Pallasch is one of the Sun-Times 's best new reporters. I think I see his point. It would have taken no more space simply to identify the judge as Deborah Dooling. It would have taken a lot more space to put Dooling, who enjoys a good reputation as a judge, in a context that didn't make her look like a nincompoop. The appellate order, written by Judge Anne Burke, makes it clear that Dooling deemed Pannells's alleged statements slanderous.
Responsible people can disagree, and here they did.
If a newspaper tells a legal story in such a way that a judge is unfairly cast in a terrible light, it has a problem it doesn' t solve by the expedient of not saying who the judge is. I don't know that the decision not to name Dooling was even Pallasch's. It certainly wasn't his alone. Editors are supposed to get the facts in, not keep some out. News Bite T ime gallops on.