Darn liberal media

Here it is in action:

Longtime San Diego (Calif.) Union-Tribune columnist Jim Goldsborough is quitting the paper, saying Publisher David C. Copley abruptly pulled a column scheduled to run Monday as "payback" for his criticism of President Bush.

Goldsborough said the reason he was given after the fact is that the column, about why Jewish voters overwhelmingly cast their presidential ballots for John Kerry, was "offensive."

"The publisher said it might be offensive. To whom? That's the question The column is not offensive to Jews. Maybe to Bush," Goldsborough said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "I don't think I'm 'liberal,' but I'm certainly not pro-Bush, and I think this was payback."

Goldsborough, 66, came to San Diego 14 years ago as editorial page editor of the San Diego Tribune. When the two San Diego Copley papers were merged into the Union-Tribune in 1992, he began writing the column.

"I've written columns for everybody. I've been edited, criticized. … But never have I gotten a call Sunday night that the column is not running Monday, and there's no discussion," he said. "The editor explained to me publishers have that right, but it's never happened to me. This sort of came like a bolt from Olympus."

The spike of the column was "almost like prior restraint," Goldsborough said. "Don't criticize Bush, or you column won't be run."