The fly in the ointment is that WW sat on the Goldschmidt story too --for years-- singing their praises for him all the while. It was only after Goldschmidt left public office and popped up as the face of Texas Power Group's play to take over PGE (which WW opposed, being advocates for public ownership of the utility) that they ran the story.

The Jack Webb model might not be the best example of how to disseminate the facts. But, I'd prefer it to a news story, under an interns byline, that was full of the writers personal opinions.

Joseph Pulitzer's famous dictum about newspapers was that "Newspapers should have no friends."

The longer you think about that the better you realize it is.

So if WW got Goldschmidt to resign (eventually), did it help get Randy Leonard elected with the little milkshake bicycle stunt?

I'm not much a supporter of advocacy or activist journalism. His "inspiration" will probably encourage a few kids to try to be public crusaders. It's actually much harder to learn to be good journalist.

A little bit of advice given me during my weekly days: weekly newspaper writers and editors should always marry child pornographers and meth dealers. This way, their kids are guaranteed one parent they can look up to.