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.

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.”

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.”

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.

NENPA 2018 Winter Convention

Key Advertising Awards

Advertising General Excellence Award

Specialty Publication

Fiddlehead/Keene (N.H.) Sentinel

Terrence Williams, president and chief operating officer, accepts the award, on behalf of Shay Riley, graphic manager, for the Sentinel’s Fiddlehead publication, from, at right, Michael E. Schroeder, past president of the
New England Newspaper and Press Association board of directors

Weekly Newspaper

 The Vermont Standard of Woodstock
Phillip Camp, publisher, with Schroeder

Best Ad Designer

Specialty Publication

Kimberly Vasseur
Worcester (Mass.) Magazine

Weekly Newspaper

Jane McTeigue
Vineyard Gazette
Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Daily Newspaper

 Mary Dolan
The Day
New London, Conn.

Bulletin photos by Jonathan Polen

New Hall of Famers
praise peers, recall careers fondly

By Jess DeWitt
Bulletin Staff

The latest members to join the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame nominations emerged from the biggest crop of nominees in the Hall’s history.

Although the competition was stiffer, the new members echoed some of the same themes heard at past Hall of Fame induction ceremonies from members who came from thinner fields of candidates.

Six new members were inducted this year. The inductions took place at a dinner Friday, Feb. 23, in the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel in South Boston. The event was part of the New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention, and was attended by almost 150 people.

Those inducted this year sounded familiar themes of how much they loved newspaper work, and they praised and thanked their colleagues and others.

Inducted were 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, chief executive officer of TAB Newspapers, based in Newton, Mass., and founder of Boston Metro; and Lisa Tuite, retired head librarian at The Boston Globe.

Clew noted how worthwhile and enjoyable newspaper work is, and showered gratitude and admiration on his peers.

“It’s been a great ride,” Clew said. “I really feel it’s a lot of fun, and I’ve met the greatest people I’ve ever known in the newspaper business. I’ve met some people that we’ve done stories about … but the greatest people are the people who work there, many of them here right now.”

Cotter thanked his friends and family, and mentioned that technology has not completely changed journalism.

“We still shine a light on the top corners of government,” Cotter said. “We still tell the stories of those whose voices otherwise would not be heard. The Section 8 tenants living in squalor. The woman with cerebral palsy that won’t be able to get to her job if bus service is cut. The elderly whose life savings are being robbed by home-care companions. Journalism makes a difference, and I’m proud to have chosen it. I’m humbled and excited by this recognition tonight.”

Gelzinis praised his former editor, Mike Bello, who introduced him to the crowd. Gelzinis also spoke about how proud he is to have meshed journalism with his community.

“I knew I was able to chase the dream of telling stories about the city I love. In South Boston, where I grew up and still live. A place that has no shortage of stories,” Gelzinis said.

McKie thanked his family and colleagues for helping him thrive in his career. He also spoke about his message to his students.

“I tell them they are in a profession that will never make them rich, maybe not even solvent,” McKie said. “But I tell them, too, that they will never be more challenged and satisfied, and never meet better people … I tell them in all my years in newsrooms, I never once looked at a clock … And most importantly, I tell them that they are entering a noble profession. And noble is the word, my friends. One designed to expose the truth, to expose wrongdoing, to celebrate the uncelebrated, and to otherwise make our society a better place.”

Pergament spent much of his speech telling stories about former colleagues, and offered a bit more of a perspective from the business side of running a newspaper.

“In business, the world starts over,” Pergament said. “You can take charge of your organization. You can motivate your crew, if you’re willing to do the work.”

Tuite’s induction marked the first time a librarian had received the honor. She spoke about the librarian’s job of getting material for reporters and praised her colleagues.

“(Librarian) is a generalist job,” Tuite said. “If you’re in a newsroom, and you’re a business reporter, you don’t necessarily care that there’s breaking news in sports. Or if you’re a sports reporter, you don’t necessarily care that there’s breaking news in metro. A librarian has to care about all of the stuff, and also, they have to have some knowledge about all of that stuff.

“That’s where my colleagues have been so great over the years. You had people you could ask a sports question of, or people who followed The Grateful Dead forever. We’re kind of like a public library in that sense. We answer a lot of general questions. I don’t think, necessarily, the newsroom always understands that we’re spread so thin over so many different departments.

“It’s on the coattails of them that I come here,” Tuite said.

Report or help? When, how
to help in an on-scene crisis

By Rebekah Patton
Bulletin Correspondent

Crises across the country and across the globe remain too present in today’s news coverage. Whether the story is about school gun violence or other mass-casualty incidents, forest fires, or hurricanes, the crisis reporter has a heightened chance of covering a story in a high-risk and unpredictable setting.

Knowing what to do and how to do it might be unclear when a dangerous situation arises, and when the immediacy of covering the story is challenged by the immediacy of saving a life. The role of an on-scene journalist can often be torn between being a working reporter and a compassionate civilian.

In such situations, there is a question of what involvement by on-scene journalists is most useful, and what help might actually be counterproductive.

Patrick Lee Plaisance of Penn State University, a former journalist; Michael Newall, a columnist with the Philadelphia Inquirer; and Jeremy Rodorigo, an executive and responder at American Medical Response in Waterbury, Conn., shared their thoughts during an emotional and timely discussion on when and how to act safely and professionally in such circumstances.

More than 30 people attended the session Friday, Feb. 23, at the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s winter convention at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel.

‘If it becomes a crime scene before your eyes, there is an inherent duty to step away from the camera and help out. Who would otherwise be vulnerable to harm if you were to not act? That is when you need to help.’
— Patrick Lee Plaisance, Professor, College of Communications, Penn State University

Plaisance, a professor at the College of Communications at Penn State University, initiated the discussion by discussing how and when journalists should intervene in a time of imminent danger.

He said it is best to intervene when the threat is imminent, and when you can help others avoid that threat.

“If it becomes a crime scene before your eyes, there is an inherent duty to step away from the camera and help out,” Plaisance said. “Who would otherwise be vulnerable to harm if you were to not act? That is when you need to help.”

“The journalist is also a human being,” Plaisance said. “Help out if you can.”

But Plaisance said that sometimes the best form of helping is recording the scene. Sometimes, the best intervention is telling the story.

One of his examples: During one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent demonstrations in the early 1960s, sheriff’s deputies were throwing children to the ground. An on-scene photographer swung his camera onto his back on impulse and then became involved in shielding the children from harm, Plaisance said.

Plaisance said King witnessed the event and said to the photographer: “The world doesn’t know this happened, because you didn’t photograph it. I’m not being cold-blooded about it, but it is so much more important for you to take a picture of us getting beaten up than for you to be another person joining in the fray.”

Plaisance said: “Understand that the photographing and recording may be the most effective way of intervening at all. You need to realize what kind of aid would be most valuable in the situation and also for the future.”

He reminded the audience that the role of the journalist is not to act as a first responder; journalists should not intervene when they might endanger a life, including their own.

Credibility is also important when covering a story, Plaisance said. Adhering to being an impartial observer is a critical component in journalistic credibility, he said.

Newall covers the opioid epidemic in Philadelphia. Newall said between his experience with losing a brother to a heroin overdose and his firsthand experience of witnessing the impact that the opioid epidemic has caused in Philadelphia, he was compelled to become certified in administration of Narcan, the heroin antidote.

“The difference between life and death for someone in Philadelphia could be a stranger with Narcan,” Newall said.

Newall said he has successfully administered Narcan twice in Philadelphia.

His goal as a columnist is to break down the stigma of opioid addiction and overdose.

Rodorigo, a trainer of emergency medical technicians, concluded the session with a tutorial on the Stop the Bleed campaign, which involves bleeding control kits that are planned to be used in stadiums and heavily populated areas.

“There is a need for people to learn how to stop bleeding,” Rodorigo said.

The kits Rodorigo presented included emergency supplies with visual and written directions. The kits are intended to be used by trained staff at the sites, and by laymen who can open a kit and help respond to an emergency. Tourniquets, gloves, shears to cut off clothing, and gauze saturated with a hemostatic “quick-clot” were a few of the supplies.

Rodorigo said the average response time for his ambulance is seven minutes and 50 seconds for a call about severe medical emergency, such as a heart attack, stroke, or mass-casualty incident. Preparing for the worst with the emergency kits could save countless lives, he said.

John Voket, associate editor of The Newtown (Conn.) Bee and the newly elected NENPA president, moderated the session.

He said, “’Keep writing, keep shooting, don’t get involved’ is all old-age thinking.”

The session concluded with a question from an audience member: “What do you say to a victim when you are trying to help them?”

Rodorigo said: “Tell them you are trying to help them, and you are here with them.”

Even if the victim is unconscious, it is always best to talk to the victim in a calm tone, and explain what you are doing and how you are helping them, he said.

The audience listened in silence.

Protecting public notices
by making them a public service

By Kaitlyn Mangelinkx
Bulletin Correspondent

“Here’s an oxymoron — trusted politician.”

The source of that comment, Ed Henninger, sees public notices as a tool for keeping public officials accountable. But as many newspapers have fallen onto hard economic times, public notices are becoming something else — a way to help save a newspaper.

Governments are required to have public notices published. Newspapers are paid to run the notices, a source of income without which some newspapers might not survive. In recent years, however, some government officials have been trying to find a way to publish public notices by bypassing newspapers and using government websites.

Henninger, director of Henninger Consulting in Rock Hill, S.C., thinks that losing public notices would be disastrous for the newspaper industry. On Saturday, Feb. 24, he led a session explaining the situation at the New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention in the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel in South Boston.

Henninger shared his tips with an audience of about 10 people in a session titled “Public Notice Redesign — Giving them their due.”

The key to saving public notices is getting people to care, Henninger said.

His proposals for get people to care might be concerning to editors, however. Henninger suggested using bigger fonts, adding headlines, putting public notices on their own page, and adding pictures. All of those suggestions can get expensive. Audience members raised those concerns, but Henninger remained focused.

“Do you want to keep the public notices or not?” he asked.

Spending a little time and money on public notices now can save public notices, and thus newspapers, in the long run, Henninger said.

When discussing the changes, Henninger showed slides of traditional and improved public notices. One common change was the addition of a section header and tagline.

“Protecting your right to know,” Henninger declared, looking over the various taglines he uses. “I love that phrase.”

Although the changes seemed drastic, and audience members raised concerns about paying for extra staff to make the changes, existing newspaper software would make the changes simple, Henninger said.

“You can do it in what, 30 seconds?” Henninger said.

One younger audience member replied, “If that.”

Ultimately, Henninger’s intention is “creating a news-look kind of page.” By keeping public notices in a similar format to the rest of the paper, ideally readers will go through public notices in the same way they read the rest of the paper, he said.

To maximize interest, Henninger suggested “making this as local as possible,” with section headers, including pictures of the local courthouse or other local features. Other local visuals could include annotated maps pinpointing regions being affected by certain public notices.

Henninger said that by keeping the public engaged with public notices, he hopes to create a reaction to any attempt to remove public notices from newspapers. Through small, simple changes, public notices can become a portion of the newspaper that readers will fight to protect. For many local papers, public notices are critical. Getting local readers to enjoy public notices means readers will fight to protect public notices, he said.

“We have to start looking at these as public service,” Henninger said.

Government officials cannot be trusted to publicize the information in public notices, so newspapers have not only a business incentive but a moral obligation to improve their treatment of public notices, Henninger said.

“We’re giving them, finally, their due,” he said.

‘The press is to serve the governed, not the governors.’
— Jane Mayer, Writer, The New Yorker

NEFAC award recipients rewarded for doggedly seeking public records, truth

By Rebekah Patton
Bulletin Correspondent

Recipients of honors at the New England First Amendment Coalition’s 2018 awards luncheon did not err on the side of caution in their speeches, but instead they championed the sides of truth and justice.

More than 240 guests congratulated the recipients of the three awards, including the Stephen Hamblett First Amendment Award to Jane Mayer of The New Yorker; the Michael Donoghue Freedom of Information Award to Todd Wallack of The Boston Globe; and the Antonia Orfield Citizenship Award to the Hyde Square Task Force, based in Jamaica Plain, Mass.

The luncheon was held Friday, Feb. 23, at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel in South Boston during the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s winter convention.

The recipients highlighted the importance of persistence and resilience in their careers, and exercised unwavering dedication to the First Amendment.

Emcee Ed Harding, recognized on multiple occasions for his work on-air and on-scene with WCVB’s NewsCenter 5, said: “For everyone in this room conducting the fight, keep fighting.”

Harding said the fight for exposing truth continues.

He shared his struggles with trying to obtain what is supposed to be public information. Among his examples: A team of five investigators attempting to obtain a full after-action report about the Boston Marathon bombing, with complete details of law enforcement involvement. Although the full 440-page report was released to the news investigators by the Massachusetts state police, nearly every page had redactions on it, Harding said.

He then held up a page from the report that was entirely blacked out with redactions, except for a small vertical sliver of readable space. Members of the audience nodded, familiar with the sight.

Two members of the Hyde Square Task Force, Mabel Gondres and Shayne Clinton, accepted the award for the task force. Both are high school seniors, and have been members of the Task Force since ninth grade.

They discussed the uncovering of a 1993 state mandate, requiring TD Garden to hold fundraisers annually for youth recreation facilities, and showing that the state mandate had been ignored for more than 20 years. The audience gave them a standing ovation.

“I was nervous,” Gondres said, referring to having dozens of news outlets inquiring about their disclosure. “But I felt empowered that people were going to find out the truth and what was happening with injustice.”

Gondres discussed the group’s persistence, despite several failed attempts in contact TD Garden.

“Throughout all of this, I still don’t understand how TD Garden can violate a law for over 20 years. No one seemed to care,” she said. “What if I didn’t pay our state taxes for 24 years? I definitely would be receiving some sort of punishment.”

TD Garden has agreed to pay $1.65 million toward building a community recreation center in Jamaica Plain. The Hyde Square Task Force had said TD Garden owed $14 million.

“People like us really need to step up and fight for our cause, and continue to make noise for justice,” Gondres said.

Clinton said: “If we do our research and keep to the facts, we can expose even the most powerful people in the country.”

Wallack, after receiving his award, discussed his experiences in seeking to have the First Amendment upheld. Wallack has worked for the Boston Globe since 2007, and is now an investigative reporter specializing in data journalism, public records and financial reporting.

“Everybody who has filed a public records request in Massachusetts has a story to tell,” he said.

Massachusetts remains the only state in the country where someone can be arrested for serious crimes such as rape or sexual assault, and the public does not have access to that information because it is kept in a confidential log, Wallack said.

Massachusetts is also the only state where the handling of public-record appeals is split between two different agencies, Wallack said. “Unless both agencies agree, nothing happens.

“So what can we do about this?” Wallack said. “One thing we can do is write about it.”

And that’s just what he has done. Wallack recounted his trouble with accessing public records, and with the public having similar issues accessing records.

Wallack said one of the best ways to hold agencies accountable is to file a lawsuit.

Wallack said that for the future, “we need to think about ways to change the law.”

As she accepted her award, Mayer said: “The press is to serve the governed, not the governors.”

Mayer has been a writer for the New Yorker since 1995, and is best known for accountability journalism and for exposing the underpinnings of powerful institutions. She is based in Washington, D.C.

Mayer said journalists should consider the consequences of what they write, and should be fair.

“There is a difference (between) fact and opinion; it is a lesson no journalist can learn too early or too often,” she said.

She discussed how amplifications of falsehoods spread virally through social media, and how huge segments of society can be misled in a matter of minutes.

The unfiltered free-for-all is why it is growing more difficult for serious reporters to distinguish themselves, Mayer said. This “instant information distribution technology” can discredit the authenticity of publications, and it remains the responsibility of journalists to protect free speech and truthful speech.

Mayer said that in 2010 two investigators were hired in hopes of undermining her credibility after she wrote an investigative report on the outsize political influence of two billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch. No errors were found in her report, Mayer said. If that had not been the case, her career could have been brought to an end, she said.

Instead, several colleagues publicly defended her work and her integrity, Mayer said.

“When those (journalists) are attacked, I hope all of you will jump into the fray and speak up for each other … This is all of our fight,” Mayer said.

After Harding returned to the podium to conclude the ceremony, he held up a redacted paper and said: “This is not a stop sign. This is a go sign.”