MELTDOWN AT THE WASHINGTON TIMES….Via Sullivan, we get a fascinating inside report from George Archibald on the latest newsroom meltdown from Washington Times editor-in-chief Francis Coombs. Along the way there’s also this:
The day before, there was a brief discussion on the foreign desk about a pending series by religion writer Julia Duin on the abortion of girls in India….In the discussion with colleagues on The Washington Times foreign desk, [foreign desk editor David Jones] said: “The reason we are running this story is that Coombs thinks all the aborted girls means that Indian men will be immigrating to the United States to marry our girls.” That is an exact quote, what Jones told his colleagues on the foreign desk.
Coombs has told me and others repeatedly that he favors abortion because he sees it as a way to eliminate black and other minority babies.
Charming. Archibald, a longtime Washington Times reporter who left the paper a few years ago, also passes along news of Coombs confronting a reporter “bug-eyed, sneering, shouting, waving his fist, spittle flecks flying.” He then asks, “Has the man become unhinged and lost his marbles? Will he have to be carried out in a straight-jacket?”
Sounds like it. At the same time, my impression from the passage above is that Coombs’ views on abortion and black babies have been held for a long time. Doesn’t seem to have hurt his career at the Times, though.
