh yeah, Mark Schlueb was his name. Now writes for the Orlando Sentinel.

 

I like the editorial the editor of the Tuscaloosa News wrote after it. Torched her but good.

 

Was this the dunce who wrote a column ripping her writer for not voting Auburn No. 1?

 

Yes.

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:laSXsse9TVwJ:apse.dallasnews.com/news/2004/121004gorham.html+%22Melinda+Gorham%22+mean-spirited&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us

 

Good riddance... What a total douche...

 

OK, here it is ...

12-8-04

Ms. Gorham,

I feel compelled to write this morning because I am personally and professionally insulted by your 1A column in today's Huntsville Times.

First, please know that I am only an acquaintance of (name redacted), seeing him at various sporting events and sharing a cordial word. He does not know I am writing, and I would prefer that this note not find itself into publication in your newspaper.

(Name redacted) is one of the most respected sports journalists in the state, so much so that he was deservedly chosen to participate in this year's Associated Press college football poll. His opinions are valid, well thought-out and his analysis is often consistent with the analysis of others in his field. His competency, in my opinion, is not in question.

Why did you, as you wrote in your 1A column today, question (name redacted's) vote? You wrote today that (name redacted) "explained his rationale to me a few days before Sunday's final vote". Why did you feel the need to ask, especially because in the previous paragraph you write that "[T]he vote is made by the individual, not by a consensus of the sports or newsroom staff"? Do you not trust him? Do you think, in your analysis of the college football season, his vote was off base? Either way, I found the next few lines the most insensitive, though, when you point out that you "told him I stood behind his obligation to vote his beliefs on the matter".

At what point between that conversation did you stop standing behind (name redacted) and consider publicly criticizing him and apologizing on your paper's behalf for his subsequent opinion? Was it after you read it Monday morning, or was it after you began hearing backlash from Auburn fans threatening to contact advertisers because they were upset with (name redacted's) opinion and vote?

I have read (name redacted's) column from beginning to end now about 10 times, nine times after sending him a quick e-mail Monday morning encouraging him to feel good about both standing up for his opinions, not waffling under intense pressure, and explaining it in a humorous, insightful way to your readers. The focal point of your column was the insinuation that (name redacted), as a representative of your newspaper, doesn't care about the readers of the Huntsville Times. I find the word "care" appearing just once in (name redacted's) column, in the third-to-last paragraph when he says he doesn't care whether or not people support his opinion of Auburn's final standing in the AP poll. While I certainly can understand that you could disagree with (name redacted's) column to the point you felt a 1A rebuttal/apology was necessary, going over the top in the first two paragraphs and stating -- in essence -- that neither you or the paper stand behind (name redacted), and more to the point, hold him out to public ridicule, is wrong and shameful.

Your piece this morning twisting that phrase to ostensibly coddle Auburn supporters who either buy your newspaper or support it via advertising is, again, both personally and professionally insulting. If I were (name redacted), I would be stung to the quick, not from your ill-conceived rebuke, but rather from the knowledge that he works for an organization that allows this kind of reaction out of fear rather than courage and public flogging.

(Name redacted) broke no laws, no moral constructs, no journalism ethics that I believe in. (Name redacted) both voted his conscience and spoke his mind, the latter at the direction of his executive editor. This morning, he was made a laughingstock and a journalistic non-factor to readers of the Huntsville Times by the very person who asked him to offer his opinion in the first place -- you.

(rb)

 

Did you ever receive a reply, rb?

 

No. I was a little surprised, to be honest.

rb