Someone from inside the DMN sent me a note from an anonymous e-mail address. The letter reads:
Thank you for your constructive criticism on the newly relaunched site. You raise some genuine issues that we hope will be addressed to your satisfaction in coming months. It concerns us to hear a media professional publicly declare that the Dallas Morning News has “just abandoned all credibility.”
In the spirit of mutual aid, consider the possible credibility impact of your senior editor’s relationship with Dick Washburne, whose business interests she advances in your pages at every opportunity. As long as that remains D‘s dirty little secret, all is well. But how long can that last when Nichols links her readers to a web album with a photo set of her Brussels jaunt with Washburne?
It has never been a secret. Yes, Nancy dates Dick Washburne, who is a partner in the M Crowd (Mi Cocina, etc.). Dick is a freelance photographer. His work has appeared in the Robb Report and elsewhere. The two travel together. His photographs have appeared in our pages and on our blogs. Whenever an appearance of a conflict of interest arises, we take great pains to avoid it. She would never review an M Crowd restaurant. When it’s appropriate, we have mentioned Nancy’s connection to Dick in print (as when we did a profile of then M Crowd partner Mico Rodriguez).
P.S. I wrote this myself. I didn’t get it from another website.
