Via The N.Y. Transfer News Service 718-448-2358, 718-448-2683
by harelb@math.cornell.edu (Harel Barzilai)
Phil Shabecoff, who covered the environment for the _New York
Times_ for 14 years, left the paper after being switched to the IRS
beat. "I was told my coverage was considered pro-environment,
whatever that means..."
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From: cls@truffula.portal.com (Cameron Spitzer)
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This piece appeared as a sidebar to an article on environmental
reporting in the May/June issue of _EXTRA!_ magazine, from the "media
watchdog" organization Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. It's for
anyone who thinks they're getting fair reporting on environmental
issues from the Merc or the NY Times.
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Caution: Environmental Reporting Can Be Hazardous to Your Career
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Glynn Wilson, an award winning reporter for the _Islander_, part of a
chain of small newspapers serving the Gulf Coast of Alabama, never
thought covering the environment beat would get him into trouble. Over
the last three years," Wilson told EXTRA!, "I have done a tremendous
amount of environmental reporting and gotten a tremendous amount of
public support."
But when Wilson started covering IMPRESS II, a Navy research project
in the Gulf of Mexico that would simulate the electromagnetic pulse of
a nuclear bomb, he learned that there are some toes that can't be
stepped on. After writing a three-part series (_Islander_, [Dec. 21
and 28 '91, Jan. 1 '92]) on the possible health and environmental
consequences of the project, he took a vacation; he returned to find
that his desk had been taken over by a newly hired editor, an ex-Navy
officer with an intelligence background.
The new editor told Wilson that his series was "garbage" and that the
paper had received "a number of complaints" about it, although public
response was heavily positive. Wilson began hearing that local
Republican officials were telling the _Islander_'s publisher they were
unhappy about his reporting.
The last straw came when Wilson wrote an article on Alabama's U. S.
representatives [Feb 19, '92] headlined "Alabama Delegation Gets an
'F' on Environmental Scorecard." That same day, he was given written
notice he was fired; in the space provided for an explanation, his
termination slip was marked "no information provided."
Wilson is only one environmental repporter who has riled sacred cows.
David Mitchell, managing editor of the _New Mexican_, was dismissed
after the paper ran an expose of nuclear contamination at Los Alamos
laboratories (EXTRA! Nov/Dec '91). The Montana _Missoulan_ took
Richard Manning off the environmental beat after timber companies
criticized his series on timber clearcutting. The same series won an
award for investigative journalism, but Manning left the paper to
write _Last Stand: Logging, Journalism, and the Case for Humility_
(Peregrine Smith Books).
One reason smaller papers are vulnerable to pressure on environmental
issues is that the area they report on is often dependent on one or
two key industries. "Newspapers...are loath to criticize the heart of
the local economy," Manning argues (_E_ magazine, March 4 '92).
But it isn't only journalists at the little papers who have to be
careful: Phil Shabecoff, who covered the environment for the _New York
Times_ for 14 years, left the paper after being switched to the IRS
beat. "I was told my coverage was considered pro-environment, whatever
that means," Shabecoff told _The Washington Post_ (May 6, '91). The
only example the _Times_ would give him of what he was doing wrong: He
used the word "slaughter" to describe mass killing of dolphins. -FAIR
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