My technique, rightly or wrongly, is pretty old school—if someone forwards me an e-mail recording something nasty you’ve said about me, and if it really bothers me, I will speak with you directly. If it’s not about me, or it doesn’t bother me, then I don’t think I really care. That’s between you and whoever you’re talking to, and I hope I’d treat it as such. I just don’t know why I’d go public with it.

These aren’t rules of journalism, they’re rules of Ta-Nehisi. I don’t want to be in business of printing people’s various musings, which they expected (rightly or wrongly), to remain private. It just isn’t what I would do. Simple as that.

For me, nothing good comes from rummaging through other people’s closets.