Bylines   

Burning the Source, Redux: The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Columbus bureau chief, Jim Underwood , resigns after charging that Managing Editor Gary Clark and Assistant Managing Editor Robert McAuley published the name of a source to whom Underwood had promised confidentiality. Working with reporter Mark Tatge , Underwood had arranged to interview members of the usually secretive Ohio Supreme Court about the questionable ethics of Justice Andy Douglas . "We agreed to do off-the-record interviews and then go back to negotiate quotes [that could be attributed]," says Underwood. "There was never a question raised as to how we approached it... It's not like I've been some slop reporter who lets public

officials off the hook." Problems arose, Underwood says,

after he and Tatge completed a draft for the newspaper's lawyers that included quotes that had yet to be approved. One had Justice Herb Brown describing Douglas as "ruthless," a comment Brown later said could not be attributed. McAuley and Clark referred WJR to Editor David Hall , who says that the Plain Dealer "by long practice does not allow quotes to be cleared with sources before publication. I do not think the judge was treated unfairly; I think he got cold feet." Underwood says he had no dealings with Hall on the story, but the editor is known for his dislike of confidential sources. As executive editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 1982, he ordered a reporter to identify Republican publicist Dan Cohen , who had been promised confidentiality, as the source of damaging information about a Democrat. Cohen sued and nine years later won a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision (see WJR, September 1991). "This ain't the Cohen case," Hall says, "not by a long shot."

Prison Walls: Reporter Christopher Smart of the Salt Lake Tribune in Utah resigns after a dispute with Editor James Shelledy . The controversy arose after corrections officials taped at least a half dozen of Smart's phone interviews with inmates over the course of 18 months and supplied transcripts to the paper. Among other things, they include a comment by Smart that certain allegations by prisoners might "blow [corrections chief Lane ] McCotter out of the water." McCotter delivered the transcripts to Shelledy and complained he was being "set up" by Smart during an election year in which he could lose his appointment. Says Smart, "My editors started to go ballistic, saying..if we ever ran this story with your byline and he produced this document, we could be sued." Shelledy, who recalls the same conversation as "very calm," says he wasn't surprised that prisoners' phone calls were taped and didn't feel he could complain too loudly. "We had been doing a little taping [without permission] ourselves [during phone interviews] and I thought it would have been hypocritical for us to go screaming about it," he says, although he now forbids the otherwise legal practice. Smart believes the corrections department kept a "secret file" on him (although he told WJR that he knew only of the transcripts) and says the newspaper didn't seem to care. "I do not want files kept on reporters," responds Shelledy. "But there shouldn't be anything in that file a reporter should have to worry about."

WJR and Beyond: Bill Monroe , former editor of WJR, becomes ombudsman for Stars & Stripes. The former NBC Washington bureau chief and "Meet the Press" moderator will keep tabs on the Tokyo- and Darmstadt, Germany-based editions of the newspaper overseen by the Pentagon but produced by civilian editors and reporters. "Obviously the concept has got contradictions, but Stars & Stripes is supposed to have its independence," says Monroe, who spent three years in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Monroe plans to regularly visit both papers' newsrooms to talk with staffers. He succeeds Phil Foisie , the one-time executive editor of the International Herald Tribune and former foreign editor at the Washington Post who has held the job since it was created in 1989. "This is the third time I've retired," Foisie says.

Magazines: James Henke resigns after 15 years with Rolling Stone to join Elektra Records as vice president for product development. He began as a copy editor. "Their building is right next door, so I don't have too far to walk," he says. The magazine also hires Barbara O'Dair , formerly with Entertainment Weekly, as a senior editor... Money opens a Washington bureau and names Deborah Lohse as correspondent. "With Bill Clinton in office, we expect a lot of changes in subjects our readers are interested in, such as taxes, student loans, that sort of thing," she says... U.S. News & World Report names Susan Headden , a reporter for the past 12 years at the Indianapolis Star who won a Pulitzer in 1991 for examining Indiana's medical malpractice laws, as an investigative reporter... The Advocate hires Cheryl Coward , formerly a reporter at the Washington Blade, as its Washington correspondent.

At the White House : NBC's

Andrea Mitchell returns after serving as the beat's No. 2 reporter during the Reagan years and the top congressional reporter during the Bush years. Lisa Myers takes over covering Congress and John Cochran , who had been White House correspondent, will get a new assignment. At CNN, Mary Tillotson leaves the beat to become a general assignment reporter... Newsweek names Eleanor Clift , deputy Washington bureau chief, to the beat. For the past six years, she had been congressional and political correspondent after covering the Carter and Reagan administrations. She succeeds Ann McDaniel , who becomes congressional correspondent. The magazine also names Mark Miller , formerly special projects reporter, as a White House correspondent, and moves Senior White House Correspondent Tom DeFrank to special assignment.

Newspapers: The Boston Globe names David Shribman , formerly a political reporter for the Wall Street Journal, to succeed Michael Putzel as Washington bureau chief. Shribman also becomes an assistant managing editor; Putzel will cover the new administration... New York Newsday appoints feature writer Paul Colford to write a new weekly column, "Ink," about the media... The Los Angeles Times names Sonia Nazario , formerly with the Wall Street Journal and once a reporter for El Pais in Madrid, as a metro reporter. The paper also promotes Armando Acuna , city editor of the San Diego County edition, to Sacramento bureau chief. He succeeds George Skelton , who now writes a column on state politics. And the Times names Don Nauss , formerly an assistant business editor, as Detroit bureau chief. He replaces Don Woutat , who moves to Sacramento.

Chains: McClatchy Newspapers names John Jacobs as political editor. Formerly chief political writer for the San Francisco Examiner, Jacobs succeeds Martin Smith , who retires after 16 years at the position and 35 years as a reporter and editor with the chain. McClatchy owns the Sacramento Bee and 11 other dailies... Knight-Ridder names Marty Claus , formerly managing editor for features and business at the Detroit Free Press, as vice president for news. She succeeds Bill Baker , who retires.

Radio: National Public Radio names Elizabeth Arnold as its national political correspondent and Brian Naylor as its Capitol Hill reporter. NPR also hires science reporter Joe Palca , formerly a senior writer at Science magazine. He'll fill in for Michael Skoler , now a fellow at Harvard University. And Derek Reveron rejoins the radio network as its correspondent in Miami. Reveron, who reported for NPR in the early 1980s, later worked for the Baltimore Sun and the Miami Herald.

Networks: Catherine Crier leaves CNN to become a correspondent for the ABC newsmagazine, "20/20." She had been co-anchor of the cable network's evening newscast with Bernard Shaw , along with its daily "Inside Politics" program. She also hosted "Crier & Co.," a talk show.

Bobbie Battista succeeds Crier as co-anchor of "The World Today," while Shaw now anchors "Politics" solo. The talk show will be renamed "CNN & Co." and have rotating hosts until a new host is selected... Renee Poussaint , an anchor and reporter at Washington's WJLA since 1978 and a former CBS News reporter, joins ABC's "PrimeTime Live" as a correspondent. She'll report from Washington for a year or so before moving to New York... CBS has plans to launch a newsmagazine hosted by Connie Chung ,

although no date has been set. ABC, meanwhile, plans to debut a similar program in March and another this summer. That means news junkies may soon have nine newsmagazine shows to chose from each week... NBC names Kim Hindrew , formerly an anchor at WMC in Memphis, as co-anchor for "Nightside."

Local TV Feeds: Houston's KNWS names Mike Crew as news director. The station is not yet on the air, but expects a spring debut as what KNWS says is the nation's first non-cable all-news channel. Spearheaded by Detroit station owner Doug Johnson , it will have an initial crew of 70 people. "Doug wanted slightly different newscasts than what's most common in Houston, the blood-and-guts and event-driven items," says Crew, who worked in San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., and Jacksonville, Florida, before launching a news department three years ago at KHTV outside Houston. "We want a more positive, more solution-oriented broadcast.".. Nannette Wilson , formerly senior producer at WRC in Washington, becomes executive producer at Baltimore's WBAL. Wilson says she left partly because she had "been in the loop for so long and found myself working for the same guy I'd worked for 11 years ago [at WJZ in Baltimore] when Dick Reingold was hired as news director. I thought, 'What are the chances of this happening?'.. I needed a new game with different rules.".. Larry Kane , an anchor and reporter at Philadelphia's WCAU since 1978, joins rival KYW as host and editor in chief of its new prime time newsmagazine. The show debuts this summer.