Likelihood of Success

It started out, great this piece from the Worcester Business Journal about Attorney General Martha Coakley — the designated heir to Senator Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat — linked to by Instapundit:

We understand when politicians are busy. We deal with it all the time. After all, talking to journalists can be tedious and repetitive, especially when you’re running for office.

That’s why we wanted to give Attorney General Martha Coakley the benefit of the doubt when her campaign staff was initially stand offish after we approached them about setting up an interview for our story on the race to fill Ted Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat.

But then we were put off several times by her staff. We suddenly got the feeling Ms. Coakley, a Democrat, didn’t want to speak with us, and the media in general.

At the end of the day, it’s disheartening to think that a potential U.S. Senator for the Bay State would be so reticent to speak to the media.

Ouch.  It’s at least equally as disheartening when professional journalists use the word “reticent” when they mean “reluctant,” as in “reluctant to speak” — as opposed to merely being … reticent.

(Someone had to say it.)