Dept. of Corrections: The Story Behind the Jenny Lee Story
The Washington City Paper's Dept. of Media looks at Jenny 8-Gate and discovers a real scandal: Contrary to the claims of the original New York Sun article, New York Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee is not anything like the late Washington Post heiress Katharine Graham. And here we were getting all upset about the insidiousness of an Ivy-League stranglehold on journalism! You know, the author of the piece was an editor at the Harvard Crimson with Lee, the editor who assigned the piece was an editor at the Crimson who used to be roommates with a former Crimson staffer who's quoted in the piece, more than half of the people quoted in the piece used to work at the Crimson. . . Whatevs, right? Let's get on with defending the legacy of Katharine Graham.
According to the City Paper's Erik Wemple, the Sun's reporter completely ignored Graham's brave stand against the pressmen's strike and her courageous struggle to earn the respect of her employees at the Post. Rather, the "Graham-Lee parallel [is] based entirely on the fact that Lee is always playing the hostess." How dare the Sun compare the two! And Wemple snags a real journalism "gotcha" by getting the author of the Sun's Lee article to admit she had not even read Graham's autobiography. No wonder she is "hard-pressed. . . to expand the Lee comparison."
That's what's so great about having an alternative paper in town. They can really prick the self-importance of the town's dominant media empire. (Did Wemple go to Harvard? We're just curious.)
Dept. of Media (second item) [Washington City Paper]
Meet D.C.’s Hostess of the Mostest [NY Sun]
We Just Hope They Look Better Naked Than Samuelson Does
5678_who_do_we_appreciate_jenny_lee_012651.php">5,6,7,8, Who Do We Appreciate? Jenny Lee! [Wonkette]
The Hostess with the Mostest Raggedy-Ass PJs [Wonkette]
The Magic Jenny 8. Ball [Wonkette]