On his Chron.com blog, reader representative James T. Campbell recounts the serious discussions that have taken place down at 801 Texas Avenue relative to the newspaper’s use of the term “fart” in a headline on the editorial pages.
The Chief Editorial LiveJournalist James Howard Gibbons was apparently away, which may have contributed to the breakdown. Veronica Bucio, who once embarrassed herself and the newspaper by calling the U.S. Attorney General a liar, seems to have made the call to go with the stinky term, although she seems also to have consulted Leftover Specialist Andrea Georgsson and David Langworthy.
The reader representative does not indicate whether he was consulted before the headline was chosen, although he does express displeasure with it. More importantly, Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen didn’t like it.
That begs the question — why didn’t someone think to ask Cohen his opinion before the headline was chosen. He is the editor after all.
But the weather has been really nice. It’s entirely possible he was out on the links, with cell phone turned off. That’s one of the perks of being the top dog at a newspaper with a spot on the fifth row in the White House press briefing room, we suppose.
