Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> Lawbeat

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Legal News

: Lawbeat

Voice mistreats a legal-reporting treasure

By Mark Obbie

ADVERTISEMENTS

When I first became interested in legal reporting, as a grad student at Missouri in 1980, Nat Hentoff's was one of the bylines I gravitated to. I came to admire his passion for civil liberties -- animated by reported fact, not just opinion derived from someone else's work. By then, Hentoff had been reporting and writing about civil liberties and the law at the Village Voice for 22 years -- all of my life, plus a year. He has continued with vigor and intelligence to add to that body of work. But, 28 years down the road, the news that the Voice has laid him off, at age 83, is not just a cruel and sad commentary on the newspaper business, as if we needed any others to close out this bleak year. It is also reveals a rank hypocrisy. Soon after New Times acquired the Voice three years ago, company executive editor Michael Lacey put the Voice's cantankerous, lefty staff on notice, as reported in the New York Observer:

“I want our writers to start reporting,” Mr. Lacey said. “One of the things that happened with the Internet and blogging is that it made simple punditry in newsprint irrelevant. It’s no longer timely.”(“Everything I do is reporting,” Voice columnist Nat Hentoff said by phone. “I have no patience for people who write off the top of their heads based on what other people have said.”)“I’m going to change the dynamic,” Mr. Lacey said. “It’s true for any paper we operate: We have a reputation for doing hard news. We call people up and get the information. We dig the records up. If people aren’t comfortable with that, they’ll have to find employment elsewhere."

At the time, I was cheered by the Lacey mandate, and proud of my legal-reporting hero Hentoff for mouthing off a bit while taking the side of reporting vs. punditry. And now he's been screwed by Lacey and company. My only hope is that Hentoff quickly finds a new home, to continue inspiring young journalists. Perhaps it will be as simple a home as a blog -- which is fine by me, so long as he keeps reporting.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on December 31, 2008 (boomark / email).