Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Apologies are owed

Folks,

Here'a another column by journalist Bob Wilson. Now retired, Bob's career includes thirty years of reporting and editing in the "old Tar Heel State."

John
__________________________________

Now that the North Carolina Democratic Party is reportedly mulling an
apology for its seminal role in the 1898 armed overthrow of the
Wilmington city government, and The News & Observer and The Charlotte
Observer already having issued apologies for their sins in that bloody
episode, isn't it time for the state's major dailies to do the same in
the Duke lacrosse case?

After all, they led the charge against the lacrosse team from the get-go, viciously condemning the team even as evidence of a world-class hoax emerged.

In fact, one North Carolina newspaper has apologized. Susan Ihne, editor of The Asheville Citizen-Times, published a mea culpa on Jan. 7, but her remorse got little attention outside western North Carolina. Asheville is 250 miles from Durham.

Ihne wrote, "Did we jump the gun with an April 8 editorial about the
Duke lacrosse incident?"

Her answer, of course, is yes. Here's how Ihne described her paper's
rush to condemn:

"Near the end of the editorial, we said: 'We hope to see a thorough police investigation into this matter so that the guilty -- the
attackers and those who covered for them -- can be punished.'

Our mistake was in saying 'the attackers and those who covered for them.' That phrase assumed there was a rape, even though earlier in the editorial we referred to it as an 'alleged rape.'"
Ihne continued:
"Letter writers called for an apology, and one is due.

We apologize for assuming there was an attack."
Make no mistake: I admire Ihne's courage to admit a serious error in judgment. You can read The Citizen-Times' apology here.

There are two assertions in Ihne's apology column with which I disagree.

First, Ihne implies the Citizen-Times acted under pressure from letter
writers, not from a Damascus Road experience on the part of the
editorial staff. I would like to think the impetus for the apology came
straight from Ihne or the paper's editorial pages editor.

Second, Ihne says Nifong used the media: "We allowed ourselves to be
used as every drab and dribble about the case came to light."

To some extent, Ihne's excuse is understandable. She and her editors
were in the position of Plato's cave dwellers, looking at shadows on the
wall and thinking they are reality. But the shadows are approximations
of reality, and so are news accounts, especially at long distances from
the source.

Newspapers really don't allow themselves to be used by an unscrupulous
prosecutor or other public office. No, they trip themselves when they fail to probe the provenance of a story, especially one fraught with the stench of
corruption and political correctness.

Like people, newspapers are loathed to admit their mistakes. But the
sooner they do, the better for them and their readers.

Ihne's apology is, I suggest, a starting point for apologies from the
Raleigh News & Observer, its news columnist Ruth Sheehan who wrote the "Team's Silence is Sickening" column, and the Durham Herald Sun. They all have much more to account for - conscious, deliberate prejudicial publicity so ably cataloged by the defense and many bloggers - than the Citizen-Times, which did no original reporting on the hoax and its unraveling.

To admit mistakes and learn from them is not capital punishment in journalism. Apologies are the ethical (and sometimes legally preemptive) means of righting grievous wrongs.

The editors at the N&O and the H-S and Sheehan are fully aware of their transgressions in the lacrosse hoax. They, too, should apologize and move on, resolving never to be suckered again by their own ideological predispositions and a flawed, ambitious prosecutor riding injustice to election.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

More terrific commentary from Bob Wilson. The best journalists in North Carolina seem to be retired or blogging. Joe Neff excepted, of course.

Anonymous said...

I live in Black Mountain and read the Citizen-Times. Susan Ihne's apology was half-hearted at best. The last paragraph of her editorial declared that if the players hadn't had the party with the underaged drinking and the stripper in the first place, they'd never have been accused. I found it offensive. I'd have felt better about it if I thought she actually regretted her original editorial. She didn't.

Anonymous said...

The last paragraph of her editorial declared that if the players hadn't had the party with the underaged drinking and the stripper in the first place, they'd never have been accused

Oh, they old "Look at the way they were dressed. They were asking for it" defense...

Anonymous said...

Ashley defends H-S:

http://z9.invisionfree.com/LieStoppers_Board/index.php?showtopic=1616

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:44, I don't think Ashley has much left to defend. When youre reduced to mouthing one excuse after another for nonperformance, your 15 minutes are over.

Anonymous said...

Outstanding. I hope we all follow JinC's lead and keep the pressure on the NandO.

Anonymous said...

Editor and Publisher has produced an embarrassingly inept story. It is one-sided and biased; it also reflects an incredible lack of knowledge of the lacrosse rape frame and Herald-Sun coverage. How fitting that E&P is a trade magazine for the newspaper industry.

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:31, you got it right with E&P. Under editor Greg Mitchell, E&P has moved toward the loony left. You would think a longtime industry voice such as E&P would take pains to be nonpartisan. Not these days.

BTW, I see Prudential has downgraded McClatchy from "neutral" to "underweight." Seems the Boys from Sacramento are having trouble digesting their Knight-Ridder filets.

Anonymous said...

One of the joys of reading the three or four terrific blogs on Nifong's lacrosse frame-up has been the discovery of Bob Wilson. What if the "geniuses" in Paducah, Ky., had installed Wilson instead of Ashley as the Herald-Sun's top editor?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the compliment, Anon 11:10. Truth is, I would rather bungee jump off Duke Chapel with dental floss than work for Paxton Media Group.

Ashley is supposed to be Paxton's best. That's damning with faint praise, isn't it?