Jon, I agree that a reprimand was more in order than a firing, and the editor should demanded a rewrite or spiked it. And Chris Coletta admits he should have done a better job of scrutinizing it.
I’m glad to see that Jillian Bandes is somewhat repentant about her tone and about offending those she quoted (and says she respected), but she’s still holding to her stance that she committed no journalistic transgression. She did.
You’re right, it’s too bad that this has blown up into a free speech issue rather than a bad writing/editing lesson.
