I am appalled at your apparent lack of journalistic backbone. I would never have believed you would succumb to the pressures of your readers by pulling the lurid and suggestive photographic display you ran prior to February 12, 2003 revealing Meaghan's symbolic sexual fantasies with a beer bottle.
After reading the February 17th web page entry about "Dr. E's lecture on the clitoris and the scathing editorial commentary you provided, I have come to the following observations and conclusion:
I find it hard to believe that Citizen D, who displayed such macho bravado through his threat to "[find] out who it was that complained so I can make his or her life a living hell" would apologize for, and "sanitize" the aforesaid Meaghan entry.
Evidently an unknown student complained to the medical department head about the good doctor's clitoral comments for which Dr. E issued a verbal apology to the class.
Does the depth of Citizen D's "sensationalism" style of journalism abruptly stop when a friend pleads to remove the incriminating pictures so mumsy won't see them? Does Citizen D find some sort of latent bravery awakened if the complaintant is unknown and a stranger?
Would a true journalist retract a whole web page filled with photographs taken in a public forum (the pictures looked as if they were taken at some sleazy sports bar) and issue a snivelling apology because of threats from a state governmental body and an impending lawsuit?
What if Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward had accepted their friend Ron Zeigler's (Nixon's press secretary) famous "third-rate burglary" explanation because anything more incriminating would upset the president and cause threats from the Federal government and lawsuits? Would there have ever been a Watergate scandal?
What if Ernie Pyle had taken a plush desk job during World War II because some bureaucrat didn't want him in the foxholes with the common everyday grunt? Would the American public have had the same horror-filled journalistic accounts their husbands, sons, and boyfriends faced every day? Would you rather Pyle had replaced his blood and guts coverage with script exerpts and still shots from some John Wayne B war movie?
As Mr. Myagi might have said to Daniel, Ahh, young Grasshopper, one must not sugarcoat and sanitize that which is true.
One would do well to heed that which Shakespeare wrote in "Hamlet":
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
P.S. The picture of Meag you used to replace the original entry makes her look nekkid. Aren't you afraid you might be sued for that, too?
Uncle Jack
This is your faithful webmaster and badass mother, and I am going to reply to this piece of hate mail like I said I would. Sorry it has taken me so long.
First let me say that any and all good points that were made in the body of your message were all rendered null by the your postscript when you chose to use the word "nekkid." This makes you sound like a dirty honkey and we can debate the valididity of that at another time. Quoting Shakespeare and following with "nekkid" is not a move that I would recommend you use in your journalistic future. I am sure that The Wall Street Journal would not have put up with that when you worked there, and I will not either.
So now I will defend my "journalistic backbone." Let me make the distinction between the two people you refer to. Meaghan (Splatz) is and has been my friend for about 5 years now, the person in my class is unknown to me; a mystery cloaked in his or her own stupidity. And yet there is more. Throughout my short 22 years on this earth, I have found that it is not a good idea to piss off your friends.....especially the really hot ones. This is where the true distinction comes in. Meaghan is a looker and thus she gets whatever she wants. I know that you have never seen a girl that hot doing any such fellatio activities, on you or on beer bottles. So you should be appreciative of the things that I put up for you to gaze at.
If I were to find out that the person in my class who complained about the lecture was a good-looking girl, then she would be immediately forgiven. If on the other hand I was to find out that it was someone I hated in my class (and trust me there are plenty of those), then I would take a crap in their backpack while they were in anatomy lab and put my pubes in their coffee mug. See, I hold no sympathy or compassion for those that I hate, so just hope that you don't end up on that list.
The "suit" that I was referring to on the picture retraction page was of course false. Meaghan knows that I kick way too much ass to ever do anything like that. And as far as the pictures being taken in a public forum, she was not doing it so everyone, such as dirty old men like yourself, could see, she was instead doing it for the delight of her friends.
As for the historical references in your letter, you can just leave that crap out and I am not even going to respond to that. No one my age knows or even cares about any of those people because they did nothing important to our existance. The only people who obsess about history are those old farts who love to reminisce about the things that the people of their generation did because they think that it made a lasting difference on history (that they could not themselves makes), when in reality it only made a difference to the people of that time. Joey Ramone and Joe Strummer made more of an impact on our generation than Ernie Pyle and Carl Bernstein, whoever the hell those dudes were. The ironic part is that even though all four of those people have expired (except for Carl, but he should be), the Joe's left a lasting record (excuse the pun) of their existence, whil Carl and Ernie will most likely only be blessed with nothing more than a paragraph in a musty history book somewhere.
I would like to quote Mr. Strummer from the song London Calling as he sums up my agrument quite nicely: "All that phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust."
Hope this explanation is to your satisfaction.....and yes, I know, I am a "little shit."
--Citizen D