May 13, 2005

Newspaper Columnist Resigns After Inquiry

The Sacramento Bee announced Thursday the resignation of an award-winning columnist, the latest in a series of cases across the nation in which journalists had been forced from their jobs because of questions about the veracity of their reporting.
[...]
Last week, USA Today Pentagon correspondent Tom Squitieri resigned under pressure after lifting quotes from another newspaper and using other quotes without attribution.

That followed on the heels of the resignation of veteran Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Al Levine, who pilfered information from two Florida newspapers without crediting them.
Los Angeles Times reporter Eric Slater was dismissed last month when editors at the newspaper could not verify information in an article he wrote about fraternity hazing at Cal State Chico.
The recent headliner in the string of news scandals was bestselling author, sports columnist and TV personality Mitch Albom, who was suspended from the Detroit Free Press for describing a scene in the stands at an NCAA basketball tournament game before the game had been played.

With polls showing journalists already held in low esteem, the run of bad news has alarmed many in the business.
[You don't suppose their falling subscription rates have anything to do with their "alarm," do you?--Jen]

Some reporters and editors theorize that shortcuts and sloppiness have increased because of more competition from Internet news sites and 24-hour television news.
[Notice how careful they are not to even mention we dreaded bloggers!]
Others think standards have been raised and that newspapers insist on more exact reporting than they did in the past.

Those hard-*ssed old-fashioned editors!
They're insisting that reporters use facts, truth and real people for interviews instead of the usual made-up crap that fits their agenda and has always passed for the "news" before someone could "fact-check their *sses!"

While this story makes clear that there has been more than one incident at more than one paper, they still left out Jason Blair at the NYSlimes, Andrew Gilligan and his "sexed-up" story on the BBC, the reporter at the Boston Globe that made up a PETA-enraging seal hunt story and similar mis-reporting on WiredNews.com.
Who knows how many reporters, papers and editors have to bite the dust before they figure out that they have to report the NEWS or else face extinction like the dinosaurs?
Their audience is heading for the exits as the folks in Old Media give us plenty of reasons to leave!
And long live the Pajamahadeen--let's keep after these snakeoil salesmen who pretend to be purveyors of truth!