Have a safe holiday

Enjoy the Memorial Day weekend and drive safely. I will be hanging out in the Napa Valley area, but I will return to blogging on Tuesday, June 1.

More recycled quotes

In another iteration of the "recycled quotes" drum I previously beat here, The Salt Lake Tribune in this story used a quote from The Seattle Times. At least this time the writer attributed the quotation to the publication from whence it came.

Daily "guzzlegate" installment

My compliments to The Salt Lake Tribune for tenaciously uncovering and then covering the Salt Lake County vehicle abuse scandal; today's developments are chronicled here. In this case, one news outlet, at least, has risen up from the normal guard dog or lap dog state to become a true watchdog. And that's about the highest distinction I can give a news media organization.

"Toy Dept." recycles old quotes

This story in The Salt Lake Tribune today points up an issue I see frequently in sports stories. Near the end of the story about three leading candidates for the open Utah State University athletic director job, the reporter recycles an old quote from former Air Force Academy A.D. Randy Spetman. The story says: "That amounted to a demotion in the military, and Spetman has said his retirement was 'probably more of a personal thing with my ego, which got in the way.'" Later, the reporter makes it clear that he did not speak with Spetman, who "could not be reached for comment."

My question: When is it OK for reporters to recycle old quotes (often taken from other online newspapers without attribution)? Does the reporter have an obligation to the source (not to mention to his or her readers) to get the most updated quote possible or simply acknowledge he could not get a comment? Or is it better for readers to have some idea of what the source might say, based on what he or she said in the past?

Minority candidates

This story (free registration required) in the Standard-Examiner was very well-conceived and fairly well-executed. I have long believed the news media (and political parties) were only hurting themselves by ignoring Utah's minority populations. Two minor glitches with the story: first, it was entitled "More minority candidates run" but the story admitted it did not know how many minorities had run in the past; second, there was a subhed entitled "Not just Democrats," but the next subhed was "Only one Republican."

Spanish literature

I enjoyed this story in today's Salt Lake Tribune entitled "Stores offer more books in Spanish." There was a problem, though, with the accented letters not showing up in the online text. The reporter named three Latin American writers who have been awarded the Nobel Prize: Pablo Neruda (1971), Octavio Paz(1990) and Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1982) (notice my accented letters don't show up either). I wouldn't have expected the writer to list them all, but there are two other Latin American writers who have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature: Miguel Angel Asturias (1967) and Gabriela Mistral (1945).

The most deserving Latin American writer of all, Jorge Luis Borges, never won a Nobel Prize in Literature. Borges' problem was that he supported too many Argentina military juntas and was not leftist enough for the Nobel Committee at the Swedish Academy.

Conference invite

I was notified this weekend that my research paper entitled "Medium-Based Regulation and Criminal Libel on the Internet" has been awarded a Third Place Faculty Paper and invited for presentation in the Law Division at the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The conference is in August at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel. I will advise when the paper is available online.

Coincidence? I don't think so

Just days after I suggested, in a post you can access here, that Utah news media should post more online updates throughout the day, The Salt Lake Tribune today has already posted two breaking news stories online. Check them out here and here.

Apology in advance

For an interesting apology in advance from Deseret Morning News publisher Jim Wall, see this link. What other choices do newspapers have in this situation? Pull the comics altogether?

Congrats

Congratulations to all the journalists honored last night at the banquet of the Utah Headliners chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. You can see the names here and here. The Watchdog makes special mention of the Deseret Morning News' Dennis Romboy, a good friend, who was named best large-circulation newspaper reporter in Utah.

More grammar errors

This story from the Associated Press, which The Salt Lake Tribune ran today to catch up with the Deseret Morning News' earlier coverage, contains incorrect apostrophes after two instances of using the letter "U." The problem with the correct usage is that the word looks like "us" rather than the plural of "U."

Name spelled wrong

This may seem like a small thing, but I noticed it because it's an error I have made before: In this story in today's Salt Lake Tribune, BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins' name is misspelled. Journalists should always be sticklers for accuracy, and in a day when Eats, Shoots & Leaves is a No. 1 seller on Amazon.com, it's apparent that many other people are as well.

Online updates

Earlier this afternoon, The Salt Lake Tribune posted this online update on the Martha Stewart witness being charged with perjury. The Deseret Morning News occasionally posts breaking news stories online as well. My only problem with the two newspapers' practice in this regard is that they do not do it enough. In this age of 24-hour news cycles, why wouldn't a news operation take advantage of the opportunity to post news as it happens throughout the day? Far from diluting the print content, this practice will further solidify the newspapers' place in their consumers' minds as authoritative sources of news worthy of constant attention.

House editorial vs. guest commentary

When I began to read this editorial in today's Daily Herald, I assumed it was the newspaper's house editorial, given that it says only "The Daily Herald" at the top. At the bottom of the story, however, there is a tag line for Rich Lowry of the National Review. The Herald should be more clear about who authored the piece.

Details good for news consumers but bad for lawyers?

This story, headlined "Circumstances behind Ogden killing confusing," in today's Standard-Examiner, contains more details than are often available to newspaper reporters the day after an alleged slaying. My guess is that neither the suspect's defense attorney nor Weber County prosecutors will be too happy with the story, but readers of the paper benefited. Do you think the interests of news consumers and lawyers are always at odds?

BYU police stake out Fred Meyer?

In this story in today's Deseret Morning News, the reporter states that a University of Utah baseball player was arrested at Fred Meyer when he tried to pick up developed photographs of himself and teammates in the act of defacing the "Y" on a mountain east of Provo. The story, with attribution to a BYU police captain, states that BYU police arrested the man at a Salt Lake City Fred Meyer store. I'm wondering if that was an error because it seems unlikely that a university police force would go outside its jurisdiction and wait for a man to come pick up his photos at Fred Meyer, especially given that the story states the incident happened on Utah County property.

Ellipses at the end of a news story?

This story in today's Deseret Morning News contains something I don't remember having seen very frequently, if ever: ellipses after the last line of a story. This was not a column but ostensibly a hard news story, albeit one with a slightly sarcastic tone. Tell me if you think this is appropriate.

Headline writing with the angels

I found the headline, "We're no angels," on this house editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune to be out of character with the story itself. The copy editors who write headlines have a tough job: writing something short and catchy that embodies a nuanced article or editorial. Still, this headline was poor workmanship as it does not attempt to reflect the subtleties of the editorial itself.

Every newspaper with an owner has its sacred cows

Does anyone doubt that this obituary in today's Salt Lake Tribune would not have been considered newsworthy before MediaNews Group owned the Trib? I'm not complaining, because I'm sure Elizabeth Scudder deserves the tribute, but it just goes to show that every newspaper with an owner has certain favored positions and sacred cows.

Trib goes libertarian

By virtue of this house editorial arguing that government should "get out of the marriage business entirely," it appears The Salt Lake Tribune has gone libertarian, which is not to say that it has gone Libertarian.

Comrades-in-arms

A fellow media watchdog, Accuracy in Media(AIM), spotted an error in the ABC show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" that cost an Orem, Utah, Catholic priest his shot at seven figures. The show has invited the priest back for another chance.

Griffith not a professor

I don't often direct public criticism toward student journalists, but this story in BYU's Daily Universe deserves mention. The reporter did a credible job writing the story, but the copy editor who wrote in the headline that Griffith was a "professor" may have erred. Now, I don't know that Griffith has not taught some class at BYU since his arrival in Provo in 2000, but I have generally heard him described as BYU's general counsel and not as a professor. In any case, it just goes to show you that the news business is both ego-boosting and humbling: On the same day of that apparently mistaken hed, there is news of the Daily Universe being named the No. 2 student newspaper in the country behind the UCLA Daily Bruin.

Wrong hed

The headline on this story in the online edition of The Salt Lake Tribune reads: "Some of Utah's American Indians consider choosing separate schools." Yet the story discusses English-speaking Latinos who are forced by Utah school administrators into ESL classes. The actual hed looks like it should have been: "Brown v. Board: A question of priority." The story reads fine, although its link to Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) seems tenuous at best. The headline writer (of the correct hed), like me, seemed to struggle to define this story, as "Brown v. Board: A question of priority" is very vague and has no real connection to the story itself. Among a veritable tidal wave of stories this weekend on Brown, I much more enjoyed this story in Sunday's Trib.

Benson column worthless or groundbreaking?

When I first read this column by Lee Benson of the Deseret Morning News, I asked myself, "Why is this in a daily newspaper?" I had a hard time figuring out what was the "point" of the column. Then, I remembered that I have criticized journalists for always covering the same types of stories in the same way. Maybe this is a different approach to news/column writing that should be embraced. What do you think? Tell me here.

Vern Anderson's mea culpa

This column in today's Salt Lake Tribune contains a remarkable admission of error by Trib opinion editor Vern Anderson. Although Anderson calls this corrective column merely a "writethru," what it really amounts to is admitting that he submitted to a knee-jerk liberal reaction in blaming the Utah Republican Party's right-wing element for defeating Gov. Olene Walker at the May 8 GOP nominating convention.

Bar doesn't "swear in" new lawyers

In this rather simplistic story in the Deseret Morning News, the writer commits the error of stating that a new attorney "was sworn in as an officer of the court by the Utah State Bar."

Actually, the Utah Supreme Court governs the practice of law in Utah, including attorney admissions and discipline. The Supreme Court delegates a portion of its authority to the Utah State Bar, but swearing-in of new lawyers can be done only by a judge, court clerk or other person authorized to administer oaths. This does not include the Utah State Bar. It does include, however, judges outside the state of Utah. For example, I was sworn in as a member of the Utah State Bar on October 29, 2003, in Santa Barbara, California, by Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Reader panel or easy sources?

The Salt Lake Tribune is asking for volunteers to serve on a readers panel:

As towns and cities in Utah get larger, representing an entire community can be a daunting task for a newspaper. We at the Web edition of The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah Online, are stepping up our efforts to improve communication with you, our growing online community.
Our hope is to compile a list of thoughtful readers willing to share their ideas, opinions and thoughts with us and with the community.

Even after reading the entire description of the panel, the Watchdog is still somewhat unsure whether the panel is supposed to comment on the the Tribune's coverage of news or news events themselves. Perhaps some enterprising Watchdog readers can volunteer and share their experiences here.

Tribune joins tort reform movement

Many people in this country advocate tort reform. Apparently, you can add The Salt Lake Tribune to the list. Check out this cheeky bit of editorializing in the last paragraph of a story about a restaurant employee who is suing Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller for berating her over a bill:

The $2.5 million should just about cover Hysell's agony, humiliation, emotional distress and anguish, according to the suit.

Bernick sheds some light

This column by Deseret Morning News political reporter Bob Bernick, Jr., contains some of the most insightful analysis of last weekend's Republican nominating convention that I have seen. In the interest of disclosing my bias, I am a former colleague of Bernick. In fact, he and I covered the 2000 GOP convention (to which he refers in today's column and in which delegates famously booed then-Gov. Mike Leavitt and Senator Orrin Hatch).

Don't blame the messenger; blame the audience

An Associated Press story today quotes USC "media analyst" and associate communications dean Marty Kaplan as saying (and I'm paraphrasing here) that news media would not have to take ghoulish photos such as the late Olive Osmond in her coffin if the public didn't desire such photos. The passage reads:

Media analyst Marty Kaplan, associate dean at the Annenberg School of Communications, University of Southern California, said similar photographs of celebrities or members of their families can fetch as much as $60,000, "depending on shock value and scarcity."
The audience's appetite "for something so ghoulish" makes such photos profitable, Kaplan said of the images that usually wind up either in tabloid newspapers or on the Internet.
"If we didn't have an appetite for that kind of thing, then there'd be no reason to put a bounty on it," he said.

Kaplan's reasoning is a common response of journalists, but it's overly simplistic in its resolution of an important debate about whether journalists should give the public what it wants (or at least what the journalists think the public wants) or what it needs.
The bounty on a coffin photo of Olive Osmond was first covered yesterday in the Deseret Morning News by Sharon Haddock in this story.

No transparency hurts credibility

This story by The Salt Lake Tribune's political writer Dan Harrie commits a far-too-common journalistic practice that harms credibility and prevents the "marketplace of ideas" from functioning as it should. The story, about the Utah Republican primary election for the gubernatorial nomination, contains the following passage:

Parents for Choice has not yet endorsed a candidate in the primary, publicly saying voters would have the opportunity with either Huntsman or Karras to "elect a school choice governor." But in an e-mail shared with The Tribune, Executive Director Elisa Clements Peterson says Karras was only "lukewarm" on tuition tax credits and "it is obvious to us that Karras is not on the side of parental choice."

What Harrie fails to tell readers is who showed him the email. That kind of information is critical in stories about political contests, in particular, so readers can judge the credibility of ax-grinding sources and their information. As this particular email seems not to have been intended for publication, the reporter -- in the interest of transparency -- should have told readers who leaked it. This situation does not call for granting confidentiality to a source.

Utah teachers forcing students to use expletives?

Bet you thought this post was going to talk about Axson-Flynn v. Johnson, right? Wrong, sort of.

For those who thought the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech didn't apply in Utah -- or inside the schoolhouse gates -- think again. In this proposed lesson plan submitted by Van Hadley of Utah's "Ray" High School, educators are advised to fake an expletive-laden, in-class shouting match with a student in order to teach about the limits of free speech:

When the cue is given in class the student is to let out with an expletive that is also pre-arranged. The teacher then reprimands the student and threatens with removal from class. The student responds with another expletive and the teacher and student leave the class. It is important to leave for a few minutes so that the class can think about what has just occurred. The teacher and student then re-enters the room and says "lets talk about freedom of speech".

The Watchdog is not clear on how well this lesson would go over, but one observation can be made: Based on the Axson-Flynn case in the Tenth Circuit, the teacher can't be too sure of getting summary judgment based on qualified immunity if the student files a lawsuit claiming he was forced to use the expletive in violation of his free speech and free exercise rights.

Patting ourselves on the back

Want to know if you're a finalist in the 2004 Utah Journalism Awards sponsored by the Utah Headliners Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists? Go to this link and then click on "Contests" followed by "Listing of 2004 Contest Finalists." Among the many friends and acquaintances on the list, I would like to congratulate in particular Utah Valley Magazine, a relatively new but successful publication of which the Watchdog has enjoyed being a part.

TV news producers, work out those wrists

I always figured television news producers needed specialized skills, but I did not know until I read this job posting from KSL-TV the importance of being able to "extend hand(s) and arm(s) in any direction with good eye and hand coordination" and to engage in "[s]ubstantial physical movements (motions) of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers."

Sat TV anti-Latino?

The CEO of KSL-TV's parent company, Bonneville International Corp., joined Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in alleging that satellite TV discriminates against Spanish-language and religious programming by requiring the purchase of a second dish.

Kudos for newspaper serving troops

The Salt Lake Tribune's new email newsletter for Utah soldiers, Utahns@War: Local News for Utah's Troops Abroad, is a great idea. The Watchdog wishes the Trib's online staff, and the troops, well. Here's a suggestion, though: Don't discontinue the service once the majority of troops in Iraq come home; if it works out, make it a permanent feature available to Utah troops posted overseas.

Curiously, I noticed for the first time today that the Deseret Morning News also offers an email newsletter version, although it does not market the service specifically to the military.

Reporter glosses over dog 'gas chamber'

Reporter Elizabeth Miller, in this story in today's Spectrum, goes along with the conclusions of a resident that the Enoch Animal Shelter is not mistreating animals. Miller and the resident who toured the shelter, however, concede that the Animal Shelter uses a death chamber for which exhaust is piped in from an idling pickup truck. But Miller does not explain why the allegation, brought to light by Marie Osmond, does not change the story's conclusion that animals are not mistreated. (Speaking of the Osmonds, Marie's mother, Olive, passed away on Mother's Day. In completely unrelated Osmond news, Donny has gained the blessing of the Provo City Council to nix a proposed road, thus allowing Donny to move ahead with a plan to develop and sell 10 residential lots.)

Critical information left out

If you can get past the Standard-Examiner's klunky registration page, you will note the most important information in this story by Tanna Barry is what's missing. The story sets out to prove that there are more girls than boys in Advanced Placement classes in Ogden, Davis and Weber secondary schools. Though the reporter acknowledges that "the overall number of females versus males is higher," she does not tell us how much higher. There's not much news here if females constitute 52 percent of the overall school population and 52 percent of the population of AP students.

Critique the critic

In this article in the current issue of BYU Magazine, I profile the outgoing dean of BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School. In the spirit of free expression espoused by the Watchdog, I invite you to read the story and send me your critiques here.

Utah reporters not privileged

In a comment published in the current issue of the BYU Journal of Public Law, I make the statement that "[a]ttempts to turn journalists into unwilling investigative agents for police, prosecutors, and other litigants represent the most serious contemporary threat to freedom of the press in Utah." Think I'm wrong? Let me know here.

D.C. Circuit a "high court"?

As I predicted yesterday, the Deseret News and The Salt Lake Tribune had coverage today of the two-day-old news that President Bush appointed BYU general counsel Tom Griffith to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In the News story, Lee Davidson refers to the D.C. Circuit as "that high court." While the D.C. Circuit (as noted by Davidson) is often considered the second most important federal court in the country, I have never heard it called a "high court," as that term is generally reserved for the U.S. Supreme Court and the various state supreme courts.

Meanwhile, the Trib story, written by Christopher Smith, contains this highly suspect paragraph:

While some Senate Republicans reportedly resisted [Griffith's] nomination in favor of a more hard-line conservative, others have argued that his political philosophy and Senate credentials are moderate enough to avoid another protracted confirmation battle with Democrats in an election year.

A basic constitutional tenet is that the President nominates federal judges and the Senate confirms them. Thus, if senators think Griffith is too moderate, they can air that out now that he has been nominated. Senators have no official role in the nomination process, although it has long been the case that senators bring nominees to the attention of the President. Smith does not tell the reader from whence he got the information about Senate Republicans' "reported" resistance to Griffith. This type of veiled reference is at least ambiguous and potentially misleading.

Quote of the Day

Bob Considine wrote the following in "A Newspaperman's Prayer":

Dear God, may I be fair, circumstances and dumb luck have placed in my thumby palms a degree of authority which I may not fully comprehend. Let me not profane it.

Give me the drive that will make me check and countercheck the facts. Guide me when, lost for want of a rudder or a lead, I stumble through the jungle of speculation.

The 26 sharp-edged tools we call our alphabet can do what other tools do: build or destroy. Let me build. But let me know clearly, also, what should be destroyed, what darkness, what bigotry, what evil, what curse, what ignorance.

The purpose of this blog, which begins today, is to perform a service for journalists that they perform for others -- to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. In doing so, I am the first to admit that I am far from perfect. As a journalist, I have made mistakes. I have given in to naivete. Nevertheless, I hope my effort to point out the weaknesses (and strengths) in the product of Utah journalists will ultimately serve both the profession and its consumers. Please email your comments about this blog to me.

Prognostication

I predict that, on Wednesday, May 12, 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News, in a bit of catch-up to a story in the May 11, 2004, Washington Post, will report on President Bush's appointment of BYU general counsel Thomas B. Griffith to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. As that court has often been referred to as the second most powerful federal court in the country, the appointment of a current BYU lawyer is remarkable. It remains to be seen whether Griffith will have an easier time of the confirmation process than did President Bush's earlier pick for the spot, Miguel Estrada.

Beware the hidden camera

The Utah Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Thursday, May 6, 2004, in an appeal from a $3 million jury award against KTVX (ch. 4). The case involved an Orem doctor's claims of defamation in a series of broadcasts -- facilitated by surreptitious taping by a news reporter posing as a patient -- on diet drugs. The news organization's Denver-based attorney, Thomas Kelley, argued that creating a false impression could not amount to defamation. The trial judge in the case was former Judge Ray Harding, Jr., who, in an ironic twist of fate missed by Utah news reporters, appeared before the Utah Supreme Court on the same day to stave off efforts by the Utah State Bar to take away his law license for using illegal drugs.

Utah news media fail Latinos

In this story in Utah's largest daily newspaper, a source alleges in the last paragraph that mainstream Utah news organizations fail to adequately serve the state's Latino community.

Want to work at the Trib?

The Salt Lake Tribune is looking for a copy editor/page designer, as described here. The Trib describes itself as the organization that "sets the standard for journalism in [Utah]." No mention was made, however, whether that standard includes the type of journalism practiced by Michael Vigh and Kevin Cantera, two Trib reporters who were fired for allegedly selling information on the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case to the National Enquirer.