Smear by any name is still a smear

The guilty flee. For what other reason would The Augusta Chronicle inform its readers, stupid though they may be, that articles besmirching Bernard Mulherin were not "an attack on a judge" ("A case in point," Dec. 20). Rather, the newspaper was simply performing its noble role as a watchdog for the unwitting taxpayers. Articles maligning a local judge really do not help to sell newspapers.

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Poor Sandy Hodson. She must snoop for news every day. Since no news is good news, she loiters in the gutter looking for bad news. The bigger the mess, the better the bad news. No doubt Ms. Hodson did not initiate her own investigation of the method of pay for senior judges. Rather, I suspect that someone sent Ms. Hodson off on a witch hunt against Judge Mulherin, and the method of pay for senior judges was the weapon of choice.

The more interesting story is, whose minion was Ms. Hodson? What was the motive to tarnish the character of Judge Mulherin, a good and decent man? The Chronicle, as the self-appointed, self- proclaimed moral standard-bearer, should tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Richard Dunstan

Augusta

--From the Monday, January 3, 2005 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle