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BC-PITTS-COLUMN:MI _ op-ed, xst (840 words)

Do the right thing; give columnist back his job

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By Leonard Pitts Jr.

Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

I hope this column is outdated by the time you read it.

Ordinarily, it is the bane of a columnist's existence, the fear that his words will become obsolete between the time of his writing and your reading. But in this case, that would be the happiest possible outcome, because it would mean Jim DeFede had his job back.

That he lost it in the first place is a travesty.

You know the story by now. Wednesday of last week DeFede, metro columnist for The Miami Herald, took a call from a friend, former Miami City Commissioner Arthur E. Teele Jr. Teele, already under indictment on numerous corruption charges, was facing further humiliation from the imminent publication of an article in The Miami New Times, that alleged dealings with drug dealers, crooked contractors and transvestite ...