Stolen Goods

Tom Scocca: You are familiar with the “Free for All” page of the Saturday Washington Post?
Choire Sicha: Ha, vaguely.
Tom Scocca: In which serious complaints about the paper are mixed willy-nilly with letters from cranks, in a great condescending gesture of false responsiveness?
Choire Sicha: Indeed.
Tom Scocca: So they got three letters about Haiti coverage-one rebuking them for calling a rescue “something like a miracle” rather than “a miracle,” one criticizing them for hunting up someone to defend Rush Limbaugh’s comments, and one, at the top, saying it is unfair to call people in Haiti looters.
Tom Scocca: “These people are scavengers doing important and dangerous work to feed their struggling community, not pillaging looters. Put yourself in their shoes before you label them.”
Choire Sicha: Uh oh.
Tom Scocca: Accompanied by a photo and caption: “Scavengers scramble away Tuesday with goods stolen from a building that collapsed in Port-au-Prince.”
Choire Sicha: Hoo boy.
Tom Scocca: It’s nice to see that amid all the sloppy and incompetent handling of copy that the Free for All page has been permitting readers to note, week after week (“2 SE men found fatally shot by police”), someone at the understaffed paper had time to carefully compose a photo caption to be as insulting as possible to the letter-writer and to the Haitian earthquake victims.
Choire Sicha: Man.
Tom Scocca: What did Don Graham say? “If you want to join Mr. Sherman and judge the Post, I suggest you read this morning’s paper-and tomorrow’s, and the day after’s.”
Tom Scocca: OK, Mr. Graham! I’m judging!