Your energy is a luxury item — especially in the news business
A couple months into my role as a columnist for the Tampa Bay Times, at the height of the pandemic, I wrote a piece that poked at the governor of Florida. Until then, I’d taken a lighter approach, positioning myself as a relatable everywoman who could find humor in dark times.
On the Sunday the column ran, I was escaping lockdown on a bike ride with my family. During a water break, I reached for my phone in what felt like a disembodied act. I opened my work email to a contingent of nastiness, readers telling me to stay in my place and not start with politics.
“What’s wrong?” my husband said. Good question. What was wrong? It was not what I had written, which I stood by, and which was my job. It’s not that people reacted to it — they had every right.
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The Times and its critics | Washington Post mortem