Standards Raised for Use of Anonymous Sources
Newsweek magazine’s chairman and editor-in-chief, Richard M. Smith, told readers today that the magazine is tightening up on its use of anonymous sources in light of its retraction last week, when it reported that sources told the magazine that American interrogators at Guantánamo Bay, in an attempt to rattle suspects, flushed a Koran down a toilet.
“We are taking the following steps now,” Smith wrote:
“We will raise the standards for the use of anonymous sources throughout the magazine. Historically, unnamed sources have helped to break or advance stories of great national importance, but overuse can lead to distrust among readers and carelessness among journalists. As always, the burden of proof should lie with the reporters and their editors to show why a promise of anonymity serves the reader. From now on, only the editor or the managing editor, or other top editors they specifically appoint, will have the authority to sign off on the use of an anonymous source.
“We will step up our commitment to help the reader understand the nature of a confidential source’s access to information and his or her reasons for demanding anonymity. As they often are now, the name and position of such a source will be shared upon request with a designated top editor. Our goal is to ensure that we have properly assessed, on a confidential basis, the source’s credibility and motives before publishing and to make sure that we characterize the source appropriately. The cryptic phrase ‘sources said’ will never again be the sole attribution for a story in NEWSWEEK.
“When information provided by a source wishing to remain anonymous is essential to a sensitive story?alleging misconduct or reflecting a highly contentious point of view, for example?we pledge a renewed effort to seek a second independent source or other corroborating evidence. When the pursuit of the public interest requires the use of a single confidential source in such a story, we will attempt to provide the comment and the context to the subject of the story in advance of publication for confirmation, denial or correction. Tacit affirmation, by anyone, no matter how highly placed or apparently knowledgeable, will not qualify as a secondary source.”
As reported last week, USA Today Editor Ken Paulson said that his newspaper had reduced the use of anonymous sources in its pages by 75 percent a year after instituting tighter controls on such sourcing.
Ben Bradlee Criticizes ‘Newsweek’ on Sourcing Debacle (Joe Strupp, Editor & Publisher)
It’s All Newsweek’s Fault (Frank Rich, New York Times)
Demonize, Disguise, Divert Pinning the Blame on Newsweek (Robert Jensen and Pat Youngblood, Counterpunch)
Big News Media Join in Push to Limit Use of Unidentified Sources (Lorne Manly, New York Times)
The Qur’an Question (Evan Thomas and Michael Isikoff, Newsweek)
Yet Another Wake-Up Call (Michael Getler, Washington Post)
Dozens Have Alleged Koran’s Mishandling (Richard A. Serrano and John Daniszewski, Los Angeles Times)
Newsweek puts another hole in news media’s credibility (Ken Rodriguez, San Antonio Express-News)
Pitfalls in the first draft of history (Les Payne, Newsday)
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Men Cited as Sources Twice as Often as Women
“Despite rising numbers of women in the workforce and in journalism schools, the news of the day still largely comes from a male perspective, according to a new study of press coverage,” the Project for Excellence in Journalism reported today.
“A broad look across the American news media over the course of nine months reveals that men are relied on as sources in the news more than twice as often as women,” according to the study by the group, affiliated with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
“More than three quarters of all stories contain male sources, while only a third of stories contain even a single female source, according to the study, which was drawn from an examination of 16,800 news stories across 45 different news outlets during 20 randomly selected days over nine months.”
Some specific findings:
- “In every topic category, the majority of stories cited at least one male source.
- “In contrast, the only topic category where women crossed the 50% threshold was lifestyle stories.
- “The subject women were least likely to be cited on was foreign affairs.
- “Newspapers were the most likely of the media studied to cite at least one female source in a story (41% of stories). Cable news, despite all the time it has to fill, was the least likely medium to cite a female source (19% of stories), and this held true across all three major cable channels.
- “On network TV, the morning news programs, which often cover lighter fare, relied more on female sources. The evening newscasts were somewhat less likely, but still did so more than cable.
- “The sports section of the newspaper stood out in particular as a male bastion. A mere 14% of stories on the front page of the sports section cited a woman, versus 86% that contained at least one male source.”
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Hampton’s JoAnn Haysbert to Lead Langston U.
“Dr. JoAnn W. Haysbert, provost at Hampton University, has been named the first female president of Langston University,” a historically black college in Oklahoma that was this season’s for the BET reality series “College Hill,” Roberta Dooms reported today on the Black College Wire.
“Haysbert became known in national journalism circles when she served as acting president of Hampton while William R. Harvey was on a leave of absence during the 2003-04 school year,” Dooms’ story reported.
“After the editors of the Virginia university?s newspaper, the Script, refused to publish a letter by Haysbert on the front page, she had the 6,500 copies of the homecoming edition confiscated.
“Haysbert later acknowledged that she did not fully understand the student newspaper?s First Amendment rights. In the uproar, the American Society of Newspaper Editors dropped the university as a 2004 site for its High School Journalism Institute, costing the school a $55,000 grant to administer the program, and the National Association of Black Journalists gave Haysbert its 2004 Thumbs Down award.
“. . . But the October 2003 seizure of the Script was treated in many ways as a thing of the past when Haysbert was considered for the presidency of the Oklahoma school, where she succeeds Dr. Ernest L. Holloway, who is retiring this year after 25 years as president.
“Chaz Foster-Kyser, a journalism instructor and adviser to Langston’s student newspaper, the Gazette, said her concerns were eased when the two spoke at a reception.
“Haysbert said that a situation such the Script confiscation would never happen again. Haysbert said that she ‘just didn’t know the rules.’ . . . Dr. Haysbert explained the situation to me, expressed regret over the situation, said she fully supports the rights of the student press and that the Gazette would not have to worry about her interfering with our paper,’ Foster-Kyser said.”
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Hundreds Honor John H. Johnson in Ark. Hometown
“John H. Johnson returned Saturday to the little house where he grew up in the 1920s, recalling how his mother, Gertrude, told him he could accomplish anything,” Van Jensen reported Sunday in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
“More than 70 years after leaving southeast Arkansas for Chicago, Johnson, founder of the largest black-owned publishing company in the country, was honored by his hometown and the state, both of which helped turn his childhood home into a museum.
“The museum tells the story of how ? with hard work, determination and his mother?s encouragement ? Johnson created a powerful company that publishes the magazines Jet and Ebony. Johnson, 87, is also a giant in cosmetics.
“With help from state legislators, public funding and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, among others, a group of Arkansas City residents created the John H. Johnson Cultural and Educational Museum.
“In addition to the museum, two more facilities ? the Delta Cultural and Entrepreneurial Learning Center in Arkansas City and a complex of the same name on the UAPB campus ? are planned. The goal of the project is to encourage education in the Arkansas Delta, organizers said.
“The museum, built on the frame of Johnson?s childhood home, sits next to the Desha County Courthouse.
“. . . A crowd of hundreds ? said to be among the largest in town history ? gathered in the courthouse square under two white tents while Johnson?s friends, family and organizers of the museum paid tribute to his life in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“That includes rising from living on welfare to becoming one of the 400 richest Americans. Posters at the front of one tent showed him with celebrities, including former presidents Kennedy and Clinton.
“Johnson addressed the crowd, sharing stories of how he built himself up from picking cotton in a little Arkansas town. He thanked his deceased mother.
“Herbert Lowe, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said Johnson?s magazines gave black people self-respect and encouraged them to break into the journalism field.
“He said the magazines encouraged him to work hard, and now he?s been featured in both.”
NABJ Helps Hometown Salute John H. Johnson (Herbert Lowe, NABJ)
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Fox, on Jackson’s Radio Show, Won’t Apologize
“President Vicente Fox on Sunday defended his commitment to minorities and human rights on a U.S. radio program, in his first public response to his controversial comment that Mexicans take the U.S. jobs that ‘not even’ blacks want,” Morgan Lee reported from Mexico City Sunday for the Associated Press.
“U.S. civil rights activist Jesse Jackson pressed the Mexican president for an apology for the remark that has strained already tense relations between U.S. blacks and Hispanics, during an interview on a Chicago gospel station.
“‘I very much regret the misinterpretation,’ said Fox, touting laws created under his administration that outlaw discrimination and protect minorities.
“Fox met with Jackson behind closed doors on Wednesday in Mexico City after the president’s comments about blacks ignited a firestorm of criticism from the black community and angered the U.S. government. The president had explained himself only through his spokespeople until Sunday’s on-the-air encounter with Jackson.”
Vicente Fox’s half-truth (Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe)
Fox inadvertently highlights failed immigration policy (Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune)
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Emphasis on Crime Said to Harm Race Relations
Local news shows are blocking progress in race relations, and the Federal Communications Commission is unwittingly helping them do it, UCLA Law Professor Jerry Kang has argued in the Harvard Law Review, according to a story Sunday by Christopher Shea in the Boston Globe.
“Far from contributing to the public interest, Kang argues, local news, with its parade of images of urban criminality, serves as a ‘Trojan Horse’ or ‘virus’ keeping racism alive in the American mind. And so, with its rules encouraging local-news programs, he writes, the FCC has ‘unwittingly . . . linked the public interest to racism,'” Shea wrote.
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“Please,” Scoffs Mass. Paper at Unity Argument
Massachusetts public officials were eager to repeal a 330-year-old law banning Native Americans from entering Boston, an obstacle cited by Unity: Journalists of Color in considering Boston as a site for the 2008 Unity convention.
But not everyone agreed with the sentiment.
“Well, sensitivity is nice, but let’s be real. In 1675, there was a war on, King Philip’s War, as the colonists called it. Wampanoags and their Nipmuck allies attacked settlers in Mendon, Marlborough, Rehoboth, Taunton and other communities. The bylaw enacted in Boston — a century before American independence, by the way — was a war measure, not a hate crime,” read an editorial Wednesday in the Hanover Mariner, a 2,381-circulation paper based in Needham, Mass.
“But three centuries might as well be yesterday if you listen to Dan Lewerenz, president of the Native American Journalists Association,” the editorial continued.
“‘We’re considering what it means for us to endorse a city that officially and effectively bans Native Americans,’ Lewerenz told the Globe. ‘We know it’s not going to be enforced, but in theory, the police could arrest us when we arrive at the airport.’
“Please.
“Boston’s alleged reputation for hostility to minorities is as unfortunate as it is undeserved. It stems largely from ugly headlines out of two neighborhoods where people protested forced busing in 1975. It’s bad enough when an entire metropolitan area bears a stain from something that happened 30 years ago. But the idea that, in order to get a convention to come to town, Boston has to atone for something that happened 330 years ago just doesn’t pass the laugh test.”
Separately, Lewerenz said of the repeal, signed into law Friday by Gov. Mitt Romney:
“Local Indians have been working for years to overturn the law, and I’m proud that UNITY helped to achieve the repeal. As an organization of journalists, NAJA would not lobby for or against any issue in the political arena. However, this clearly is a special case — we were being asked, in essence, to consider holding a convention in a city that, nominally at least, did not want us. The action of the Massachusetts legislature evens the playing field among three cities, each of which would make an excellent host,” he told Journal-isms.
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Columbia Ends National Arts Journalism Program
“The National Arts Journalism Program, founded in 1994 at Columbia University to advance the quality of arts coverage in the press, will close due to lack of funds, the program’s advisory board said Monday,” the Associated Press reports.
“‘After an outstanding 11-year record of advocating for and promoting the cause of arts journalism, the National Arts Journalism Program, the only program in America dedicated to the advocacy of arts journalism, is being closed down at the Columbia School of Journalism,’ board member Doug McLennan, editor of the affiliated ArtsJournal.com, said in an e-mail to past fellows of the program.”
The program offered fellowships to mid-career journalists in the arts.
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Black Slurs + White Reporters = Hate Crime Charge
“Darnell Colquitt thought the TV reporters didn?t belong in the Tillicum ?hood and told them so. People tote heat around here, he warned. He started to pedal away on a bicycle, then stopped, turned, and told the reporters what would happen if they were still there when he came back,” Sean Robinson wrote in the News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash.
?’You?re dead where you stand,’ he said.
“That, and a hail of racial slurs, earned him a trip to jail Thursday, along with a rare charge from Pierce County prosecutors: a black-on-white hate crime.
“Reporter Kevin McCarty and cameraman Terry Griffin of KIRO-TV were surprised to see things go that far.
“Normally, they would have ignored Colquitt. But they worried about the woman they were visiting, the subject of that day?s story.
“Someone had thrown homemade firebombs at her house. When the reporters left, would Colquitt come back and vent some misplaced rage?”
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Colleagues Say Latino Reporter Spoke Ebonics
“Some of his colleagues are still making fun of the routine Action News reporter Dann Cuellar used as he interviewed an African-American woman in North Philadelphia for a recent story,” television columnist Dan Gross wrote today in the Philadelphia Daily News.
“A never-aired videotape of Cuellar’s performance turned up at our office the other day. It shows the veteran reporter seeming to adopt a new voice and persona, asking ‘What’s goin’ on? Did y’all do somethin’? ‘Don’t y’all wanna speak up for yourselves?’
“Minutes later, we’re told, is when fellow reporters began making fun of Cuellar’s approach. When we called him, Cuellar was livid. ‘That’s the way I normally speak,’ he said. “I’m a native Texan. I feel insulted that you would degrade me in such a manner. You don’t know me, you’re just looking for a story,’ he said.
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Star-Ledger’s Pulitzer Cash Goes to Foster Kids
“Foster kids in New Jersey have little interest in the Pulitzer Prizes. For them, finding a permanent home is more important than the annual journalism awards that will be presented during today’s Pulitzer luncheon,” Joe Strupp wrote today in Editor & Publisher.
“But, thanks to The Star-Ledger of Newark, some Garden State foster children may eventually get a new home because of the Pulitzers. That’s because the newspaper, which picks up its breaking-news award today, plans to give the $10,000 cash prize that comes with it to The Heart Gallery, a non-profit group that helps foster children find homes.
“‘It was the staff’s idea,’ said Editor Jim Willse.
“The Star-Ledger’s management will match the $10,000 prize, which means the paper will provide a $20,000 donation to the foster-child group. The paper won the Pulitzer last month for its coverage of the resignation last year of former Gov. Jim McGreevey, its second Pulitzer in four years,” Strupp’s story continued.
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Bee’s Public Editor Describes Disputed Columns
“The resignation of Diana Griego Erwin over allegations that she fabricated material in her work as The Bee’s metro columnist moved many readers to ask for more specific information about the columns in question,” the Sacramento Bee’s public editor, Armando Acuña, wrote Sunday.
“The readers are right. More specifics are needed so they can judge for themselves the issues facing the paper’s senior editors as they grapple with the problem of authenticity.
“This request for more information is made more important by Griego Erwin’s public statements that she did nothing wrong and that she resigned due to personal reasons,” Acuña continued.
He went on to “describe the columns in question at the time of Griego Erwin’s resignation, as explained to me last week by the paper’s executive editor, Rick Rodriguez.”
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Crockett-Ntonga at Corporate Council on Africa
Noluthando Crockett-Ntonga, who as Phyllis Crockett was a longtime reporter for National Public Radio, is the new director of communications for the Corporate Council on Africa, a nonprofit organization with nearly 200 members that promotes trade and investment between the U.S. and Africa, the group announced today.
Crockett-Ntonga is based in Washington and is an adjunct professor of journalism at Howard University. She was a founding member of the Washington Association of Black Journalists and worked in South Africa, where she helped train South African journalists after the end of apartheid in 1994, and in Cameroon.
?Nolu brings to the organization an exceptionally strong work ethic, combined with a very rich professional background that makes her especially suited for work at CCA,? said Stephen Hayes, CCA president, in the news release. ?She has hit the ground running as we prepare for our 2005 U.S.-Africa Business Summit June 21-25 in Baltimore, where more than 2,000 African and American private and public sector decision-makers will network at the highest levels and learn the latest information on doing business in Africa,? said Hayes.
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Short takes
- The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville has begun publishing Phillip Milano‘s weekly column “Dare To Ask,” based on his cross-cultural dialogue project and which Milano said is similar in format to his book “I Can’t Believe You Asked That!”
“Each week it includes a provocative reader question based on differences of race, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, etc., replies from other readers nationwide and worldwide and then a viewpoint from an expert,” Milano told Journal-isms.
- NBC’s “Meet the Press” touted “Exclusive! Howard Dean, in his first television interview as Democratic National Committee Chairman,” in promoting Dean’s Sunday appearance, but Dean, who was elected Feb. 12, had already appeared on Tavis Smiley‘s PBS show on April 20, as an e-mailer to pointed out to the TV Newser Web site Saturday.
- The National Association of Hispanic Journalists plans to induct Gerald Garcia, Jr., a founding member and its first president, into the association?s Hall of Fame during its annual convention June 15-18 in Fort Worth, Texas, the organization announced Saturday.
- “Some 500 people turned out for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press’ glittering 35th anniversary dinner in New York last night,” Jesse Oxfeld reported in Editor & Publisher Friday. “Amid grave concerns about the current state of press freedom, some speakers were serious, some were funny, and at least one joke — from a professional comic, no less—bombed badly.”
Earl Caldwell, whose dilemma in being ordered to reveal to a federal grand jury his sources in the Black Panther organization led to the formation of the group in 1970, was not present, but his role was acknowledged, executive director Lucy Dalglish told Journal-isms.
- “Union employees at Reuters are stepping up their campaign against the wire service’s outsourcing of U.S. jobs, most recently transferring the editing and caption writing of photos to its Singapore office and some Internet work to Toronto,” James T. Madore wrote last Tuesday in Newsday.
- The Committee to Protect Journalists is condemning “the detention and expulsion of several foreign journalists who traveled to Cuba to cover an unprecedented gathering today of opposition activists and international observers,” the group announced Friday.
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