Bulletin photos by Alastair Pike Oreste P. “Rusty” D’Arconte, retired publisher of The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, Mass., and one of the ‘Murder Ink 3’ authors, reads an excerpt from his story, dressed in old-timey newsman garb.
At ‘Murder Ink 3’ launch, party’s over as series ends
By Julia Hutchins Bulletin Correspondent
In a quiet room above the hubbub of the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s recent winter convention, industry professionals gathered for the launching of “Murder Ink 3.” The book is the third and final in a series of murder pulp fiction stories relating to New England newsrooms.
There was no podium or seated panel, unlike at other convention events. A microphone stand at the front of the room faced three rows of seats, but only five people were seated of about 20 people who attended the event. The rest were standing and greeting each other.
“My partner in crime! How have you been?” one woman asked in a group of fewer than 10 people.
The majority of those present were in groups at the back of the room exchanging hellos. The excited attitude set the tone for the readings of passages from the book and discussions that followed.
The Dent sisters, Karen (left) and Roxanne, read from their latest story in the ‘Murder Ink’ series.
The “Murder Ink” series is a collection of short stories, all of which are pulp fiction murders relating to the newsroom, usually with reporters as the main characters. The first book was published in 2016 and premiered at that year’s annual NENPA winter convention. A number of the stories in the newest collection are continuations of previous stories, but “Murder Ink 3” also brought new authors to the launch on Saturday, Feb. 24, at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel in South Boston.
George Geers, who in 2015 came up with the idea of a New England pulp fiction book, owns the company that publishes the series, Plaidswede Publishing Co. of Concord, N.H. After speaking about the book, he thanked the contributing authors for “a good run.” Previously, he and Dan Szczesny, who edited the series, have said that they always envisioned the series as one with three parts.
Of the 15 contributors to the book, nine were present:
Oreste P. “Rusty” D’Arconte, who writes under the pen name O. Lucio d’Arc, has written for the previous “Murder Ink” books. He is the retired publisher of The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, Mass., and continues to write as a columnist for the paper, where he has worked for almost 50 years.
Amy Ray wrote for the first “Murder Ink” book. She has another short story in “Murder Ink 3,” and has had her debut mystery thriller novel published recently.
Jason Allard is a writer who was first published in “Live Free or Undead,” which focused on horror stories taking place in New Hampshire and which was the first book of the New Hampshire Pulp Fiction anthologies.
Mark Arsenault is a reporter at The Boston Globe, where he covers casino development and gambling issues. He has written for the previous “Murder Ink” books. He has experience with fiction writing and is the author of the Billy Povich suspense series.
Karen and Roxanne Dent, or as they call themselves, The Sisters Dent, have written for the previous “Murder Ink” books. As prize-winning novelists, screenwriters, short story writers and playwrights, they write for various genres, including mystery, horror, and paranormal fantasy.
Lisa Eckelbecker is a first-time writer for the “Murder Ink” books. She is a business reporter at the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, Mass. She has more than three decades of experience in the newsroom.
Victor D. Infante has written for the previous “Murder Ink” books, and is entertainment editor for the Telegram & Gazette. He occasionally contributes to OC Weekly, a free weekly paper distributed in Orange County, Calif., and is the editor in chief of Radius, an online literary journal. He also writes poetry and short stories.
Tim Horvath is new to the “Murder Ink” lineup, but is an award-winning writer and teaches creative writing at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. He occasionally blogs for BIG OTHER, a book blog, and is an assistant prose editor for Camera Obscura Journal of Literature & Photography.
The anthology is available for $19.03 online through New Hampshire Booksellers and Plaidswede Publishing Co.
Dan Szczesny, who edited the ‘Murder Ink’ books, speaks to the audience at the book launch for ‘Murder Ink 3’.
Peter Gelzinis started working at the Boston Herald in 1972 and retired Dec. 31, 2017, writing more than 10,000 stories and columns. He started as a copy boy at the Boston Herald American, quickly working his way up, becoming a writer for the Arts pages and interviewing such superstars as Frank Sinatra. In the 1980s, he became a news columnist and was a must-read for any reader who wanted to understand the pulse of the city of Boston.
He is the real Boston columnist, and always has been. He’s a blue-collar guy who lived in South Boston, married and raised his son there. When he wrote about Whitey Bulger in the early years, he’d see one or two of Whitey’s guys standing outside the variety store where he got the morning papers. They’d mention what time his schoolteacher wife got out that afternoon and wished him a good day. Peter didn’t drive a BMW back to a giant house in a wealthy suburb. He lived in the city he covered, with the people he wrote about. That takes nerve and courage. Some columnists would have bragged about that; Peter rarely mentioned it.
He wrote a million columns, and none better than those when big news broke. We could send him anywhere and he would deliver, from the neighborhoods to any news story in America. Go back and read his daily columns from Oklahoma City after the awful bombing of the federal building. It was the only time in more than 20 years of working a daily deadline at the Herald that I ever saw tough, savvy editors on the copy desk get teary as they read his copy.
Peter listened to real people caught up in extraordinary events — whether horrific, mundane or hilarious. He walked into every crime or disaster scene, living room, police or fire station and courthouse there was to get a story. He didn’t mail them in. People knew Peter and trusted him because he told their stories honestly. He understood this town from the inside.
In his farewell column, about things he’ll one day tell his 4-month-old grandson, Jack, about his Herald career, Peter offers this: “If Jack draws any lessons from his grandfather’s adventures, I hope they include compassion, empathy and a willingness to accept people as you find them and listen to their stories.” As usual, Peter gets the essential part of a legacy. In this case, his own.
Russel Pergament is one of the region’s most compelling newspaper publishers in every facet of the business. Editorial, Advertising Sales and Promotion. He is an innovator, an instigator and an inspiration.
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Pergament moved to Boston and began a long career in the newspaper business. His first newspaper job at the Real Paper gave him hand to hand combat training as he battled with the Boston Phoenix for dominance in the alternative weekly market.
That experience led a stint at the Boston Herald where he competed in a larger market of daily newspapers and set the stage for his partnership with Stephen Cummings and Richard Yousoufian with whom he started the TAB Newspapers. In the fierce competition he faced with established weekly and daily newspapers, Pergament honed his trademark sales, promotion and customer service skills.
That is where his skill as an instigator paid off. At the TAB Pergament faced off against community papers with many decades of history by doing the opposite and doing it well. Instead of waiting for subscribers to sign up, he sent a paper to every home in the city. People read the TAB in droves in 14 cities and towns. Readers responded to the advertising, much of which he sold. The Tab was an early adopter of advertorial. Hundreds of local service providers told their stories and made names for themselves in the TAB service directory that included story format copy with photos.
His innovation speaks for itself. From scratch Pergament is responsible for the creation The TAB newspapers, Boston Metro, Boston Now and AM New York. While all of the papers had different missions and markets, one common theme was that these new papers were going head to head with more established media and changed the landscape of the local media.
Hundreds of people have worked for Pergament, many went on to long and distinguished careers in publishing, journalism and other areas of business. Pergament leaves a wide wake of success, talent that he nurtured and heightened expectation from readers.
Bill Clew has been a reporter, editor, manager and mentor at Central Massachusetts newspapers for more than 60 years. He worked at the Telegram & Gazette for 37 years before joining the Catholic Free Press in Worcester in 1991. At age 88, he still works there several days a week as a contributing editor.
Bill’s colleagues say that he hired and cultivated a generation of reporters and editors at the Telegram & Gazette; set the course for daily news coverage that valued verified facts; cared about the story, but also cared about his staff; demanded clear writing and fairness from everyone; led by example, and made training and development his primary goal; inspired his troops to practice good journalism every day; and they describe him as “the epitome of a newspaperman.”
Bill’s inspiration to work at a newspaper was found at home. His father, William J. Clew, was also a newsman, working for The Hartford Courant for 50 years and retiring as its managing editor. Bill joined the Telegram & Gazette on Oct. 3, 1954, as a reporter in the newspaper’s Fitchburg bureau.
After Fitchburg, Bill covered news in the Webster bureau before joining The Evening Gazette city staff. Bill was the definition of “social media” before it was invented. He is truly interested in people and their stories. Wherever he traveled, he would find the “Worcester connection” and bring back news and story ideas. Bill moved from reporter to editor to wire editor. He became The Evening Gazette news editor in 1967 and served in that post for 11 years. He was city editor of the Gazette for two years before taking over as regional editor in 1980.
It was as regional editor that he perhaps had his greatest impact. For nearly a decade, he coached countless reporters who remember his wisdom and steady guidance. Bill not only managed his reporters, but had to balance the night and day demands of different editors and newsrooms, not to mention the more in-depth needs of the Sunday paper. He did so with experience, credibility, trust and humor.
In 1990, he became managing editor/Sunday Telegram, leaving the following year, in 1991. He wasn’t away from news for long. Bill took the weekend off and started at Catholic Free Press where he remains today.
Tim Cotter’s 38-year journalism career has been spent entirely in New England. He began his career with a string of weeklies in southern Rhode Island, where he moved from sports reporter, to news reporter, to sports editor, to editor of the newspaper, winning numerous awards along the way.
In 1989 Tim was hired at The Day in New London, Conn. He started as night city editor, and 10 years ago he was named The Day’s managing editor. Tim was the first-ever online editor at The Day and the first managing editor for online news. He is a member on the board of the New England Society of News Editors, is a past president of the Rhode Island Press Association and taught in the URI Journalism Department.
Tim is a guiding light in The Day’s newsroom. His true skill is in managing big projects. Whether it’s breaking news like a police shooting or crippling blizzard, or Sunday stories probing hiring at the Electric Boat shipyard or the conversion of mainstream city churches to havens for new evangelical congregations, or investigative pieces such as a thorough look at the declining school populations, mortgage fraud, or chronicling the local pain of the national heroin epidemic, Tim directs, encourages and oversees staff to produce quality work.
He makes sure that reporting at The Day is deep, incisive and fair. Even with cutbacks in the newsroom, under Tim’s direction the newspaper has continued to win many awards, including for investigative reporting. That hasn’t happened by accident. His hiring decisions, his grooming of young reports and his leadership of veteran staff has kept The Day a quality publication in an uncertain age. In Tim’s 10 years as The Day’s managing editor, the paper has been recognized as the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s Newspaper of the Year award eight times. Six of the enterprise projects that Tim has edited won Publick Occurrence Awards.
In an age when so many journalists have left the business to make money elsewhere, when reporters are overworked and editors are jaded, people like Tim should be celebrated. He has kept up The Day’s standard against overwhelming odds, and he has done it without drama or fanfare. He’s working on the cutting edge of a social media age while making sure The Day is doing meaningful, nuanced reporting.
Link McKie has had an extraordinary career spanning more than 45 of service for the betterment of journalism across all six states. He has been the voice of solid journalism throughout his career.
As a reporter, he was striving to hold public officials’ feet to the fire, in accountability to the public and in pursuing access to meetings and to records that belong to the public, especially against efforts to keep them secret; investigating and exposing wrongdoing by public officials. As a newsroom manager, Link was creating opportunities for aspiring journalists to enter and prosper in the newsroom, leaving each newspaper at which he managed better than when he arrived, in newsroom training and in the quality of the news report. As a consultant, Link has been available almost non-stop to advise how to handle sticky newsroom situations or to offer career advice for young journalists.
As a journalism professor for about 25 years, Link has exposed scores of undergraduate and graduate students to the practical experience of being reporters and writers; creating networking opportunities for them and assisting students in obtaining career news jobs. While many professors teach a pair of 15-week semesters each year, Link is in the trenches 52 weeks a year working the newsroom lab and producing the NENPA Bulletin – which is one of the benchmark publications among press associations. He is well-known in the profession as being a stickler for following ethical principles in his newsrooms and later in teaching the important codes of ethics.
Link and his newspapers have won their share of top honors. During his early reporting days (1971-1973), United Press International for New England cited him in its annual contest for work on the city staff at the Worcester Telegram. The Sunday Telegram, while he was managing editor, won Newspaper of the Year from NENA in 1987. The Worcester Telegram also received merit awards in both 1987 and 1988 from NENA. During his three years at the Sun, the newspaper won Awards of Merit from NENA in the Newspaper of the Year competition. In two of the three years the Sun ranked first and tied for first in number of awards in its circulation category in the New England AP annual competition. The Sun, in its first year in NEPA, won its 1993 General Excellence Award.
Lisa Tuite took a position at The Boston Globe in 1979 putting newspaper clippings on cardboard, which were made into microfiche. She retired in 2017 as the Globe’s head librarian. As head of the library, she managed the Globe’s vast array of text and photo archives – a priceless resource that continues to provide critical knowledge and insight to reporters and editors day after day.
She didn’t just look up information, she applied her sharp sleuthing mind. She thought and analyzed on behalf of the journalists. Then she dug further and got them even better material. Many of the best reporting breakthroughs at the Globe started with what Lisa Tuite unearthed for reporters there. Having her assist on a story – breaking or enterprise – was like having the best memory bank by your side. She knew where stuff was – whether in clips or public documents and as a student of government she knew what public agency had oversight and who within that agency was approachable.
Tuite and the rest of the library staff have played a key role in producing some of the Globe’s most important works of journalism. The library is involved in every Spotlight story, and it’s city directories were the catalyst for the story on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Librarians manually cross-referenced the directories to follow priests from parish to parish. As names of the priests involved in the scandal came to light, Tuite and her team researched the priests’ backgrounds. Tuite’s “research forensics” revealed the story. (Lisa Tuite is featured in the Oscar-winning movie “Spotlight” – she’s portrayed by actress Michele Proude).
Tuite is the unsung hero of the best investigative journalism – and much of all the outstanding work – done at the Globe.
Bulletin photo by Eliezer Meraz Justin McCabe, a graphic designer with The Day of New London, Conn., strikes a stretchy pose as he dances his way to collect a first-place award for niche publication advertising for the Day’s sister publication, Connecticut Coast & Country, at the advertising, design, circulation and marketing awards ceremony Friday night, Feb. 23, at the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s winter convention.
NENPA’s 2018 convention
features a new site,
lots of new ideas for innovation
By Jess DeWitt Bulletin Staff
One change for the annual New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention this year was its location. It was held for the first time at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel in South Boston.
But the more important changes that dominated the convention were embedded in its theme: Innovation.
“With the whole media landscape changing so much, we want the newspapers to think innovatively, and try to reinvent themselves,” Linda Conway, NENPA’s executive director, said.
“That’s a big reason why we invited Jason Feifer, because he works with entrepreneurs all the time. We want him to get us to think outside the box. Think of things differently. If you’re going to create something new today, is this how you would want to do it? Would you do it the way it normally is? Would you change things only a little bit? Or would you do it totally different?” Conway said.
Both days of the convention, held Friday, Feb. 23, and Saturday, Feb. 24, began with speakers who expressed the value of innovation and being willing to adapt to the changing news-media landscape.
‘You are never a finished product. You are always changing, always revising. You live in a state of constant learning, of constant challenging. If (you are) a finished product, you are just on a shelf, and at some point, you are thrown into the garbage.’ — Jason Feifer, Editor in chief Entrepreneur magazine
Feifer, editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine and the keynote speaker on the convention’s first day, discussed both of those topics.
Feifer urged his audience to get comfortable with a state of “permanent beta.”
“You are never a finished product,” he said. “You are always changing, always revising. You live in a state of constant learning, of constant challenging. If (you are) a finished product, you are just on a shelf, and at some point, you are thrown into the garbage.”
Saturday’s opening speaker, Christopher Goffard, has expanded his journalistic reach into podcasting with “Dirty John,” which he began in 2017 and was one of the most downloaded podcasts of the year. He is a veteran print reporter for the Los Angeles Times, and before “Dirty John” had no radio or podcasting experience.
Goffard provided insight into what he had learned from his first podcast during his discussion, which was attended by almost 100 people. One of the biggest lessons he learned was not to forget the main elements of telling a good story, even though you might be telling it in a different medium.
Bulletin photo by Jonathan Polen ‘Find a good story, report the hell out of it, and the audience will come.’ — Christopher Goffard, Reporter, Los Angeles Times Creator of ‘Dirty John’ podcast
“Find a good story, report the hell out of it, and the audience will come,” Goffard said. “(‘Dirty John’) is a fully-reported story. It involves about a year of reporting, and it’s constructed as a story in the classic sense that it has a beginning, middle, and an end. It has characters facing choices and conflicts and danger. And because it takes you into the lives of sympathetic human beings who are grappling with a crisis … a lot of people can identify with (it).”
Goffard was proud of his final product, encouraging his audience to be willing to try podcasting as well.
Jane Elizabeth, director of the accountability journalism program of the American Press Institute in Arlington, Va., also touched on the innovation theme in her discussion on “Accountability Journalism,” which was attended by more than 25 people. She stressed the importance of a social media team, and how they can help handle the spreading of misinformation online.
“Learn about and engage with your audiences, and study influencers,” Elizabeth gave as two ways to have your social media team go about fighting misinformation.
Bulletin photo by Jonathan Polen ‘Learn about and engage with your audiences, and study influencers.’ — Jane Elizabeth, Director, accountability journalism program, American Press Institute, Arlington, VA.
Another discussion was presented by John Ruddy, copy desk chief of The Day of New London; Tom Zuppa, managing editor of The Sun of Lowell; Emily Sweeney, a reporter at The Boston Globe; and Charles St. Amand, a lecturer at Suffolk University in Boston and secretary-treasurer of the New England Society of News Editors’ board of governors.
The panel discussed how to become your own copy editor.
The audience was quizzed on grammar.
“Grammar is underrated,” Ruddy said. “It is the road map to how you write.”
Zuppa questioned the crowd on mathematics, and then explained the power that math can have in certain forms of journalism. For example, reporting on taxes and real estate requires math skills from a reporter, and could be a subject to study to acquire those skills, he said.
“Math can be really challenging, and if you (learn) some really rudimentary things and do small things to start off, you can get into projects like these eventually, and get the kinds of stories that will really explain things for your community,” Zuppa said.
Saturday at the convention began with the NENPA annual meeting.
John Voket, associate editor of the Newtown (CT) Bee, is the new president of the NENPA board of directors
John Voket, associate editor of The Newtown (Conn.) Bee, was elected president of NENPA’s board of directors. He succeeds Michael E. Schroeder, president, chief executive officer and publisher of three Connecticut dailies, including the New Britain Herald, a sister weekly and monthly in Connecticut, and a weekly in Rhode Island. Schroeder is now past president of the board. Jeff Peterson, publisher of The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, Mass., was elected vice president; Phillip C. Camp, publisher of The Vermont Standard of Woodstock, Vt., was elected treasurer; and Angelo Lynn, editor and publisher of Addison Press in Middlebury, Vt., which owns the Addison County Independent there, was elected secretary. Lynn is the only new member of the board’s executive committee.
Judith Meyer, executive editor of the Sun Journal of Lewiston, Maine, and Devin Hamilton, regional media publisher of the Journal Tribune of Biddeford, Maine, and its affiliated properties in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, were elected as new members of the NENPA board of directors. Leaving the board are Leah Lamson, managing director of the New England High School Journalism Collaborative and former editor of the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, Mass.; Jane Seagrave, publisher of the Vineyard Gazette of Edgartown, Mass.; and Annie Sherman, managing editor of Newport (R.I.) Life Magazine, all of whose board terms expired.
During the meeting, Conway mentioned that the number of people nominated for the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame increased this year to the highest number in the 17-year history of the Hall of Fame, and that the number of journalism scholarship applications NENPA received also reached a record level in 2018.
Six people were inducted into the Hall of Fame at a dinner and ceremony Friday night at the convention. They are William T. Clew, retired after a lengthy career as a reporter and editor at the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, Mass., and still a contributing editor with The Catholic Free Press of Worcester; Timothy Cotter, managing editor of The Day of New London, Conn.; Peter Gelzinis, retired columnist with the Boston Herald; Lincoln McKie Jr., a teacher at the Northeastern University School of Journalism, and former publisher of the Journal Transcript Newspapers, based in Revere, Mass., former executive editor of The Sun of Lowell, Mass., and former managing editor/news of the Telegram & Gazette; Russel Pergament, former chief executive officer of the TAB Newspapers, based in Newton, Mass., and founder of the Boston Metro; and Lisa Tuite, retired head librarian at The Boston Globe.
The convention concluded Saturday night with the New England Better Newspaper Competition Award Winners Banquet, attended by more than 300 people. A total of 212 awards were presented.
Conway said a total of about 850 people attended the convention, down slightly from last year.
Conway said she was thrilled with the quality of the convention as a whole. She praised the speakers and the guests.
“I think (the convention) went great,” she said. “All of the feedback we’ve received has been wholeheartedly positive. I think people enjoyed the sessions and the keynote speakers. The sessions were well attended and attendees came away inspired.”
Following are the key award winners for advertising, design, circulation and marketing presented Friday night, Feb. 23:
Business Innovation, combined class: Addison County Independent, Middlebury, Vt. Best Ad Designer, specialty publications: Kimberly Vasseur, Worcester (Mass.) Magazine Best Ad Designer, weekly: Jane McTeigue, Vineyard Gazette, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. Best Ad Designer, daily: Mary Dolan, The Day, New London, Conn.
Advertising General Excellence, specialty: Shay Riley, Fiddlehead, Keene (N.H.) Sentinel Advertising General Excellence, weekly: The Vermont Standard, Woodstock, Vt.
Following are the key awards winners for news presented Saturday night, Feb. 24:
Innovator Award, combined class: Vineyard Gazette, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. Digital Strategy Excellence, daily: Jessica Garcia, Cecily Weisburg, Allie Baker, Keene (N.H.) Sentinel Rookie of the Year, weekly:Hadley Barndollar, The Exeter (N.H.) News-Letter Rookie of the Year, daily:Aimee Chiavaroli, The Standard-Times, New Bedford, Mass. Photojournalist of the Year, weekly: David Sokol, GateHouse Media New England Photojournalist of the Year, daily: Peter Pereira, The Standard-Times, New Bedford, Mass. Reporter of the Year, weekly: Dan MacAlpine, Ipswich (Mass.) Chronicle Reporter of the Year, daily: Neal Simpson, The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, Mass. General Excellence, specialty publications: Providence (R.I.) Business News
General Excellence, smaller weekly: Mount Desert Islander, Bar Harbor, Maine General Excellence, larger weekly: The Martha’s Vineyard Times, Vineyard Haven, Mass. General Excellence, smaller daily: Concord (N.H.) Monitor General Excellence, larger daily: Republican-American, Waterbury, Conn.
Bulletin photo by Alastair Pike Part of the audience of more than 300 people who attended the journalism awards dinner Saturday night, Feb. 24, at the convention.
Panelist Rob Bertsche holds up a copy of Rolling Stone that contained its disgraced story that contained a fabricated account of a gang rape. Bulletin photos by Jonathan Polen
By Julia Hutchins Bulletin Correspondent
Sexual assault has become an increasingly prevalent topic in the news, especially with the current #metoo movement. That doesn’t make it any easier to write about or to talk to people about, as panelists discussed at a session on “Reporting on Sexual Assault: The journalistic, emotional and legal challenges” at the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s recent winter convention.
“It’s a topic I’ve been grappling with,” said Rob Bertsche, who specializes in media law and First Amendment law as a partner at Prince Lobel Tye LLP, based in Boston. He led the discussion panel Saturday morning, Feb. 24, before an audience of about 35 people. “It’s a hard issue, and there are few good answers.”
The other panelists were Priyanka Dayal McCluskey, a health business and policy reporter for The Boston Globe, and Michael Blanding, an award-winning investigative journalist whose work has appeared in multiple publications, including The New York Times and The Boston Globe.
Although reporting on sexual assault is outside her usual beat, McCluskey recently wrote a story on a suspended head of health care at 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, a Boston-based affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, who reportedly engaged in lewd behavior.
“I was impressed with the number of people who volunteered (themselves to be interviewed) to me,” McCluskey said. “There were more than we could use in the end.”
Not everyone is comfortable with speaking up about sexual assault, Blanding said.
“If they’re not ready to tell their story in a way that they may be challenged on it, they may not be ready to tell it at all,” he said.
Even checking information and getting both sides of a story can shut down sources, McCluskey said. “There is a risk of, when it is known that you’re working on something, that (someone) will try to shut up your sources.”
One of the major pitfalls a reporter can face is taking the side of the person making the accusation, in an attempt to make that person feel comfortable. That can mean anything from not contacting the alleged abuser to not checking facts.
Verifying facts is incredibly important, Blanding said.
He said that “checking more than you think you need to” will both strengthen a story and validate it, as Rolling Stone magazine discovered after its notorious, and false, 2014 story about an alleged gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house party. The story included the account of a young woman who claimed to have been gang raped at the party, and the university’s purported subsequent lack of response. The story was later found to be fabricated; the fraternity in question did not even have a party that night. Although the reporter, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, was experienced, she had fallen in a trap of trusting the source to be telling the truth and promised not to follow up on conversations, which would have disproved the story immediately. The story prompted at least three lawsuits. One resulted in a $3-million judgment against Rolling Stone and Erdely. Another resulted in a $1.65-million settlement against Rolling Stone. The story also damaged the magazine’s reputation.
The thought that “most women are telling the truth and wouldn’t put themselves through this, doesn’t work as proof of truth,” Bertsche said.
Given the sensitive and taboo nature of sexual assault, lawsuits are not unexpected when accusations fly. That has become especially relevant recently, as allegations of sexual misconduct and assault have resulted in people being removed from powerful positions in government, business and the entertainment industry.
Reporters can often find themselves in difficult situations, because accurately reporting on something outside official court proceedings can make them liable, Bertsche said. With no official transcript or records, the offended party can use libel lawsuits against the journalist or his or her news outlet or both.
“From a lawyer’s perspective, if you’re never threatened by a lawsuit, you’re not doing your job. But if you’re surprised by a lawsuit, then you’re also not doing your job,” Bertsche said.
Members of the audience listen to the panelists at the convention session on reporting on sexual assault.
Bulletin photo by Felicia Deonarine
About 55 people attended the panel discussion on ‘Enhancing local government coverage.’
Bulletin photo by Felicia Deonarine ‘About 55 people attended the panel discussion on ‘Enhancing local government coverage.’
Focus on people, sources
two keys to enlivening
local government coverage
By Nadine El-Bawab Bulletin Correspondent
Even though reader interest in local government coverage has waned, it is still important for readers and an important obligation of journalists, according to panelists at the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s recent winter convention. The panelists advised focusing on the people element in politics and on developing sources as just two ways to encourage increased reader interest.
Liz Graves, managing editor at the Mount Desert Islander of Bar Harbor, Maine; Frank Phillips, statehouse bureau chief of The Boston Globe; and Link McKie, a veteran journalist and journalism teacher, were the panelists discussing “Enlivening local government coverage.”
11 Tips for Covering Local Government
The panelists offered advice designed to improve local government coverage.
Graves noted that “when you are the only other person in the room, you get a sense of the alliances” between politicians.
She said “there is no telling when a boring topic will be essential for background information.” Graves suggested “getting to the meetings early” as a good way to talk to politicians because “they won’t be quite as focused on the (meeting) agenda.”
McKie said reporters should be at local government meetings because “you represent those people that aren’t at those meetings because they are at home watching the Kardashians.”
‘(I)f you are going to do this, you have to like politics and like politicians. You have be able to sit there and listen to a lot of dreary government news.’ — Frank Phillips, Statehouse bureau chief, Boston Globe Bulletin photo by Eliezer Meraz
Phillips talked about how technology has made journalism different now than it was when he began his career as a reporter.
“I come from a completely different world. I am a dinosaur. I was introduced into the newsroom with typewriters,” he said.
But even then, politics was what pulled him to journalism.
“I was reading every political journal I could get my hands on,” he said.
His fascination with politics kept Phillips interested in covering it, but he thinks that “if you are going to do this, you have to like politics and like politicians. You have be able to sit there and listen to a lot of dreary government news.”
He described working sources as “kind of like (being) an anthropologist; you are trying to get informants to tell you things.”
Phillips said the 10 years he spent early in his career as a reporter in Lowell were the best years of his journalism career and ultimately his “experience covering local politics makes covering the statehouse so much easier.”
Phillips recalled coverage of his that “was able to get legislation passed to help protect pregnant women in workplaces,” which he said made him “a big hero in some circles.”
He said reporters have to be mindful of the depth of their relationships with sources. Phillips said that when he became a close friend with one of his sources, he told his editor that he wouldn’t be able to cover that source anymore.
His advice on getting sources to open up was to find out what they are interested in and to talk to them about those interests. Phillips said that reporters should remember that when a source lies to them, that’s good for them; they just got a story.
McKie said that he was upfront with sources about being fair with them. McKie said he would tell sources, “‘If you dip your hand in the cookie jar, I will come after you,’ (and) when the time did come and I had to ask the hard questions,” the sources respected that he would write a fair story about them.
McKie thinks that at the end of the day, readers want to know about politicians’ character and “what they are like as people.”
A handout (available here) containing 11 tips about covering local government was distributed to members of the audience at the end of the panel discussion.
About 55 people attended the discussion, held Friday, Feb. 23, in the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel in South Boston.
Not everyone is comfortable with speaking up about sexual assault, Blanding said.
