First up, the link to an interview done with Richman via email over at Appetites.us and then a sip from the last answer to the last question in the interview:
What Are Your Specific Comments about Brett Anderson's article in The Times-Picayune?
I think by now you understand enough about me to know I'm pretty immune to negative comments. I ordinarily wouldn't care what's said about me in The Times-Picayune, a third-rate newspaper that rose to the occasion after Katrina and has subsequently returned to being a third-rate newspaper. But the article hit me hard, not simply because it was unethical and hypocritical but also because it was a written by a person I had considered a colleague. He didn't attack my story. He attacked me. I don't care how tough you are, and I'm pretty tough journalistically, that hurts.
THIRD RATE!!! THIRD RATE! excuse me, but before Katrina was even a light wind off the African coast the Times Picayune was anything, but third rate. Before I explain let me tell you about my background, or specifically my father's background (I am very proud of him for many reasons, and although he may have caused my English teachers to have higher expectations for me than I deserved he is very important here.). My father has worked for the Picayune since 1984. He has been associated with three separate series of articles that were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize (pre Katrina)(1992 finalist, Explanatory Journalism)(1999 finalist, National Reporting)(1997 winner, Public Service). In 1997 he and a group of writers from the Picayune won a Pulitzer Prize at the same time that Walt Handelsman (now at Newsday, then our editorial cartoonist) won a Pulitzer Prize. This Picayune is not only a Pulitzer Prize winning paper from a major market (pre-Katrina New Orleans was in the top fifty population-wise cities in the USA, 1.5 million in the greater New Orleans area), but also a historic newspaper that has been in the real news work before GQ was even a rag in a toilet at a bar in New York much less before you started criticizing stuff you're not even good enough to write about at a real news publication. This Picayune has also won numerous other awards over its almost 170 years (established 1837) and is sure to win many more in the future. Richman on the other, will be lucky to work anywhere other than the glorified Men's Vogue magazine (same level as Maxim in my mind) in the future...
Argh! Anyway, this rant not affiliated with the Times Picayune in any way, shape or form. The opinions above are meant as my own and don't necessarily reflect the views of my dad, Walt Handelsman, or anyone who works for the Picayune. Also this was written as a scream and with much haste and anger.
via Romenesko
Again, Richman, you are an idiot and a bunch of other words that are not appropriate for this space.
edit: typos, see I told you I'm not the writer, just a blogger...
1. Thank you for this. I lived in New York all of my adult life until 3 years ago and, though I loved the city and found much that resonated with my New Orleans upbringing and values, I was always unduly unraveled by the arrogance there. Only a New York or LA based writer would assume that if he doesn't know about something, that thing is not important or not meaningful or basically that the error is on the part of the unknown thing, not the part of the uninformed writer. Richman's piece was crazy making and his defense of it only added to steam coming out of my ears. Even in his defense, he implies that what he doesn't know is irrelevant because he wrote what he BELIEVED and that is how we should understand the truth. AAArgh. By the way, always loved and still love your dad's work and apprecieate your blog.
Posted at 11:46AM on Nov 14th 2006 by debbie rubenstein