Everyone deserves a second chance. Right?
In the summer of 2012, Joe Williams left Politico under precarious circumstances. He had spouted off on Twitter – a no-no in certain newsrooms. He also went on TV and said that ex-presidential hopeful Mitt Romney was more at ease around white people and that Politico was a “shitburger” of a publication in terms of diversity and race.
Amid all that, he had a few domestic issues with his ex-wife Amy Alexander, formerly with the Chronicle of Higher Education. (Yes, she was fired, too.) After canning him, Politico allowed Williams to stay on without filing in order to find a new job – a kind gesture considering the child support payments.
Now Williams has a new job and it’s working for Jimmy Williams, an MSNBC contributor and opinion writer for U.S. News & World Report, who recently founded a progressive news site called Blue Nation Review. The left-leaning site isn’t all painfully serious – with Jimmy Williams at the helm it would be hard for the day to not include at least a couple off color jokes. To this end, there is “Ass Cactus of the Month” – not a pleasant award – Joe the Plumber has won for being a “dick head” as has Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who appears in a picture that depicts her as a serious space cadet. There are also cat videos and a woman singing a beautiful lullaby to an elephant.
“Joe Williams’ personal life has very much been in the public realm,” said his new boss Jimmy Williams in a comment to The Mirror. “As a southern progressive Christian, I absolutely believe he deserves a second chance. He’s a good father to his kids, a damn good writer and reporter and I’m glad to add him to our newsroom.”
Apart from Politico, where he was a White House correspondent, his former journalistic stomping grounds include Boston Globe‘s Washington bureau, the Star Tribune in Minnesota, The Miami Herald and the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Joe Williams writes the more hard news fare. His latest pieces include senators of all political stripes coming together to fix bridges and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in legal hot water.
No doubt he’ll try to tackle that “shitburger” of diversity he said he saw at Politico.
Correction: The Mirror previously wrote that Joe Williams’ latest batch of stories included pieces on South Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor, a new black, gay federal judge and the Redskins name debacle. Those pieces were actually written by Jimmy Williams. The above has been changed to reflect what Joe Williams actually wrote. Can we have a name change here please? This could turn into quite the clusterf–k of bylines.