Great Tirade Battle is a war of words

Dallas Morning News | Sherry Jacobson:

"This mayor is as tenacious now as she was as a reporter. And she can keep a fight alive for weeks or months, even if it's just a single word that has offended her. I know because the word we're fighting about now is 'tirade.' And we've entered the second month of The Great Tirade Battle."

How to explain this behavior? Mayor Laura Miller must believe that intimidating reporters leads to more favorable press coverage. But sometimes, like in this case, the intimidation backfires. The unfavorable publicity this one story will generate will outweigh any number of favorable pieces Ms. Jacobson might publish in the coming months. Worse, if Ms. Jacobson is influenced at all, it might lead to more critical pieces to avoid any appearance of having been intimidated in the first place.

Ms. Miller is an old pro in journalism. She must know this. So, how should we account for her taking offense at having her tirade be called a tirade? Perhaps her fighting with reporters is not so much calculated intimidation as it is plain old character flaw. Petulance. Now, there's a word to fight over.