Bylines   

Suzan Revah

Kill His Lawyer Too

A Trentonian editorial about the trial of Jesse K. Timmendequas , confessed murderer of 7-year-old Megan Kanka , for whom the law requiring neighborhood notification when a pedophile moves in was named, becomes the talk of the courtroom for its harsh words about Timmendequas' defense attorney, Barbara Lependorf . Lependorf told the jury that Timmendequas should not be sentenced to death because it was Kanka, not Timmendequas, who initiated the contact that led to her kidnapping and fatal sexual assault when she asked to see his puppy. The May 29 editorial was hyped on the tabloid's front page under the screaming headline, "Jesse's Attorney Says: Megan Asked For It." The editorial proceeded to ask, rhetorically, whether Lependorf couldn't be sentenced to death along with her client. Both prosecutors in the case, along with the judge, defended Lependorf and denounced the Trentonian. But the paper is unapologetic for the editorial's inflammatory tone. Trentonian Executive Editor Michael Raffaele says the paper has been flooded with phone calls from readers who support the hard line taken in the editorial. "We understand that a defense attorney has to say whatever it takes to get someone off the hook, but [Lependorf] crossed a moral line," Raffaele says. "We earned a lot of fans for [the editorial], and it energized our newsroom to know that we made an impact."

Oops!

The Palm Beach Post 's attempt to provide the definitive word on the city's best businesses turns out to be not so definitive, and the paper finds itself in the unenviable position of having to publish a page one correction and a reprint of its annual listing of Palm Beach's top 50 public companies. The Post had contracted with Nordby International Inc., a Colorado-based research company, to compile and sort the mountains of information required to produce such a listing. But the paper's editors came to regret that decision after a classic database error rendered useless the Post's 108-page section detailing the rankings. Apparently every stock price Nordby had used to figure price/earnings ratios and market capitalization charts was inadvertently moved down one line on its tables. The glitch resulted in a huge headache for the paper's business staff, which recreated the top 50 list in two days in order to be in a better position to beg forgiveness from the local business community and the paper's readership. Neil Nordby , president of Nordby International, is looking for a little forgiveness himself and has refunded all of the Post's money. "We're acutely aware of who was impacted the most by this error, and that's the paper and its audience," he says. "The bottom line is there's no excuse for it." Post Executive Business Editor Susan Bowles says the paper has learned from the fiasco. "We didn't feel a compunction to double-check everything," she says. "But now we know if you want something done right you have to do it yourself."

Revolving Door Revolt

The Arlington Star-Telegram , the Arlington, Texas, edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram , thought it had scored something of a coup when it added Richard Greene to its masthead. Greene, Arlington's mayor until a few months ago, will be a columnist for the paper as well as vice president of community relations, a role that will have him handling the paper's relations with nonprofit, community and volunteer groups. But newsroom staffers, many of whom are still reeling from Greene's contentious attempts while in office to talk reporters out of writing stories that portrayed him negatively, were considerably less than enthused about Greene's spin through the revolving door. Many were outraged that they had no prior knowledge of the paper's efforts to get Greene on board, though not nearly as outraged as they were when they learned that Greene, whose only journalism experience was a stint as an obit writer at the now-defunct Monroe, Louisiana, Morning World 36 years ago, would have a seat (and a vote) on the paper's editorial board. The potential for conflicts of interest is too great, many staffers argued in a two-hour venting session called to discuss Greene's hire, and their point seemed valid given that the paper had run a fluffy 32-page special section called "Richard Greene: Legacy of a Leader" the day before the hire was announced. Arlington Star-Telegram Publisher Mac Tully says all the concerns about Greene can be explained away and that the potential for conflict is outweighed by the intimate knowledge of Arlington and its citizens that Greene will bring to the paper. He says the timing of the special section "could certainly have been better," but that the editors in charge of the section were purposely left out of the Greene-hiring loop so their news judgment would not be clouded. As for conflicts of interest that might arise during editorial board votes, Tully says Greene has promised to recuse himself from any vote that deals with issues he is close to. "We're committed to being a watchdog," Tully adds. "We have no intention of letting this situation become what our staffers fear it might be."

On the Road

Time Managing Editor Walter Isaacson decided it was time for an alternative to the magazine's annual editorial pilgrimage to various world capitals to interview various world ministers. Convinced that today's compelling news stories are taking place in local communities rather than on a global scale, Isaacson opted for "that most American of all genres," the road trip. He arranged a cross-country bus trip that would take a group of Time editors and writers through 12 states along Route 50. The results of the two-and-a-half-week trek, which Time describes as an "American mind meld," are published in an extensive report in the newsweekly's June 30 issue. "Journalists often get a bit out of touch," Isaacson says. "Many haven't been to a Rotary Club meeting or a school board meeting in a long time, and I thought this would be a fun way to tackle the question of why American journalism feels so out of touch." While Isaacson admits his pit stops in churches and town meetings in places like Athens, Ohio, and Gunnison, Colorado, were too brief to draw any sweeping conclusions, he says he saw and learned enough to conclude that the road trip should become an annual Time-honored tradition. He hints that next year the road trip might actually be a boat trip down the Mississippi River that ends up in Isaacson's native New Orleans.

Will the Real Robert Fisk(e) Please Stand Up?

So much for that exclusive. New York Post Washington reporter Brian Blomquist makes a mistake he says he might have found humorous had he not been so humiliated. In a May 16 Post article, Blomquist reported that former Whitewater special counsel Robert B. Fiske thought current special counsel Kenneth Starr 's investigation was dead in the Whitewater, basing the story on several quotes from Fiske. Unfortunately for Blomquist, however, he unknowingly was quoting Robert Fisk , a Washington lawyer who apparently was so fed up with reporters mistaking his identity that he decided not to correct Blomquist's erroneous line of inquiry. The real Robert Fiske, however, did correct Blomquist's report, in a call to Post editors the day Blomquist's article ran. The paper ran a retraction the following day, labeling Fisk a liar and running his picture with the sour-grapes cutline, "Just a nobody." Blomquist, who was flown to New York for a serious talking-to by his editors, says he has learned from his unwitting participation in the media hoax created by Fisk, who declined to comment on his duplicity. "In hindsight some flags went up that I didn't pay attention to because this was too good a story, and that's where I take all the blame," Blomquist says. "I let my guard down and I paid a price, and now my guard is back up."

Welcome to Cupertino

San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb , author of "Dark Alliance," the paper's controversial series suggesting a connection between the CIA and the crack cocaine epidemic that has ravaged America's inner cities, pays a stiff price for his continuing rebellion against the paper's executive editor, Jerry Ceppos . In the latest episode, which follows Ceppos' very public criticism of the series and Webb's subsequent description of Ceppos' backpedaling as "nauseating" (see "From the Editor," June), the Sacramento-based Webb is reassigned, though some might say exiled, to the paper's Cupertino bureau. He is also pulled off the CIA/crack story, which he had been continuing to track despite Ceppos' decision not to publish four follow-up articles Webb had filed (Ceppos has described them as mere "notes"). Webb says he is not surprised by Ceppos' effort to get him out of sight and out of mind, but that he is surprised by being taken off the story with which his byline became synonymous. At press time he was filing a grievance against Ceppos' action, which might violate the paper's guild contract if the sudden transfer is ruled punitive. "It's just harassment, pure and simple," Webb says. (Ceppos would not comment on the matter.) Asked if he would look for a job at another paper rather than accept the reassignment that will have him commuting an extra 300 miles per day, Webb says he won't give up that easily. "My interest is in pursuing the story. I am going to fight to keep my job, and if I have to be harassed for months to be reinstated I'll do that." As for whether all his efforts were worth being sent to the Cupertino doghouse, Webb says he has no regrets. "I got it right and got [the story] out there first, and that was my big sin," he says. "You go after the CIA and you pay with your career."

Suzan Revah