Bye Bye, Harriet

The Guardian‘s Harriet Sherwood says farewell to the Mideast. The palpable negative feelings we’ve read between the lines in her years of coverage overtly bubbled up. A correspondent expressing feelings like this should’ve been pulled a long time ago:

I am leaving angry about an occupation that has lasted close to half a century, weary of Israel’s grinding oppression of the Palestinian people, cynical about the political leadership on both sides and in the international community, and pessimistic that a fair resolution will be reached.

Sherwood went off the deep-end awhile ago, served up shallow reporting, and was a big part of why our readers gave The Guardian our 2011 Dishonest Reporting Award.

But compared to the outright viciousness of her predecessors, Chris McGreal and Suzanne Goldenberg, I’ll remember Sherwood relatively favorably. I don’t know who The Guardian plans to replace her with. (Better the devil you know?)

Since anyone with the title of “Jerusalem correspondent” leaves the Mideast with the august reputation of “expert” for future commentaries, reminiscences, and other B-list talking-head situations, I doubt we’ve seen the last of her.

Bye bye, Harriet. I can’t say it’s been a pleasure.