Remembering Michael Morsch - This Generation's Foremost Journalist

My friends, it cannot be denied: victory is, at long last, mine.

What tremendous changes a year and a half can bring! The glorious undertaking known as Inta Rightfield was begun as a way to protest the wretched writing, lazy journalism, slipshod editing and overall pomposity of one Michael Morsch. His output, both in print and on his Outta Leftfield weblog, was once prodigious, a tide of dreck that I battled with every ounce of my satiric strength.

As time went by, I received reports that Morsch himself (or Borsch, as I fondly called him) had chanced upon this blog and suspected that one of his disrespectful underlings was behind it. I heard from his former employees and co-workers, who uniformly verified the fact that he was - and is - a blundering, obnoxious clod. In a desperate attempt to prevent my routine ribbings, he even made his Twitter account private. Enthusiastic readers continued to tip me off about his work.

By 2012, however, it seemed as though ol' Mike had run out of steam. His weblog was virtually abandoned, and his print columns had degenerated into stale old re-hashes of his past glories. It was around the time that he self-published a book (it can now be purchased for $0.59, used, on Amazon) that I decided my work was most likely done, and turned my attention to other pursuits.

Then came the news in 2013: Montgomery Media executive editor to become Montgomery County director of voter services. Our boy had somehow wormed his way into a plush $75K political hack position. His qualifications? Meh! Who needs 'em? But it was true - my old foe was finally abandoning the profession of which he had made a mockery for so long. I'm not one to gloat, though. The knowledge that Outta Leftfield was dead was enough for me.

But then a curious thing happened. On a whim, knowing that he had just gone through his first round of real elections, I checked up on Morsch. His Twitter feed is again public, and again filled with inane baseball observations! One recent comment, to a nationally syndicated columnist, states, "The editing on this story is embarrassing." Yep! He's still, to borrow a quote from Dubya, "a Major-League asshole."

I also found a Letter to the Editor in the Ambler Gazette: Former Motgomery Media Executive Editor Michael Morsch will be missed. And at the bottom, nestled there like shining packages on Christmas morning, were two comments:  

Steve - Yeah, I'm sure the Stoogeum and John Oates are also upset about him leaving. Who will be there to constantly write about them now?  

Tex 2670 - Seriously--how about a little spell check???

These comments, ladies and gentleman, made my day and prompted my final post here. The power of Morsch has been broken (he routinely deleted negative comments like these). What's more, this very day, I learned that he had been dismissed from his cushy political appointment, and that the decision "wasn't his."

Of Michael "Mike" Morsch himself, what else can really be said? He was terrible. At his chosen profession - editor-cum-humor-columnist - he was not just awful, but also blissfully unaware of his own incompetence. He was a cliche, his "humor" and "knowledge" culled from Wikipedia and Animal House. He was also a martinet, using his position of authority to abuse his underlings, steal plush assignments for himself, and silence criticism. He was one of a breed of big, dumb bullies that everyone will meet in their lifetime. But as the comments above (and the recent news of his canning) revealed to me, the word was out on Morsch. Other people were watching, laughing, and shaking their heads.

Perhaps Inta Rightfield did a little good after all.