The Other G-Word

Already, the Paul O’Neill backlash has begun. How do I know? Even CNN is running a story headlined, “Just how bad were O’Neill’s gaffes?” Read from the story:

Long a source of fun and fury on Wall Street, former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill is back in the news for shooting his mouth off again.

But on some critical economic issues, some of O’Neill’s more infamous gaffes have come close to being justified — including his views on the U.S. dollar, steel tariffs and tax cuts.

The second graf is what I call the “Yes, but…” graf in journalism. It’s a brief — often only one sentence — effort to appear balanced, followed by juicy details backing up the lede. The rest of the story is a fufn recounting of exactly how O’Neill’s bad judgement cost him his job.

Check it out.