The Shepherd Express has lost one of their columnists, Dave Berkman, over a dispute over one of his columns. Charlie Sykes has a bit on his site, and Berkman's column is here. This follows the departure of Doug Hissom from the Milwaukee Eastside weekly.I'm not going to pretend I have any love for Berkman. I confess that if he were about to step in front of a moving bus, by the time I struggled with my Christian conscience* he'd be a chalk outline in the road. That said, I wonder how many more "credible" people the Shepherd Express has to lose before they become just another classified ad shopper. At the same time, I wonder how long Berkman will be a fixture of the public radio airwaves.
If it was the quality of the column that so offended Fortis that he decided not to run it, I gotta ask, why now? Surely there were worse columns. If it was the race question and Fortis was embarrassed because the Shepherd Express supposedly does not have any minorities working or writing for it, doesn't Joel McNally count?
Casper of Ask Me Later also comments on Berkman's departure, and talks about Casper's time as a an employee of the Shepherd Express.
Update! Mike Mathias at Pundit Nation takes a look at the Shepherd Express to say he's not sorry to see Dave Berkman go, and to express what a disappointment the Shepherd Express has been over the years.
I'm waiting for Michael Horne to weigh in, since I stopped reading the Shepherd Express on a regular basis when he left.
What's really interesting to me about the changes at the Shepherd Express is where the most interesting commentary is coming from: blogs, a talk radio website, and a community organization website. Today's alternative media.
Update 2! Here's Rick Esenberg's take on the Berkman controversy. And here's what Michael Horne wrote when Doug Hissom was let go in April.
*note to self: remember bad thought about Berkman in Confession. "He always wanted to go by mass transit."
