Virginia Paper Drops Columnist Malkin

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http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000724900

By E&P Staff

Published: November 22, 2004 3:00 PM ET

NEW YORK On daily newspapers' opinion pages, columnists come and go. But the dumping of an increasingly popular conservative at the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., got more of a public airing than usual.

The newspaper's public editor, Marvin Lake, announced in a column responding to a reader's complaint about editorial balance at the paper that Michelle Malkin, who had been added to give "another voice to the conservatives," had been dropped as a columnist because she was "too stridently anti-liberal."

Lake explained that "readers often took issue with her seemingly mean-spirited rantings and suggested that she be dropped. Well, she’s outta here, silenced for being 'too stridently anti-liberal,' the assessment of the editorial board."

Editorial writer Don Luzzatto told Lake: “I was really put off by her penchant for name-calling and ad hominem attack. I think we can do much better.”