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Topic: Miscellaneous items
Date/Time: 9/22/2006 4:41:21 PM
Title: Washington Times editors react to Nation piece
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
From: [Washington Times editor-in-chief Wesley Pruden]
To: [Washington Times staff]
Subject: Staff Memo

STAFF:

You may be interested to know that my annual contract has been "rolled over" for the 12th consecutive year. I am not going anywhere, nor is Fran Coombs. Some of you may be surprised to learn that I am mortal, and one day I, too, will go to the great newsroom in the sky where there are no deadlines, no unreturned telephone calls, and no editors to breathe down the necks of reporters on deadline. So, yes, one day I, too, will retire. But not yet.

I have been asked to serve on a search committee for my successor, at a date in the future when such a search will become necessary. This will assure an orderly transition. I will tell you when this day comes (which may or may not be in your lifetimes).

The Internet makes fantasizing easy and tempting, but you need not be concerned about church politics, the speculations of addled idle minds that would be more usefully employed at Alcoholics Anonymous, or whether Martin Walker, Howell Raines or even Max Blumenthal will succeed me. (Put your money on None of the Above.) The owners of The Times are pleased with what we have built here on New York Avenue, a newspaper of worldwide consequence that the founders could never have imagined. They have told me so. People who spread rumors and talk to rumormongers just have too much time on their hands, and should, in their retirement, get another hobby. Macrame is said to soothe.

.....

September 21, 2006

From: fcoombs@washingtontimes.com
Subject: [Letter to The Nation]

To the editor:

George Archibald, a former employee of The Washington Times, is virtually the only named source in Max Blumenthal's article, Hell of a Times. He also is clearly the overall architect of the piece.

Mr. Archibald resigned under pressure from The Times last August. In a series of e-mails beginning Oct. 25 and in a meeting in my office between Christmas and New Year’s Day, he pleaded to come back but was not rehired for well-documented reasons that he is thoroughly aware of. Since then Mr. Archibald has engaged in an increasingly vicious and fictitious cyber-campaign against The Washington Times and me in particular. Mr. Blumenthal was aware of Mr. Archibald’s employment history at The Times but chose not to mention it in his article.

Every situation involving me described by Mr. Archibald is a fabrication.

Every quotation attributed to me by Mr. Archibald is false and repugnant.

The newsroom described by Mr. Blumenthal in his article with Mr. Archibald's help is a fiction.

In addition, Mr. Blumenthal's smear of my wife Marian, who has absolutely nothing to do with the editorial direction of The Washington Times, is beneath contempt. It is fascinating to note that in his article Mr. Blumenthal chose to delete this portion of my wife’s e-mail to Mr. Archibald: "Your charges are untrue or, at best, wildly distorted out of all proportion – and you KNOW they are."

But then this article is not about Marian, me or Editor in Chief Wesley Pruden. It is a desperate effort to undercut the fine work of the hundreds of men and women who have made The Washington Times one of the most powerful newspapers in America and the rest of the world.

Please do not regard my failure to mention other portions of the article as an acknowledgement of their veracity. In the interest of brevity, I am merely citing a few key examples to illustrate the overall mendacity of Mr. Blumenthal’s piece.

Sincerely yours,

Francis B. Coombs, Jr.
Managing Editor
The Washington Times

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