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Tues: The Press on The Press
posted at 2010-07-13 23:13 | Last modified 2010-07-14 08:01
UNC-TV Update
In case you missed it, Alcoa announced Friday it’s FOIA-ing UNC-TV’s records on Alcoa. According to the rationale in the press release, UNC-TV’s cooperation with the Senate J2 records request amounts to an admission that the journalists who work for UNC-TV are state employees first and journalists second.
As sorry as I am to see this, I’m not surprised. UNC-TV director Tom Howe cracked this door open when he decided not to fight the committee’s summons. Anyone who’s “surprised” that Alcoa decided to push that opening is either dissembling or delusional. It was only a matter of time before someone did.
SOS, maybe
It looks like UNC-TV GM Tom Howe can’t decide whether or not he wants an outside review of Vajda’s three–part Alcoa report that aired on NC Now last week.
Last week, UNC’s J-School got a request from Howe, asking them to review the series to decide whether it meets universally accepted standards of journalism -- and whether they’d have accepted the segments for broadcast.
J-school insiders tell me the resulting reviews were not good. That’s when Howe apparently changed his mind, telling the faculty who reviewed the tape that he didn’t want their feedback after all.
So where does UNC-TV stand on the series? Is it backing Vajda’s work or not? Howe made the decision to air the series. It’s time for him to say publicly whether that was a good idea.
Weighing in
Howe may be playing it close to the chest, but others are doing anything but. Charlotte’s Jack Betts put it all out there today in a devastating column about Howe’s Folly.
UNC’s Leroy Towns also denounced Howe’s decision in utterly unapologetic terms. (Which is saying something, since Towns doesn’t pull his punches on the best of days.)
An important note: WUNC is not affiliated in any way with UNC-TV, and our GM Connie Walker told the entire staff today we will never be in that position, at least if she has anything to say about it.
Here’s an excerpt from her all-staff email to WUNC today.
Most of you are aware of the situation with UNC TV turning over the records of one of the organization's journalists to state lawmakers. This has been written about in local press and in Current.
You should be aware that it has been our position at WUNC Radio for several years, and this was something I initiated, that we would fight ANY attempt to obtain the reporting records of station journalists, under the North Carolina shield law.
This was carefully vetted with our UNC attorney in terms of the apparent conflict between the shield law and that fact that we are state employees who are subject to open records law. The attorney believes we would probably win a court battle; this is why I spent a lot of time exploring this several years ago, so we could be fairly certain of our standing. (No attorney would ever guarantee you'd win any case of course).
Those conversations occurred when I was News Director. I have been assured this past week that UNC-Chapel Hill remains 100-percent behind WUNC Radio on this.
When I say journalists, that includes of course the news department, but it also includes the staff of The State of Things and The Story.
Here is the text of the law. Seriously, I am ready to go to jail in order to protect the integrity of the journalists at WUNC Radio. (It's happened elsewhere.....)
You have no idea how much better this makes me feel.
In full disclosure, Eszter Vajda, the reporter in the case, is a friend of mine, and a fellow board member at Capitolbeat. If she was prepared to cooperate with the summons to get an important story out, then I'm inclined to try to support her on that count. But it's not clear that she or her lawyer, or UNC-TV and its lawyers, have given much (any?) thought to the larger implications here.
Regardless of the reasons for the decision, it wasn’t made in a vacuum. It compromised my ability to do my job, as it did for other public broadcasting employees around the country. Maybe there’s a smoking gun on Alcoa that we just haven’t seen yet. If so, it’d better be worth sullying the reputations of reporters who, in some states, are just about the only statehouse reporters left in the building. I’m waiting to see whether it was worth it.
Post-Session Gab Fest
If you missed the State of Things today, I had NCICL’s Bob Orr on to talk incentives with G’boro’s Mark Binker. Binker stuck around for segment 2 on the new DNA law, joined by ACLU’s Sarah Preston, Duke Genomics researcher Sara Katsanis, and bill sponsor Rep Wil Neumann. That’s here. And if you're more into science than politics, I talked about bioluminescence with Duke's Sonke Johnsen and NC State's Jonathan Horowitz.
Comments? Drop me a line.
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