Getting Libby With It

If you take a stroll on the streets near Washington Post headquarters, you’ll notice that there’s a lot of graffiti that reads, “Libby Copeland Writes Lies.” As if journalists weren’t already under attack, now they have to worry about their name being spraypainted somewhere if an article displeases someone (and each article is bound to always displease someone). Libby writes for the Post’s Style section and is one of the paper’s rising stars (Harry Jaffe once put her on a list of the Post’s up-and-comers).

We haven’t heard who exactly is behind the graffiti slander, but there can be little doubt that it’s somehow connected to her piece on the infamous graffiti artist “Borf.”

But is it Borf himself? Doubful. Copeland kept her promise to Borf–a.k.a. John Tsombikos–that she wouldn’t reveal his identity until after he was caught red-handed, so he must be appreciative of that. Copeland got plenty of flak for that by the way–a very Judy Miller-like protection of those doing wrong, albeit minus the whole war thing. And her article painted Borf in a more favorable light than many people thought he deserved.

So whodunit? Who knows. Either way, this will be a sad turn of events if readers skip the ombudsman and turn to the spraypaint instead.

(Click on the image for a larger version)

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