Blood in the Water

Once a newspaper turns on you it's over.  When I worked at the Senate, people would come to me after they had been savaged by the newspaper and ask what they could do to rebuild their reputation.  I always had same advice:  "stay out of the newspaper."  They would respond that if they did something positive, the good articles would start to offset the bad articles.  I would remind them that no matter what they did that was "good" the subsequent stories would simply be vehicles to reprint the things that were bad. 

That's why it's common to read stories that have this structure.  "Senator Smith, who pled no contest to DUI in 1996, has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement award from the Girl Scouts of America for her work with underprivileged youth. 

These hit pieces are unfair and represent lazy reporting.  Nothing is easier than going through the archives and reprinting old stories.  They are unfair because they use current good news as an excuse to trot out ancient bad news.  Here's an example from today's Republic. 

The underlying story is quite positive.  Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox has resurrected the decaying El Portal Restaurant and turned it into a thriving business in a community that lacks thriving local businesses.  Her renovation has been so successful and the building is so important that the city wants it classified as an historic property. 

However, here's how the story was presented in the Republic. 

The Maricopa County supervisor who illegally demolished one historic site is now being asked to add another to the city's register.

A team of historians, Hispanic residents and archivists recently identified El Portal, a Mexican restaurant owned by Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, as a building important to Phoenix's Hispanic history.

Here's a great sentence. 

The pair sidestepped criminal prosecution by agreeing to a settlement, including a $10,000 donation to the Phoenix Historic Preservation Office to promote the city's Hispanic heritage.

Sidestepped?  That's brilliant.  It takes years of J school to learn how to manipulate readers with words like "sidestepped."  That word lets the readers know that the situation has been taken care of, but implies that the Wilcox's got some sort of special treatment.  They used some sort of maneuver to get out of criminal prosecution. 

How about using a neutral word like "resolved?"  Why even mention criminal prosecution?  After all, the matter was resolved with a fine.  Or better yet, why not just write a positive story about someone who built a good restaurant in a run down historic building located in a struggling neighborhood? 

Would that be so hard?

Comments

[RDH]

The lead line was appropriate. Many of today's journalists do act like predators. And they wonder why their approval ratings are right down there at the oceans bottom where the predators congregate.
Watching the demise of "dead tree" journalism is like watching a candle gradually burn down to nothingness.

[Buddy Breon]

Mary Rose Wilcox deserves a hit for her destruction of a historic home. It was no accident on her part. Most people remember her for exactly that. Even more than the number of people who remember she got shot in the tush by a crasy guy.

[Linda]

I take your general point, Espressopundit, but in this case the information belongs.

Mary Rose Wilcox got special treatment and avoided a prosecution that would have gone through against an average citizen. The law calls for a criminal fine and/or up to six months in jail.

What is really disgusting is that she was the lawmaker behind the law that she violated!

Don't you think it's newsworthy and ironic that the lawmaker behind Maricopa County's historic-building preservation might be entrusted with stewardship of a 50+ year old historically designated building, after she illegally tore down a 100+ home?

This is yet another example of personal relationships clouding Espressopundit's coverage. Greg Patterson loves Wilcox's Mexican restaurant, so he plays the role of her defender.

This example is not nearly as bad as others on his site. Ever see that entry about how Jon Kyl broke his word on illegal immigration? (I've seen Greg go after Napolitano several times for the very same thing, but Greg wants to be on Kyl's good side.) Ever see that entry on how outrageous it is that Wilcox has not been prosecuted for taking a several-hundred-thousand-dollar bribe from APS?

And you will sooner find the solution to world hunger than find Greg Patterson give an objective assessment of David Schweikert.

The list could go on and on . . .

[Walter]

I don't mind this kind of "news" coverage if it is applied consistently. You need look no further than the local papers' coverage of Hayworth v. Mitchell. Mitchell's ethical lapses as mayor of Tempe rarely made the "reprint" section of the "news". Allegations against Hayworth always made it.

[Jack LaSota]

I had the same reaction to the MRW piece when I first saw it. Nothing wrong with dredging up the past if that's the gist of a story, but here the story was the restaurant, not the trashed house (formerly) next door. I call this "you remember him (her)" journalism. Another frequent victim is the late Kemper Marley;rarely a sotry about his historical or DC Ranch history that doesn't recount the Bolles allegations.