Janet has lied and reinvented her past for so long, I suspect she actually believes it all by now. She passed the same BS to this blog’s founder in a lengthy email interview not too long ago that she has been telling people for years. She also flirted with him in that strange way that she does when she’s cornered; I doubt she’s ever noticed that she does that because she has the same level of self awareness as that lampost over there.

Let me expand on what I alluded to earlier. I’ll start from the begining — almost — because frankly, if I had to rehash her “poor-me” Ooltewah, Tenn. stories, I’d actually gag.

She was a reporter in a little town in Texas working for an editor named Kathy who wanted Janet to report on some local governmental corruption. When I’ve heard Janet tell this story, she openly admits she didn’t have the stomach for this kind of reporting and claims she hid out in the library or something to avoid doing a confrontational interview.

There was some copy editing, I think, and a little paper in Stuart, Fla. Onto the Suffolk bureau of the Virginian Pilot in Norfolk. Who can remember what she covered there? Or any story she’s ever written; first-person, published accounts of being survivor of crime don’t count. I’m talking about anything involving reporting chops or narrative writing ability. All that mattered at the Pilot is that Janet won the affection of top editor Sandy Rowe (now at the Oregonian).

Janet rises through the ranks but leaves her mentor for a tempting copy editing job at the Miami Herald. That job lasted a few months. Then Janet returned to the Pilot, quickly rising to a DME job.

Flash forward a few years to Wichita, Kansas — a place Janet speaks so fondly about. She was the youngest ME at 30, or so the story goes. Ask her today and she’ll tell you she and her Public Journalism founding boss got along great. But that’s not the real story. There was an affair or sexual harassment — I’ve heard the story both ways. Somehow, she bought herself some time there on the way out the door and managed to hook up with Diane McFarlin at the ASNE women’s group. The Sarasota editor brought Janet to Florida as her ME — almost a lateral move.

Soon, McFarlin is promoted to publisher and Janet takes over as EE. A few years later after several staff turnovers and a few scandals, Janet leaves to join the Poynter Institute, a job with a tenure measuring in months.

Then, it’s off to the Tampa Trib. It is here that she gets involved with a married subordinate. Not sure about the timing, but it’s not a bad circumstantial case. Her marriage breaks up shortly after the DUI arrest because she calls her boyfriend before her husband. Janet spins this in the paper and in E&P as noble. Said she called into the paper first so it could have the scoop on her arrest, which later led to a conviction not for drunk driving, but for reckless driving. I think newspapers have done stories about how drunks getting plead down to reckless drives up all of our insurance rates, but maybe I’m wrong.

Usually I’d side with the camp who say even an enemy’s personal life is off-limits, but here, she’s brought it all to the workplace.

Soon, her divorce is filed. Later, her married subordinate’s divorce is filed. Hers was about to go to a trial — but a few days before her scheduled deposition, she settles the case and agrees to pay out the proverbial nose. Another subordinate from the Trib, Wendy Whitt, is on record as having been Janet’s witness at her final hearing.

That brings us up to her present dismantling of yet another newspaper’s staff.

Goodness, that was a long story. But one this writer and reporter has been waiting to see put together in one place. Lord knows Joe Strupp over E&P would never cast his old pal in such a light.

One more thing: this post is both honest and bitter.

Lord, I haven’t even touched on her questionable judgement – proffessional, ethical and moral. And no, I don’t even know Rusty Coats’ aggrieved ex wife.