Tracey Weiss writes…
I love your site and read it daily. However, as much as I dislike O.J. Simpson and am pretty sure he's a murderer, he was found not guilty in a court of law. That means that, as a journalist, it would be more correct for you to refer to him as, well, I'm not sure what the term would be but calling him a murderer is your opinion, not a correct statement. (Frankly, it's my opinion too, but after your long post about Steve Ditko and Stan Lee, I thought this was something that should be brought to your attention.)
I'm not a journalist, Tracey. I write Groo the Wanderer.
Seriously, if this were the Times, you might have a point. But this is a weblog of my views. More to the point, everyone understands the rhetoric and the reference so I don't have to refer to him as "O.J. Simpson, whom I and most Americans believe to be a murderer despite a trial that found him Not Guilty (and who was found to be responsible for two murders in a subsequent civil trial)." By contrast, an awful lot of folks don't know of Steve Ditko or are unaware that he co-created Spider-Man…so we need to clarify and correct that. It's also a matter of respect for Mr. Ditko and making sure that he is not robbed of a credit that has some value to him. I'm not worried about disrespecting O.J. Simpson.