Information about the number of journalist murdered and imprisoned continues to startle. However, the most disturbing news story lately involved the blogs following the obit of Deborah Howell in “Politics Daily”.

Bloggers wrote a shocking number of angry, vile comments accusing Howell of being “a lefty”-  since she was in the news business and noting “how fabulous that she was killed…one less of those anti-US types to deal with.”

When did journalists become so hated? Or is it that bloggers enjoy taking out their angst on the media—even someone they had never heard of until the day before yesterday?

Howell was a well-respected, former Washington Post omsbudsman and one of the first women to lead a major daily (St. Paul Pioneer Press) breaking the glass ceiling for women in journalism. She was a powerful presence in American journalism and doesn’t deserve this kind of vituperation.

Click here to read more via 'Politics Daily'.

New York, December 17, 2009 - At least 68 journalists worldwide were killed for their work in 2009, the highest yearly tally ever documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the organization said in its year-end analysis. The record toll was driven in large part by the election-related slaughter of more than 30 media workers in the Philippine province of Maguindanao, the deadliest event for the press in CPJ history.

Click here to learn more about the Commitee to Protect Journalists.