Found Object - Whipping boy

A May 17 column penned by AJC Editorial Page Editor Cynthia Tucker described DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones as being insensitive to allegations that a high-ranking African-American police official discriminated against white employees. Tucker wrote that “Jones fails to extinguish racial flames.” Jones responded with a snarky letter to the editor, which the AJC printed the following day.</
“Vernon Jones ... had a simple task. ... [A]ll Jones had to do was denounce such racially charged rhetoric. ... But the CEO has a finely honed talent for turning molehills into volcanoes. He couldn’t bring himself to do the easy thing. Instead, Jones has been combative and defensive. ... [H]e gave himself high marks for diversity in his hiring practices, judging himself superior in that regard to the AJC and its parent company, Cox Enterprises.”</
-- From Tucker’s May 17 column</
“As the old saying goes: ‘You don’t get into a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel and paper by the ton.’ I want to apologize for aggravating the Atlanta Journal-Constitution by saying DeKalb County government’s hiring practices are better than the AJC’s and Cox Enterprises’ hiring practices. I want to plead with the AJC, ‘I’se tired. Please don’t whup me no mo!’ I don’t know how many ways I can say it: I have not, will not and shall not condone racism in DeKalb County’s hiring practices. In the words of a great American, Forrest Gump, ‘That’s all I gotta say about that!’”</
-- From Jones’ May 18 letter to the editor