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I just read an article by Mary Ann Akers, a blogger for Washington Post. She wrote the following:

It seems Mitt Romney, who’s been working hard of late to establish his pro-gun bona fides, is the only major presidential candidate whose campaign web site does not prominently feature the candidate’s reaction to the Virginia Tech massacre. Others have made the incident front and center on their web sites.

Take, for example, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. The very first thing you see on his site is a standalone message that begins: “On this day of national tragedy, when we lost some of our finest to a senseless act, we stand together as a country to mourn those who lost their lives.”

Similarly, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Democratic candidates and Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) all have conspicuous messages of grief, sympathy and outrage on their sites. (Granted, McCain, who also is seeking the support of the gun rights lobby in the 2008 election, only has a link to a statement. Still, it’s visible on the home page.) As does former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.). In all cases, their reactions to the school shootings appear on the home pages of their web sites - the first page a viewer sees on any particular site.

While Romney did release a statement late Monday afternoon reacting to the mass shootings, it was not included on his campaign site’s home page. One would have to search to find the former Massachusetts governor’s statement under “press releases” in the “news” section of his site.

“The entire nation grieves for the victims of this terrible tragedy that took place today on the campus of Virginia Tech,” Romney said in his statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and the entire Virginia Tech community.”

Romney campaign spokesman Kevin Madden tells the Sleuth that the campaign made a deliberate decision to refrain from appearing to politicize the tragedy. And he points out the campaign sent the statement far and wide to reporters covering the presidential campaign.

“We wanted be careful that our statement wasn’t viewed as politicizing this tragedy,” Madden says. “So, we deferred to the president’s remarks to the nation before sending a statement to a wide distribution list of reporters and posting it on our website.” (Read the whole blog here)

I was so mad when I read this blog, I actually wrote the Washington Post and asked for Mary Ann to be fired. No, I’m not kidding, I actually did that (I told you I was mad.)

Now, you’ve got to understand: I didn’t do that because she bashed Mitt. She can bash Mitt all she wants. She’s a political blogger - I’m fairly sure that’s her job. No, I’m not upset that she said something bad about Mitt, but I am thoroughly pissed off that she would take this trivial matter of where a news press release is placed on a website, and write about it as if that is the only important portion of this story. Who cares that people have died needlessly - Mitt Romney put a press release on the wrong part of his site! That kind of journalism is what has given the American press a black eye.

So I did some searching on the Post’s website, and found this page, where I could give them feedback. I selected the “Site Suggestions” option as to why I was writing, and then I wrote the following:

My site suggestion? Fire Mary Ann Akers. I just read her latest blog and I am absolutely disgusted by it. How dare she take this tragedy and make it all about how Mitt Romney did not put something on the front page of his website???? When something of this magnitude happens in America, we are supposed to draw closer together, but instead this…woman is snarky and nasty because a politician decides not to politicize the event. That is so low, and so hurtful to the people who have had to deal with this tragedy, that I cannot believe that you even allowed her to post this blog.

The harping on where a news release is placed on a website has belittled the pain that the families have had to live through, and have made this nothing more than a soapbox for a snarky, ill-mannered woman. I cannot imagine what the people who are right now trying valiantly to live through this and trying to figure out how to go on with their lives have got to feel about this column. All I can hope for is that they are blessedly ignorant of Mary Ann.

If you have any pride in producing a newspaper that is truthful and a beacon to others on how a newspaper ought to be run, then you need to fire Mary Ann. Today.

Hava Lyon

I submitted my comment, and the website said, “Thank you for submitting your question or comment. We will reply to you as soon as we’ve researched your question.”

Great, write me back when she’s fired.

Hava
Who is still mad…

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