Editor Mark Whitaker Spends Day in Hot Seat
In an embarrassing episode for editor Mark Whitaker, “Newsweek magazine, under fire for publishing a story that led to deadly protests in Afghanistan, said Monday it was retracting its report that a military probe had found evidence of desecration of the [Koran] by U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay,” as the Associated Press reported.
“Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantᮡmo Bay,” Whitaker said in a one-sentence statement late this afternoon, according to the New York Times.
“Earlier Monday, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan had criticized Newsweek?s initial response to the incident, saying it was ‘puzzling,'” the AP story continued.
“Newsweek had reported in its May 9 issue that U.S. military investigators had found evidence that interrogators placed copies of Islam?s holy book in washrooms and had flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk.
“Newsweek acknowledged problems with the story and its editor, Mark Whitaker, apologized in an editor?s note in this week?s edition. The accusations spawned protests in Afghanistan that left 15 dead and scores injured.
“Whitaker wrote in an editor?s note that ‘We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst.’
“But after the White House criticized Newsweek?s response to the story, Whitaker issued a statement later Monday through a spokesman saying the magazine was retracting the story.
Whitaker, who has been a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and is the newsmagazine’s first African American top editor, has brought home two National Magazine Awards since he ascended to the top job in 1998. He is also president of the American Society of Magazine Editors.
Blogger Derek Rose, a reporter at the New York Daily News, wrote Sunday that, “Predictably, bloggers are out in full force on this. . . . My thoughts: certainly, Newsweek deserves two big heapings of shit for this . . . but they didn?t force anyone to riot. They didn?t force anyone to throw stones, ransack aid offices, smash cars and set buildings afire.
“. . . And people who want to accuse Newsweek of lies, dishonesty and fabrication should realize ? the magazine could . . . almost certainly have gotten away with stonewalling on this, covering it all up and saying ‘we stand by our report.’ Not that they deserve much credit for that admission ? they didn?t have any choice, morally speaking ? but still.”
How a Fire Broke Out: The story of a sensitive Newsweek report (Evan Thomas, Newsweek)
Muslim Reaction to Newsweek Apology: Too Little, Too Late (ABC News)
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After Albom Report, Paper to Unveil New Policy
The Detroit Free Press plans to fact-check articles at random after publication and send letters to sources quoted in stories in the wake of its month-long review of star columnist Mitch Albom‘s work, public editor John X. Miller told Journal-isms tonight.
Miller, who is to implement the policy, said the moves would be announced in a Tuesday column by publisher and editor Carole Leigh Hutton.
Last year, another Knight Ridder paper, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, announced it would “select some local stories every month and do a vigorous check of how those stories were written and researched.” It claimed it would be the first to do so on a regular basis.
The Detroit paper announced in a story today that, “A Free Press review of more than 600 columns by Mitch Albom has found no evidence of problems similar to an April 3 column in which Albom, with an editor’s knowledge, misled readers by writing about events that never occurred at a basketball game.
“The Free Press inquiry probed long-standing rumors of embellishment in some Albom columns — allegations dredged up on talk radio and the Internet in recent weeks. The rumors proved baseless.”
“However, the inquiry found that Albom at times has used quotes from newspapers, TV programs or other publications without indicating that he did not gather the material himself, in violation of Free Press rules on crediting sources. In several instances, Albom did not credit quotes exclusively gathered by another media organization.
“Albom was not alone in this. The review found that other Free Press columnists also have failed to give credit for quotes gathered by other news organizations.”
At a staff meeting at the paper today — convened after the Free Press had published its story—some were angry that other columnists were lumped in with Albom in the paper’s story by four investigative reporters, David Zeman, Jeff Seidel, Jennifer Dixon and Tamara Audi. Others called the story a whitewash of Albom, but others thanked the reporters who did it, according to Free Press staffers who did not want to be identified.
The story traced the editing that took place with the April 3 Albom column, naming each editor who saw the piece and quoting their explanations of their actions. It also quoted some journalists of color, such as columnists Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald, Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post and Terry Foster of the Detroit News.
It also documented the star treatment accorded Albom: “It wasn’t long before the section was frequently designed around his column, deadlines were nudged back for his copy, and Albom got the choicest of story assignments, developments that did not always endear him to colleagues,” it said.
“Meanwhile, one of the four investigative reporters who worked on the month-long review of Albom’s past work contends that the headline and lead of today’s story on the investigation may have misled readers into thinking Albom, cleared of some concerns, had not committed other journalistic sins,” Joe Strupp wrote today in Editor & Publisher, in a reference to Zeman.
“Zeman also contends that the investigation found that Albom more frequently used quotes without credit than did other columnists,” Strupp wrote.
A previous story saying that an outside panel would review the Free Press investigation was incorrect, Miller said. Rather, two people reviewed the investigation as it was happening, Keith M. Woods of the Poynter Institute and Jane Briggs-Bunting, Michigan State journalism dean. Their participation was noted in an accompanying story today, “About This Report.”
[Added May 17: Letting our ethics policy drive our reporting (Carole Leigh Hutton, Detroit Free Press)]
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Fox Statement Spotlights Mexican Race Relations
A statement by Mexico’s president Vicente Fox is giving reporters an opportunity to spotlight race relations south of the border — and not in a way he’d like.
“Vicente Fox refused to apologize Monday for saying Mexicans in the United States do the work that blacks won’t ? a comment widely viewed as acceptable in a country where blackface comedy is still considered funny and nicknames often reflect skin color,” began a story on the controversy by Traci Carl of the Associated Press, assisted by national-news writer Erin Texeira.
“While Mexico has a few, isolated black communities, the population is dominated by descendants of the country’s Spanish colonizers and its native Indians. Comments that would generally be considered openly racist in the United States generate little attention here.
“One afternoon television program regularly features a comedian in blackface chasing actresses in skimpy outfits, while an advertisement for a small, chocolate pastry called the ‘negrito’ ? the little black man ? shows a white boy sprouting an afro as he eats the sweet. Many people hand out nicknames based on skin color.”
Earlier this month, Reuters moved a story by Chris Aspin, “Black African Slave Legacy Lingers in Mexico,” that included this passage:
“Racism against blacks and Indians runs deep in Mexico and other parts of Latin America. An Argentine soccer player was arrested on the field recently after a game with a Brazilian team. Police said he racially insulted a black rival during the game.”
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Conservative Appointee Threatens Public TV, Radio
[Correction: An earlier headline referred to Kenneth Y. Tomlinson as a Bush appointee. He was named by Bill Clinton in the summer of 2000 and elected chairman during the Bush administration in 2003.]
“Executives at National Public Radio are increasingly at odds with the Bush appointees who lead the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” Stephen Labaton reported today in the New York Times.
Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which allocates federal funds for public radio and television, is considering a plan to monitor Middle East coverage on NPR news programs for evidence of bias, a corporation spokesman said on Friday, the story said.
In addition, “the corporation’s board has told its staff that it should consider redirecting money away from national newscasts and toward music programs produced by NPR stations,” Labaton reported.
“. . . In recent years, the corporation has provided funds for NPR programs like ‘The Tavis Smiley Show’ and ‘Day to Day.’ A third NPR program, ‘News and Notes’ [with Ed Gordon], recently applied for money. Mr. Tomlinson has told some board members that the corporation would no longer provide funds for ‘Weekend America,’ a public affairs program produced by Minnesota Public Radio, people briefed on those discussions said.
Meanwhile, “Author Bill Moyers served notice today that, six months after his retirement from the ‘NOW with Bill Moyers’ program, conservative attacks on the Public Broadcasting Service ‘might compel me back out of the rocking chair and back into the anchor chair,'” Bill Densmore reported Sunday for the Media Giraffe Project.
“In a jarringly personal, hour-long recounting of alleged political interference in PBS by Corporation for Public Broadcasting board Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson, Moyers called the fight to preserve the political independence of PBS ‘too important . . . too dangerous’ not to be addressed. He said it is critical to continue to focus on keeping the press independent of government,” Densmore reported.
Moyers spoke on the final day of the National Conference for Media Reform in St. Louis, a gathering of more than 2,000 citizens from 50 states and eight nations.
Audio recording of Moyers speech
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Farley Gets Scoop for Time on Dave Chappelle
After a week of rumors — including a bogus Entertainment Weekly “exclusive” last week that comedian Dave Chappelle had checked himself into a mental health facility in South Africa — Christopher John Farley of Time magazine scored a coup for his magazine with a story in which Chappelle declared, “I?m not in a mental facility. I?m actually staying with some friends, a family here” in Durban, South Africa.
“On April 28, he walked away from his highly rated sketch-comedy series, Chappelle?s Show, and vanished into speculation, rumor and the whispers from unnamed sources. His agent, his publicist, even his writing partner didn?t know where he had gone,” Time explained.
Farley wrote, “I introduced myself to the notoriously press-shy Chappelle through a shared connection (my wife?s brother-in-law is a childhood friend of his), and as the conversations unfolded, Chappelle decided to give Time extensive access to the production of his new season. He even stopped by Time?s offices in New York City several times, always coming off as approachable, engaging and irreverent.?
“But in conversations before he skated for South Africa, the tension was showing. . . . Just over a week later he left the country. Our conversations, however, continued by phone after he reached Durban.”
Chappelle “met in Durban late last week with TIME?s Johannesburg bureau chief Simon Robinson,” and Robinson contributed to Farley’s story.
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4th Hampton Journalism Professor Leaving
A fourth professor in Hampton University’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications won’t be back next year. Ralph Nickerson, who taught advanced television production and arrived on campus in January, said he was leaving for personal reasons.
“The hardest day that I had there was walking into Dean [Tony] Brown‘s office and telling him that I wasn’t going to come back,” he told Journal-isms today.
Nickerson said his wife, Cynthia Brooks of WTKR-TV in Newport News, Va., is very ill.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported over the weekend that Dr. JoAnn Haysbert , the Hampton provost who ordered the 2003 seizure of the Hampton Script, the student newspaper, is one of four finalists for the presidency of Langston University in Oklahoma, a historically black university where Black Entertainment Television filmed this year’s season of its “College Hill” reality series.
Langston’s outgoing president, Ernest Holloway, was considered a champion of a free campus press. Haysbert later accepted a task force’s recommendations that “Student journalists on the staff of The Script have the right to a free press.”
As reported last week, three members of the journalism faculty — Jennifer Wood, Kim LeDuff and Curtis Holsopple—are leaving, an unusually high number, considering that the school’s director, Christopher Campbell, and another faculty member, Sean Lyons, left last year. The school has nine permanent faculty members, according to its Web site.
Nickerson said he spent as much time as he could with students. “I don’t even know the other professors,” he said, and never had time for academic politics. “I just flat-out love the students,” he said. “I gave them a lifetime guarantee. They will learn and they can always call on me wherever I am in the world. I don’t think there is ever a day that I did less than 14 hours. My office hours are 24/7. As a teacher I should be there for my students anytime they need me, but as a husband and father I [also] have to be there anytime they need me.”
He said that his family might move to Texas and that he and his wife had a production company.
To help boost the number of African Americans in the journalism pipeline, Scripps Howard made a $10 million commitment to the Hampton University journalism program, including a new building.
Among Hampton’s visiting and endowed professionals— Earl Caldwell, Leonard Pitts, Doug Smith, Jack E. White and Wayne Dawkins—Pitts said he had not decided whether to return next year, Smith said he hoped to do so and the others either did not respond to inquiries or said the question was not settled.
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How Class (and Still Race) Are Lived in America
One of Gerald M. Boyd‘s legacies at the New York Times was “How Race is Lived in America,” a series “on a scale unlike anything the Times had done previously,” as the Times described it, which won a Pulitzer in 2001.
The project was the result of a year-long examination by more than 20 Times reporters and photographers. Boyd was a senior editor, with Soma Golden Behr, for the series.
This week the newspaper began a 10-part sequel, “Class in America: Shadowy Lines That Still Divide.”
“This series does not purport to be all-inclusive or the last word on class. It offers no nifty formulas for pigeonholing people. Instead, it represents an inquiry into class as Americans encounter it,” it began Sunday.
Boyd, who was the paper’s first African American managing editor, left in 2003 in the aftermath of the Jayson Blair scandal.
Bylines of color did not appear as the latest Times series began and none was in the news release announcing it. Times spokeswoman Catherine J. Mathis told Journal-isms:
“A diverse group of journalists was involved in the class series but we don’t break down the composition of the workforce on a project by project basis. What I can tell you is that diversity remains an important goal and an increasing proportion of our new hires reflect that.”
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