Cleaning up that mess in The Spokesman Review

When you sneeze, you should cover your mouth – it’s because germs spread scattershot when people sneeze or cough. But what do you do when someone sneezes or coughs directly on you?  All you can do is clean up the best you can and hope nothing sticks.

It’s a similar phenomenon when someone puts smears and attacks in print. Generally, the scattershot attacks are reserved for blogs or ideologically driven sites – in my experience, newspapers usually demand columns address specific news, policy or events.  And personal attacks are frowned on.  But recently a column emerged that left WPC in the position of being victim to a printed sneeze – a scattershot attack prescribing false motivations, hateful intentions, and distortions that we must do our best to wipe off and clean up to avoid having any of the offending matter stick.