Nothing was a bigger blow to the News Hounds blog than the death of Deborah Yesner. She was especially dear to me and I still miss her. Deb's daughter, Alexis, was kind enough to send some thoughts on the anniversary of Outfoxed and News Hounds. I'm closing our anniversary celebration with them - even though Alexis was the first to respond to my invitation to participate - because I'd like it very much if you would hold Deborah in your thoughts as we go forward. It would have pleased her greatly.

Mom anniversary article

(Written by Alexis Landis)

When I first heard that my mother was contributing to a documentary called Outfoxed and she wasn’t the only one, in fact there were eight woman, I was truly surprised. This is a woman who would put on a brave face to go to family functions even though she would much rather be alone reading a book. This is the woman who was afraid to tell their landlord that the sink was broken lest she annoy the management company, so you can imagine how surprised I was to find her making splashes in the world of news and politics with her critiques of Fox News.

She stuck with it and I continued to be impressed with her commitment. We went together to New York for the first screening of the film hosted by Arianna Huffington and guests included Tina Brown and other literary heavy hitters. It was exciting and I couldn’t believe my mother was a part of this. But the neatest part was meeting the women who helped her do it. They spanned the country and came from all walks of life. Even with their many differences I could tell they all felt like they had known each other for decades.

Once the film premiere was over and the coverage died down these courageous woman could not bear the thought of their hard work just fading away, hence Newshounds was born. This began an onslaught against the kings and queens of misinformation on the Fox network. Sean Hannity being the most noteworthy, of course. I watched my mother stay up til 1 am or later every night to craft her responses to that night's off-the-wall comments, even though she had to be up bright and early to go to her job as a librarian’s assistant at a school for special needs children.

On this anniversary of Outfoxed let’s remember everyone who had a hand in changing the way people view news and information, especially those we have lost.

Deborah Yesner (1947-2009)