I settled for the triumph of not being called a nazi in the first email reply.

The third obituary, whose tone was obviously disdainful of the deceased, was written about a conservative Republican.

No surprises there, eh?

And the revelation that Time Magazine actively employs communist spies and enemies of the United States is no surprise, either.

Kevin, I applaud your effort to contact the writer of the two obituaries ST listed. You have far more self control than I in this case. Had I gotten her sneering (”Mr. …um, Kevin”???) and condescending reply back, I afraid I would have launched into a full scale email battle with her. She wrote that the Post’s obituaries of public people strive to “reflect their public life, accomplishments and warts included.” Hey lady, how ’bout this WART on Mr. Pham Xuan An – He was a COMMUNIST SPY dedicated to providing information to our enemy to help them KILL AMERICAN SOLDIERS. If you ask me, that’s like having a golf ball sized mole in the middle of his forehead!! But the way Ms. …um, Sullivan wrote it, he was practically doing the United States a service. It certainly wasn’t presented as a ‘wart’.

Having a brother who is a top editor with the Gannett newspaper empire, I know the attitudes of these people, and like nothing better to engage their snotty little noses with some full-on conservative head butting. Trust me, they don’t take to that very well, as they HATE to have their liberal opinions challenged by ‘common’ folk like us. Most of them are too used to having a one-way dialogue, i.e. ‘we write – you read’, and their liberal spoutings are reinforced by the back-slapping from their newspaper bretheren.

By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 4:46 PM

Some of the VC spy’s “accompishments” no doubt led to American soldiers being killed.

Mr. … um, Kevin,

Thank you for your note. I’m sorry you disliked the article, but The Washington Post covers the death of prominent people, such as members of Congress or people who have been in the news, as news stories and we strive to reflect their public life, accomplishments and warts included. I would refer you to the obit of R.W. “Johnny” Apple that is currently on our web site, written by a colleague of mine. Our news obituaries are not intended to be memorials or remembrances, but news articles as rigorous in standard as we bring to coverage of Capitol Hill and the White House.

(link mine)

I’m unsure what the Johnny Appleseed story has to do with anything, but she appeared quite cordial, despite my suggesting that fair and balanced news is ‘the law’. I still don’t appreciate her praising the ‘Viet-Cong spy’ and deriding the ‘arch-conservative’, but it’s nice to know that not all liberals are shallow and pedantic (or else she would have called me on my ‘law’ comment). I hope she learns to paint a person’s life with a less political brush in the future.

I just read your obituaries for Pham Xuan An and Helen Chenoweth-Hage. Viet-Cong spy good, arch-conservative bad. Got it. Just a head’s up, but if you are an ultra-liberal, you are supposed to attempt to hide that fact, not openly display it in your articles.

It’s some kind of law I think. Have a nice day!

Yeah, I’ve got nothing to do today I was going to call her a radical, but I didn’t want to sound offensive.

Another woman took the exact position: The chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. (Wonder how her obit will read?)

Remember: Conservatives are “extreme.” Liberals are “passionate.”