“This is not in any way your fault as I???m sure you know or have a sense of, but mine. Could you allow this to just pass, and not do the piece? I would be so grateful.”
That was part of an email Peggy Noonan, the Clinton-hating WSJ columnist and one-time Ronald Reagan speechwriter, sent to Women’s Wear Daily reporter Jacob Bernstein, who was writing a profile about her — one in which she cooperated. That was until all the question asking was done, and she had a change of heart about the whole thing: “Please don???t be mad at me. I don???t mean to show disrespect for your time, or for you. You are a doll. I have to admit to second thoughts, none of which are connected to you.”
Noonan’s request that Bernstein kill the profile, sent four weeks after their meeting, of course, was not honored, made evident by the fact that not only did the article — which hinted at a possible job offer from the NYT’s op-ed page – run, but it lead with, uh, Noonan’s postmortem email plea.
CONTINUED »