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Michael Gartner's May 2001 Ombudsman Report

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Michael Gartner's May 2001 Ombudsman Report Brill'sContent: Report fromthe Ombudsman Paget ofS }EffiffiilHHil gUftTEt{T 155U8 } ARCHIYE } TIT$SAOEBOAB0S )F SEA8C}I ?URREilTTEITURES lj;l:ifi:i:rj i.i:rrr:i.l Regulating :i.i:rii:l RealitvTV E .i'':il The PulitzerPrlze This monththe ombudsmanexplores the phenomenonofjourrulists *iuil by the Numbers ii:i::ii:i'i:iil who declineto comment;plus, more on sources-- someanonymous, Laying itlll Off CNN's somenot quiteanonymous enough. iffi Layoffs iff; "did it,:,ts All on the Andycrowley of cNN not return l:,ii.bl Quiet callsseeking comment." :iiti:.::::::..:.: PunditFront ::::::::j::::::::: "did ii::::::::::::: Brit Humeof Fox l:ffi The 60 Minutes News not returncalls seeking comment." Man Author "was B sebastianJunger unavailablefor commentfor this re LookinEfor a story." Miracle R co Spreading seanMcManus, head of cBSSports, and Russell pillar, head of the ViacomInteractive, "did o PotterMaoic not returncalls for .orreni.i' fi tlti-::i.S The Greatest Richardscaife'denied Brill's contenfs interuiew requests and ix:''l Showon Earth didn'trespond to faxedquestions." CurrentIssue ::::::::::::::::;: All of thosequotes are from the Marchissue of Brill,s content, Recent but Headlines theyaren't surprising. Go to the Googre.comsearcn engine, enter FRI the nameof almostany prominentjournalist BooksBoutique "declined or mediaixecutive alongwith the words comment,"and you're likely to find t ReaderFeedback manylistings. L s Corrections .t A sampling:Last year during journalism's momentous ,,Is fr LeonardoDicaprio journalist?" -- c a crisis wasthe actorqualified to m Search Brill's Content interviewPresident t% clintonfor an ABCNews show? -- Newyork's ci Daily Newsreported that ABC,sTed Koppel "declined gi I to of comment."sam Donaldson'sassistant told the newspaper,"At thistime, Sam S ffiN hasno comment." F ln In 1999,when an ethicalissue arose at san Jose'sMercury News abouta reporter'sinvestments, paper's "declined the executiveeditor at the time,Jerry Ceppos, to comment,"according to journalism the rg online reviewof the Universityof souther-nCalifornia's Annenberg DI School. me SE In 1998,when Dan Rather took a glancingshot at conniechung during an interviewwith the American RE "Through Joirnalism Review,the magazineadded: a spokesman,Chung...declined comment." Brill's Content:Report from the Ombudsman Page2 of5 ffir;: And fastyear, york May 2O0t when New magazine'sgossip column wrote Fr about "discontent" Brill's "did at content, it reportedthat steven Brill E FrrgscnfiEI not returncalls." r Overall,what doesthis mean?Often it's as simpfeas thls: Journalistscan dish it out, but they can'ttake it. Manyjournalists $$ -- the printones and the microphoneones -- arethin-skinned. Theypry, they meddle,they snoop,but they don't want to deal with other priers,meddlers, or snoopers.Their attitude doesn't do muchto enhancethe imageof the arrogantpress. specifically,though, what does "declined to comment,, "you've mean?It canmean lots of things.It canmean caughtme in an embarrassingsituation, and nothing "I I say will ma'teit better,so go away."Or knowyou're doing a negativestory, and you;ll twist aroundanything I say "It's or take it out of context,so to hell with you."or not goingto good "I do me any to comment,so no comment."or don'ttalk to yourilk." or "I don'tlike your publication bossor "I [or owneror editorialposition], so get out of here."or couldget in troubrewith [my boss,m-y rea?e.s, my viewers,my lawyerlif I saidanything, so I'm not saying anything." The readerhas to decide.when you're "no readinga storyand you comeacross a comment,"it's worth pausing and trying to figureout the reason.Look at everythingin coniext.Does the storyseem fair or unfair?Is it balancedor hyped?Are the quotes fullysourced, or arethey cheap shots? If the storyis fair "no and balancedand sourced, you can bet a cormenl" means "You've -- got me anythingI saywill simply confirm I'm a jerk or a crookor somethingin between.Nothing I sayis goingto netp my case."If the storyis unfairand hyped "no "you've andanonym6us, you canbet a comment"means alreadyaade up your mindabout me, and nothing I saywill change [hat, so I,m not goingto wastemy timetalking to you." "couldn't A be reachedfor comment"can meana coupleof other things.It canmean that the persontruly couldn'tuJieached -- addingto theirarrogance, famous newspeople rarely have listed telephonenumbers -- or it canmean that tire repoie. waited untilthe lastminute to checkbecause he didn'twant to takethe chanceof ruininga goodstory by gettingthe otherside. It's toughbeing a readerthese days. I've long journalists thoughtthat future shouldn'ttake journalism courses in college,that they wouldbetter spend their days studying history o, ec6no,nicsor Spanishand earning a liberal-artsdegree from somejtace fike Dartmouth or Miils9r. the highlyregaided carleton cotGge. t,tow I'm beginningto thinkthat futurereaders should jou.nalism -- tale courses to learnthe codesof the brotherhoodand thi trlcksof the trade. Anonymousquotes Brill'scontent continues to sprinkleits articleswith anonymous quotes, ignoringthe complaintsof its ombudsman,but the useof Brill'sContent Report fromthe Ombudsman Page3 of5 anonymousquotes in one Marchstory seemed particularly odd. Usuallythe anonymousspeaker is identifiedin somegeneral way that puts him in a groupso big he can retainhis anon-ymity. Kimberlyconniffs fascinatingarticle "one "one on Mr. scaife,foi instance, cites staffer," formeremployee," ',one reporter,', ',one formerreporter," and the like. Unlessyou happento knowtne speechpatterns of Mr. scaife'sdetractors, it wouldbe impossible to identifywho was saying what. But the uncomplim_entaryanonymous quotes in -- the storyon Ari Fleischer alsoa fascinatingstory -- are different.one comes from "oneformer "another Democratiispokesperson." Another from formerDemocratic spokesperson.n Let's see now -- how manyformer Democratic spokespersons are there?There's pierre Salinger, fromthe. Kennedy days, but he served+O V.io ag9,in a differentera, so it's unliketyhe's the speaker.'salingergesidii, Brill,s contentwriter seth Mnookinrefers to ai'in jester amiaole in Bermudashorts," a wonderfullydeicriptive ieim but not one likelyto be usedfor a goodsource. Then there .r" gitt Moyers and.George Reedy from the Johnsonera, Jody poweil from the carter years,and five peoplewho spoke'for president'clinton -- pegr.OeStephanopoulos, Dee Dee Myers, Mike McCurry, Joe Lockhart,and Jake Siewert. Mr. Moyers,Mr. Reedy,nr. poweil, andMr. stephanopoulos were not quotedby name'inthe Fleischer story,which reduces the possibiritythat anyof them is an anonymous source.Therefore, a readercould infer that thosetwo anonymouscritics came from the groupthat comprisedonly Ms. Myers,Mr. McCurry, Mr. Lockhart,lnd'Mr. Sieweri. Sowhy notjust namehim? Or her? The.editors "declined respond:on the questionabout the meaningof to comment,''we wanito pointout that policy this magazlne,s is alwaysto seekcomment from the relevantparties ano never,as MichaelGartner implies, "ruining to wait untilthe lastminute in the hopeof not a goodstory by getting "what tne otirerside.,, In fact,our editorialguidelines state: if ionesli unavailable for comment?Make sure you reavean expricitmeslage-aoout whatyou wantto askand that you makea noteor w6otoot the messageand the timeof the cail.This is not so muchfor regal protectionas to ensurethat you work in a way that produces careful,accurate reporting and wiil enabreyou to ,"rir.ti snappy replywhen Jones writes a rettercompraining aoouiiiow stupio andunfair you are." As for Mr.Gartner's attempt to smokeout seth Mnookin'ssources in hisarticle on Ari Fleisch.e.r:Heargues that anyonenot quoted by name in the storywas rikery not an anonymoussource, and he thereforenarrows down the fieldof possible-rorr.ei.But tn".",, no basisfor that assumption. Toadyism The ombudsmanat Briil's content is supposedto investigate complaints aboutarticres in the magazine,and thereb n5 ,rcn investigationthis month.That's because there were no complaints of substance.The mair was ail aboutprobrems with sulscripflons, Brill's Content: Reportftom the Ombudsman page4 of 5 maifgenerated by a cotumnon the subjecttwo monthsago. perhap,th.,I:g:zine hasbec^o1ne. good ;ffi 'H,:,'iff so and fair and il'i'fi :ilffi .i':rl.int"'-p-",.iiiol,Fmasazinersr" ffif lrff If t; ."",i,;,;=: F;H;l ?:: 5:f o'ni iri'iii' iF,'' remember'.*.,: y*"'.'i. ,'toady"wasr'i#1,3j",X'J,j?lto %uchoose, but termror,n",:lilq,uil I:,,il ffi illJ;ii:i&:?fl;1Xfuffi* or:ffiatansi; *:!Til:1'l:i::l:Tt-*',,,,nfi;;;ruryup'io'li" wasonEurope. rhe poisonousiflitru that orthe toad.rne meoicii.'n'no'nte he hadr*lrroriJ'.= su d d e n Iy th e to a d e a t. i*tij rj j.lffi j,ff T t1[,r"E iL:H[ ;#, i:.ffi"fr:^o11ne,mio"*1,"".,,;ares wourd soir, ano the rh;i;;; ; .* il : ?:ii:.J.t::1r llii "r,: ifliii t_. Broadcastjournalists '!r:li: masazineshourd_say a.sood word or two r.t"Flffifi l-- .contenthas been. about ii. ,;{,: ?:.rti Fd; terevisionasor ni5,:,#i;'#;,13:T::,;lTi,ilTl,E*i#?",,**#i-In. erection-nioht-ri,11co,,, wasafmost., .no ._o]t?Eric Effron partn e rs hip [-",T::l ll "t$#,:'!ll_,_".1.", carI i n s-ih-; XFL root ba || nex t s te p in i neevo ru ti o n. Li' " tr," ii " :':ffi ;*ii: 3""ffiff"1*fl1i"' iii'r,'vi,l!L,.",*,:il !i.'.5."for the c;.'to mainsrrcrm{;l Fine,but for the sakeof bafancemlght I rdd: Terevisionjournatists rrc the bravestJournrfists In thr worfd.. Whencovering wars and,ioG, tnLV have to rlsk weeks thetrilves for on endto get the 90 secondsor rootageii;il. .*f, expectand routinery matter-of-facilvwatch rrom oui riv-i;; ,;;r, in evenings.The TV journarist the cannotreport from t[e edgeof the crowd'what's he is carryingequipment thai a target ror.g, marts hlm as for botflethrowers in iiotl and bombthrowers in wars, Th.enext time you're in Washington,D.C., go to tn" ru"*seum, Arlington, in virginia,and rook at ihe memoriirin the rituepark next door.It liststhe namesof journaristsaround :iT$:;!:+[:[j;?fi,Tlill,il,Xff the worrdwho have journalists ll,ltm:Sil#ij;d= throughoutthe worrd,armost harf oiinor" kiiledon duty -- 226 of those579 -- werebroadcasters.
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