Thursday, May 21, 2009

My Morning Wooten - Special Tom Crawford Edition

You should read the whole thing, but this pretty much sums it up.
Wooten eventually moved up to the AJC editorial page as a columnist and for many years provided his conservative take on Georgia politics. Unlike Shipp, who raised hell with both parties as he continued to crank out his columns, Wooten became less of a journalist and more of a public relations spokesman for the Georgia Republican Party. You could always tell what the Republican Party considered to be its main talking points for the week, because they would inevitably be regurgitated in Jim's columns...Wooten's decision to become, in effect, a party flack was a sad loss for journalism, although I suppose it turned out to be a good arrangement for the GOP.
Ummmmmmmm.

I'd like the record to reflect that my picture postcard of Jim's impending retirement was much more in the tradition of the southern "everybody's gotta find something nice to say at a funeral" sort of thing.

Welcome to the game, Tom.

I may have to step things up a bit.

3 comments:

eightpercenter said...

Fact is Jim got lazy and found it easier to mail in the latest talking points for the GOP (think Phil Kent) rather than research a good story. In the old days he decried the one party system in Georgia as an evil that gave power to a few with no checks and balances. When the republicans took power he chaged his tune and ridiculed the dems for attempting to participate.
It appears Jim did little research and often got his facts wrong. He wrote in his blog that Brown vs Board of Ed. was case from AK.
Perhaps his replacement will be better. For sure, any change will be a step up.

Sara said...

Any time Jim Wooten ever tries to write about a court case or legal issue, he misses the mark by about a mile. The Brown v. Board mistake is, sadly, not surprising at all.

Kat said...

Ha ha. Wooten is our very own Bill Kristol.