The early morning -email included a note from a journalist whose reporting and judgment I respect.
He advises that while the Micheners are indeed self-nominated, they are vetted to get to the stage the Indy is at (a finalist) and then are vetted again to determine a winner.
Ok. Fair enough. And to be fair, under the circumstances, the finalist status is a feather in the Indy cap, as my journalist-correspondent noted.
That said, I still think the Indy should have made it clear how the award nominations were made and how the judging takes place. Those are basic facts that help an informed reader make a judgment. When reporting on itself, the Indy should be even more cautious than usual about hyperbole and spin.
I still think public masturbation should be against the law.