Marc Geelhoed -- "ex"-journalist -- journalistic hero

Our dear friend Marc Geelhoed, first classical musical and opera critic/editor at Time Out Chicago and now manager of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's record label, CSO Resound, writes here for himself and under his own name on his own excellent weblog, Deceptively Simple, all that needs to be said about the Chicago Tribune's abdication of any claims to human decency, civility, and journalistic standards, let alone excellence, in sponsoring, posting, and publicizing 171 most almost entirely anonymous comments -- most of them ludicrous and nasty and a number of them libelous -- on its recent Sunday Magazine story on Chicago-based violinist Rachel Barton Pine 13 years after her horrific and disabling train accident.

It is must reading for anyone who still thinks that journalism, publishing, and broadcasting are moral enterprises and vocations whose practitioners should behave in a thoughtful, intelligent, and ethical manner.

[Robert Niles, editor of the USC Annenberg School's Online Journalism Review and, as it happens, proprietor of the "online community" Violinist.com, also posted a rather prolix essay here with important observations on this case and issue buried inside.]