News-Record.com

We interrupt this political blog to bring you a whiny, self-serving diatribe.

Over the course of the week, I receive my fair share of criticism from readers. In fact, here's a fairly recent example. More, more and plenty of other examples in our Letters archives.

Ninety-nine times out of 100, I shrug it off. It comes with the territory.

However, I lost my cool today. A caller - a well-known woman in town - called to inform me that my writing "smacks of sexism." My sin? I had suggested in this story that Yvonne Johnson weakness as mayor would be her lack of experience, and the difficulty balancing work and home lives. I would have never written that about a male mayor, she said.

Oh, no? From a story I wrote about outgoing Mayor Keith Holliday on July 1: "Holliday will leave office this December after eight years. When he announced his decision in April, he cited the demands of his banking job and family obligations."

Struggling to find that balance is something every mayor of Greensboro has had to do, male and female. The fact that anyone would consider my comment a dig at her gender floored me.

So I got incredibly defensive and let her know I was highly offended - a big no-no for a reporter trained to calmly accept the complainer's criticism. This woman, who has accomplished many things for women in Greensboro, has never even met me, much less gathered enough evidence to determine I'm sexist. If she knew me, she would know how wrong she is.

Oh, well. The next 99 people who lay into me get free passes. But not this one.