BY DAN
KENNEDY
Serving the reality-based community since 2002.
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Saturday, April 09, 2005
YOU WIN ONE, YOU LOSE ONE.
The Globe exposed a significant ethical problem at the
Herald yesterday - which the Herald corrected - but
then had to run a rather abject "Editor's Note" about one of its own
stories today.
First, the Herald. On
Friday, Globe reporter Raphael Lewis revealed
that former Romney-administration official Charles Chieppo, now
getting paid to write a weekly
column for the
Herald, had just landed a $10,000 state contract to promote
the governor's environmental policies. Weirdly, the Herald
first stuck by Chieppo; does he really have that many readers? But
late yesterday, after learning that Chieppo also had a $32,000
contract with the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, the
Herald said goodbye.
And by all means, let's keep those
conflicts of interest coming. In today's Globe,
Lewis
quotes Stephen Burgard,
director of Northeastern University's School of
Journalism:
As a regular op-ed
columnist for one of two major papers in Boston, Chieppo couldn't
go near two big subject areas without creating a conflict. Both
the environment and tourism are significant arenas of public
interest for editorial pages. It got to the point where he
couldn't write credibly for the paper that hired him or,
ironically, be of much use as a hired pen for either
client.
My conflict in presenting this: I
work as an adjunct professor for Burgard, and next fall will become a
full-time visiting professor.
Another conflict! Though Chieppo
was a perfectly legitimate story, it was overkill for the
Metro to make it the page-one lead yesterday. Of course, it
escaped no one's attention that the Globe's corporate parent,
the New York Times Company, owns 49 percent of the Metro, and
that the free commuter tab is now sharing content with the
Globe.
Now, the Globe. Yesterday
the paper led with yet
another frightening story
about the Big Dig. Reporter Mac Daniel's lead:
Numerous fire exit doors
in the Big Dig tunnels are either boarded up or missing, and many
fire exits are blocked, because of work to find and plug the
hundreds of leaks in tunnel walls, a Globe survey found
yesterday.
In a project marred by monumental
leaks and falling debris, Friday's piece seemed like just one more
piece of the puzzle. Who would have doubted it? But as the paper
acknowledges in an "Editor's Note" today (appended to Daniel's
story), it was wrong. Globe reporter Michael Levenson has a
fuller explanation here.
By the way: if the Herald
has anything on either of these stories today, it's not on the
paper's website,
other than some AP stuff.
HYPOCRISY DEFINED. A
Romenesko
reader posted a link to this wonderful Mitch
Albom column from 2003
about Jayson Blair. The white Detroit Free Press columnist
used Blair's fall as an object lesson on the hazards of affirmative
action. Albom wrote: "It happens because newsrooms are so devoted to
diversity, they sometimes overlook what no normal business would
overlook: the incompetence of an employee."
Now that Albom has been
exposed
for writing a semi-fabricated column (does that make it a
half-pipe?), perhaps we will be treated to a similar lamentation on
the risks of loading up the newsroom with arrogant white
guys.
Does this mean that Albom didn't
really interview the five people you'll meet in heaven? And if Morrie
Schwartz came back, would he claim Albom misquoted him?
posted at 8:03 AM |
2 comments
|
link
2 Comments:
Unless I'm missing something, the respective INTENTS of Blair and Albom are being ignored here, not to mention the results of the acts. Was Albom arrogant and sloppy? Sure, if that were a capital offense, there would be no Boston Globe. Blair , on the other hand, did real damage.Does that make it right to trivialize talented African-Americans with "social promotion"? I think not. Blair's misdeeds damaged the credibility/futures of real live Af-Am journalists. Albom is the Mike Barnicle of Detroit. The guy got caught being lazy. Comparing the two is a non-sequitur.
No comparison. If anything, you make the case for arrogant white guys. Only thing worse then an arrogant white guy is a self hating arrogant white guy.
MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
