Rosemary Armao, the Managing Editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, quit this week (it seems she would have been fired otherwise) after she expressed her personal opinion of Katherine Harris, among other things, in an email to a reader:
- AP story.
- Howard Kurtz's take.
- An explanation of how Armao's candor compromised the credibility of the paper from Janet Weaver, its exec editor, published in today's edition.
I worked at this paper for eight years. Armao came after I had left. She appears to have enjoyed the respect of the staff for her honesty, journalistic vigor, and candor. She and I had one brief email exchange months ago, and I was struck by her frankness and openness to criticism.
It seems a great loss to force someone of this caliber out for having chosen to be forthright in a personal email to a reader. I'm thinking about this because it does bear on the vexing matter of candor and openness in institutions vs. individuals, journalists vs. blogfolk, etc. And because it goes to the matter of ''credibility'' as it is invoked and used like a credit card by American media.
And I cannot help wondering that Katherine Harris, that popinjay piece of Republican mascara, had to be part of the precipitative cause of the jettisoning of Armao.
I'm interested in others' thoughts while I'm taking this in. Feel free to share yours here.
