Last August the hardworking staff posted this:
NYT Sunday Review Cartoonist Is Just Not Funny
Posted on August 1, 2011If Brian McFadden isn’t the lamest guy since Gunsmoke’s Chester, he’ll do until someone else comes along.
McFadden’s latest contribution to the New York Times Sunday Review section (click to enlarge):
You’d need to go a long way to find anything more hackneyed, predictable, knee-jerk – your pejorative goes here.
The Times Sunday Review has enough problems without including this dreck.
Pretty mean, in retrospect.
Flash-forward to today, and here’s how Brian McFadden responded in a comment:
Well, here’s what we’re doin’ now: We’re saying Brian McFadden is a mensch.
And, Brian – we’re a fan!
Campaign Outsider 
Ah, geez, I keep forgetting I do a thing actual readers read. Sorry for the outburst. But thanks, and especially considering my rampant unprofessionalism.
Hatchet, buried.
Brian McFadden
I won’t ruin this Hallmark moment by directing you both to the “The Onion” piece on the “hidden hand” as a super hero rescuing people from fires better than firemen.
…or to Tom Tomorrow.
Very neighborly of you, Mick.
Didn’t the Phoenix have a dust-up with the NYT over posting of a copyrighted article last week.
How does the publishing of the NYT’s material here fit in that sort of discussion?
I think it’s protected under fair use for criticism, Mudge. But I could be wrong. I often am.
Sometimes people who have many things in common just don’t agree on what’s funny. I’m not sure what a “mensch” is (I’m not religious), but it’s possible that Mr. McFadden is psychologically secure and doesn’t take excessive umbrage at criticism. There are few historical personages I admire more than Ludwig van Beethoven the *Younger but on many occasions any criticism he received for his piano playing or composing threw him into a rage. *(The famous LvB’s grandfather had the same name)