Bill Keller, Bully

March 7, 2014:  Lisa Adams has finally lost her gallant struggle with cancer.  See below for my reporting one year ago when Bill Keller and wife went after her. 

Thursday UPDATE:  Lengthy explanation by a top editor at  The Guardian on why he took down the Emma Keller piece, and her response.  Must-reading. 

Wednesday UPDATE:  The NYT carries several letters, including one from Lisa Adams' brother, roasting Keller.  On Twitter she says she is pleased.

Tuesday UPDATE:   Not much new overnight.  Just a lot more coverage from news outlets and bloggers.  Guardian "investigation" continues.   Wash Post here.   Wired here.   Digby here.

And don't miss Meghan O'Rourke at The New Yorker, probing why some of the Kellers' points were very good but their overall tone very bad.  "While many of the questions addressed in each column could have led to a worthwhile discussion, their approaches were ad hominem and, at best, insensitive to the lived realities of Adams’s life. She may be allowing us to overhear her decisions, but she is not asking us to callously debate them as if she were not still here."

UPDATE #4:  The NYT posts a news story tonight on The Guardian deleting Emma Keller's column--and gets new comments from her husband on his own horrid Times piece.  B. Keller continues to defend his piece, blaming criticism on "political correctness" and citing "perverse" complaints about his wife's opus.   The Times reporter, in citing complaint about killing Guardian column, seems unaware that likely reason was not stifling opinion but E. Keller's unethical use of quotes from patient Adams. 

UPDATE #3: As I suggested below (and fully expected a positive response) the NYT's fine public ed. has now weighed in, breaking her usual policy of not commenting on the views expressed in opinion columns by critiquing Keller.  She also asked for and got Keller's response to the wide criticism of what he wrote (as in his replies to criticism of his war hawk views he is largely dismissive) and the fact that his wife had taken up the subject just a bit earlier.  Keller claims critics "misread" or "missed the point" of the column when the reality is we have recognized what he's getting at all too easily.  Right down to the therapy dogs.

And as Sullivan writes:  "Mr. Keller’s views here fall within what journalists would call 'fair comment' only to the extent that they are based on facts."  His column suggests Keller "didn’t make a full effort to understand the point of view of the person he’s writing about."

UPDATE #2:  Intrigue? Now The Guardian says the E. Keller piece was pulled "pending investigation." Wonder if the Kellers protested...

UPDATE:  The Guardian just deleted the offensive Emma Keller piece that kicked this off, saying it is (now judged) "inconsistent" with their "editorial code."  It's cached here.  Your move, Bill--and NYT public ed. Margaret Sullivan.

Earlier:  Bill Keller, the now-laughable NYT columnist who, as executive editor defended Judy Miller and mocked critics of the Times' Iraq WMD coverage (and, learning nothing, recentlh called for bombing Syria and aiding the al-Qaeda rebels), now hits a cancer victim when she's down--after Bill's wife Emma Keller did the same over at The Guardian).  Basic message, between the lines:  Just die, woman, though with dignity.  Papa Bill knows best.  Much more from me on this at The Nation.

For now:  follow @Xeni (that would be Jardin), quoted by B. Keller out-of-context, she sahs.  The woman in question, Lisa Adams @adamslisa points out errors of fact and other issues.  And Ruben Bolling tweets:  "Bill Keller is against women fighting cancer, unless anonymous Bush administration sources say Cancer has WMDs -- then: TO WAR!"  Sidelight: New York magazine profile of Bill Keller mentions Emma.