To some of you, the name Hiawatha Bray might sound familiar. He’s a technology columnist for the Boston Globe who challenged Newspaper Guild president and Eason-Jordanesque conspiracy theorist Linda Foley by denouncing her remark and running for a union delegate seat in the Guild’s last election. Foley was re-elected, but for standing up and making the point that newspaper journalists should not be represented by people who believe that the U.S. military targets reporters for death, Bray is an all-star. He wrote in to challenge the notion that “To More Inmates, Life Term Means Dying Behind Bars” was the dumbest NY Times headline ever:

Granted, I’m biased… I work for the Boston Globe. But what’s dumb about the Times headline about life sentences? Everybody knows that the term “life sentence” used to be darn near meaningless. The Times is reporting on the fact that this has changed, and that lots of these guys are in for the duration. That strikes me as news worth reporting on.

Fair enough. I agree that the story was pretty interesting. But I stand by the statement that the headline was dumb. There had to be a better way to put it. “Parole Less Likely for Lifers” would have been mine.

UPDATE: I deleted part of Bray’s letter from this post. Mr. Bray, not realizing that I would publish his note, went on to make a political observation that he’d rather not make public. I’ve agreed to his request that I delete that part of his message.

Please note that all e-mail is subject to print, including your name. If you don’t want me to publish your e-mail, or if you would like to remain anonymous, please let me know.

CORRECTION: I incorrectly wrote that Mr. Bray challenged Ms. Foley for the Newspaper Guild presidency. As he pointed out, “I just ran for a union delegate seat, in hopes of generating a massive groundswell of protest against Foley’s comment.” I have corrected the error in the post.