A slow news week: I guess there really isn't anything going on in Phoenix, if the only news that the august bastion of objective independent reporting, New Times, has to relate is an extended smear of Angela Johnson.
The only thing that piece (of rubbish) had in common with journalism is that it involved words.
It's one thing to criticize a person's work and quite another to take vituperative personal shots at them. That's what we call slander. Poor Joe Watson must not grasp the difference, as demonstrated in his little diatribe, which was not informative, nor amusing, nor particularly well-written. I suppose I might use it to wipe my ass, if only it were fit even for that.
Congratulations on achieving heretofore unimagined levels of condescension and despicability!
Omar Call, Tempe
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer: In a sense, you may be right that Arizona has never had any kind of fashion scene. But I give anyone credit for trying to make something out of nothing, and that's what Angela Johnson has tried to do over the past two years and, in many ways, succeeded in doing so.
So what if Angela has enemies? Not everyone in life is going to like you. This should be something that you might want to get used to, after publishing this article.
I think you will find that she's not going to run away with her tail between her legs. I also feel it was in very poor taste that you bagged on her weight and the way she looks, whether it's because of a disease or not. Any kind of creditability you may have had as decent human beings is completely shot now.
I hope your writer gets his head out of his ass and then someone sticks a foot up it, because he sure has it coming his way.
Melissa Farnsworth, Spring Valley, California
Taking the low road: I'm not in the fashion community, but I must say that Joe Watson has really done a huge disservice to it. In his article, Watson made mention of LabelHorde fashion shows being "more about the party than about the fashion." Honestly, blaming LabelHorde for that is like blaming ArtLink for First Fridays becoming an excuse for underage kids to get drunk and roam the streets of downtown Phoenix until 4 a.m.
Instead of helping build up the fashion community, Watson chose to take the low road. Sure, the local fashion community may never be what it is in New York, L.A. or Paris, but if it weren't for Angela Johnson, I suspect it wouldn't exist here at all. What has Watson done to help?
It's one thing to voice one's opinion of another's work (those who create know that those who can't criticize), but to use a public format to publicly humiliate the "mother" of the local fashion community is inexcusable. Watson's article read like it was written by a spiteful 12-year-old girl who's mad at the cool kids for not letting her sit with them at lunch.
And to stoop so low as to mention Angela Johnson's weight is nothing short of juvenile and hateful. New Times should be ashamed of itself for allowing such petty, disrespectful fodder to be printed, let alone to be the f-ing cover story.
Mike Mattingly, Phoenix
