Chron explains last week's embarrassing editorial
Chron Reader Rep. James Campbell has a column in today's Outlook section on that embarrassing editorial oops from last Sunday. He also wrote a blog post about it last week and the comments are quite illuminating.
We learn that the Outlook section is finalized on Friday night so it can be delivered on Saturday in the Sunday paper. Phew! That's rather dinosaur-ish.
We also learn that the editorial writer did NOT watch the videos (that were alongside the story), as the editorial implied. Instead Campbell says the Editorial LiveJournalist writer researched other news stories to come up with his/her editorial. Kinda funny, eh? A news person getting burned by bad reporting in other news outlets!
Those of us who watched the videos (that were alongside the story) could see that the AP's account of what was on the videos didn't accurately reflect what was on the videos.
It's also odd that the Editorial LiveJournalist writer didn't see fit to mention the subsequent AP story that had Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco telling President Bush that the levees had not been breached. That story was out well before the Friday-written editorial was put to bed. Some research!
And we learn that editorial page Editor James Howard Gibbons was on vacation and should not be held responsible for what happened. Er, except that we have seen plenty of instances where Chronicle editorials have called for President Bush to be held responsible for things that have been out of his control (especially when he's on vacation in Crawford!). Check out Sedosi for the latest example of that.
Toward the end of Campbell's column he writes:
A church/state separation exists between the editorial board and the newsroom. It probably never occurred to the copy desk editor to contact the editorial board or vice versa about the correction. Of course, this kind of territorial divide can make for some interesting and embarrassing blindsides, as was the case this time.
A church/state separation? Maybe it's time to knock down that (not in the Constitution) wall.
And:
We issued a correction of the editorial on Tuesday that read: "An editorial on Page E2 of Sunday's Chronicle repeated an error in an Associated Press story. A White House video showed President Bush being warned that floodwaters could flow over New Orleans' levees. He was not told the levees could be breached."
Ah yes. The teensy weensy correction box on the bottom of page 2. And the original editorial still doesn't note the correction.
In Campbell's blog post he writes:
There is a church/state separation between the editorial board and the newsroom. They stay out of our business. We stay out of theirs. We're not even on the same floor.
I don't live in the same city as Kevin, Callie and Cathy, yet amazingly enough, we are still able to communicate. Daily even!
It is truly wondrous!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/12/06 07:52 AM | Print | Comments (5)
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