Telegram tries passing the buck on controversial cartoon

Shortly after the earthquake in Haiti, the Telegram and Gazette published a political cartoon on their opinion page that showed two relief workers piling up dead bodies while discussing Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. The cartoon wasn't funny or particularly thought-provoking. But apparently it was controversial, as a number of readers wrote letters to the editor to protest it's insensitivity. Here are excerpts:

The insensitivity to the suffering of the Haitian people and what they are experiencing is second only to the stupidity and careless disregard of the Telegram & Gazette in printing such trash.

Did it occur to anyone at the T&G how this would affect families and friends of both victims and volunteers in Haiti? If a student at a school had drawn this, they would have been suspended and recommended for psychological evaluation.

I’m utterly disgusted that a local newspaper, that teaches so many families across this state, would publish something as tasteless as this. Turning the catastrophe in Haiti into a joke is an incredibly low and vile thing to do.

What is funny is the Telegram's handling of these complaints. Here are the headlines the Telegram editors slapped on these letters:

• Disgusted by syndicated cartoon
• Syndicated cartoon insensitive to Haiti
• Syndicated cartoon was in poor taste

The editors want to make it clear to you that this was a syndicated cartoon. In other words, don't blame us for what some jamoke in a studio somewhere decided was funny. (One of the three letter writers did note that it was a syndicated cartoon, but the other two did not).

Of course, the Telegram has dozens of syndicated cartoons to choose from each day. While the Telegram's in-house cartoonist may not have drawn this one, it's editors still needed to decide which cartoon to run. Just because it is "syndicated" doesn't absolve them of their responsibility.

Here is the cartoon. You can decide for yourself if it's offensive or not:

T&G readers not entitled to their own facts

The late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." Unfortunately, that sentiment does not apply to the letters to the editor that appear in the Telegram & Gazette each day. 

On an almost daily basis, the letters to the editor include one or more missives that include factually false information. Here is the one from today that got me going:

To all of the hardworking, taxpaying, middle class Americans out there who, like myself, continue to struggle through our failing economy, here is what going green means to me. Unless you are very wealthy — or at the other end of the spectrum, extremely poor — expect no help whatsoever, if you should decide to go green and replace older windows, insulate your home, or restore an aging furnace.

Going green, for most of us, means being left out in the cold.

This is demonstrably untrue. I appreciate that our society allows people to be as uninformed as they want to be. And I'm very grateful that our newspapers can print just about whatever they want without interference. But at what point should the opinion page editor say, "you know, that is a lie," and either chuck the letter or add an editor's note that reads "Editor's note: According to the IRS, federal tax credits of up to $1,500 are available to taxpayers who make energy-efficient home improvements."?

Federal tax credits are available to anyone who chooses to "replace older windows, insulate your home, or restore an aging furnace." The only requirement is that you do so with materials that have been rated highly efficient. Using those materials is not difficult to do and they are not hard to find. In fact, Home Depot, Lowe's and other home improvement stores list qualifying products on their websites. If you go to the store in person, materials that qualify for tax credits are clearly marked.

And those materials are not boutique products that are premium priced. The energy-efficient shingles cost the same as those that do not qualify for the credit, the difference is that qualifying shingles are a lighter color and reflect more of the sun's rays, cutting down on air conditioning costs. The energy-efficient insulation is the same Fiberglas insulation we have used for years; as long as the R rating is high enough, it qualifies for a credit. Nearly every storm door on sale at Home Depot qualifies for a credit as long as it is paired with a wood or steel door. If you are buying a storm door to replace an older model, it is likely going to qualify for a credit.

I know, because in the last year we replaced the roof on a section of our house, replaced two storm doors, and added insulation to the ceiling of another section of house. Because we did all of those things with materials that are rated highly efficient, we will be getting a tax credit of 30% of our cost when we file next month.

It seems to me that newspapers either should avoid publishing letters that are factually false or make sure that readers know that the writer is not entitled to her own facts.

The elusive Mr. Fur

It's been nearly two full years since I weighed in on the lair of looniness that is the Telegram and Gazette Letter to the Editor page. But this one got me:

Mr. Fur...spent three days and three nights up in the tree. We tried to entice him with cans of tuna but to no avail.

Finally, we contacted a local arborist with a cherry picker, who will remain nameless, to come and get Mr. Fur down from the tree. At my husband’s insistence, he finally came and rescued Mr. Fur. It took all of 30 minutes and we were charged $375. Although we were forewarned of the cost, such a small amount of time and effort on the arborist’s part could have resulted in a lesser, kinder cost.

Firstly...Mr. Fur?!

Secondly...I was getting a big time Helen and Stanley Roper vibe when reading this story. I can see poor Stanley standing at the base of the tree, holding a can of fish and calling "Come on down, Mr. Fur" day after day before finally calling someone just to get Helen off his case.

And finally, I was happy to see the writer protecting the identity of the cherry picker, so it's friends Thomas the Tank Engine and Roary the Racing Car wouldn't make fun of it when it got back from the rescue.

Previous T&G Letters to the Editor:
Best Letter Ever
In God we trust, in e-mails we don't
"suspiciously left-wing"
T&G Readers are off their meds again
"I like Jasmine Guy"
BREAKING: Election fraud in Auburn
"The sting of unboozed Democrats"
"Why is Mitt Romney ashamed of Massachusetts?"
"hot condiments cause them to be...interested in sex"
Disgust with that nasty Francona grows
It's that dirty Francona's fault
T&G reader takes on terrorism
Worcester: the San Diego of the East
Is State Senator Barrios a Bush Crony
Rem-Dawg Debate Rages in Worcester
Jerry Remy has "lost all touch with reality"

The "Seventh-day Adventist college"

I have made a conscious effort not to blog about my alma mater, Atlantic Union College. Over the last year a handful of items in the news have frustrated and angered me, but I’ve decided not to write about them because I know and love too many of the people at the college. I don’t go public with my frustrations because I value those relationships. Let’s just say I’m not happy about this or this or this and leave it at that.

But one of the things I have noted as I read coverage of the college in the Telegram and Gazette is that it is almost always identified as a “Seventh-day Adventist college.” Whether it is good news or bad news (and recently, it’s been a lot of bad news) doesn’t matter, the T&G includes the church as an identifier.

It has always stuck out to me. I don’t know if it is included because the T&G thinks the religious affiliation of the college is important, because they think the average reader doesn’t know of the affiliation, or if there is another reason, but it is nearly always there.

I decided to compare the T&G’s coverage of AUC with its coverage of Anna Maria College in Paxton. I chose Anna Maria because it is similar to AUC in three ways: it is a religious school (Catholic), it is a small college (not as small as AUC, but smaller than other religious schools in the area—Holy Cross, Assumption), and it is not located in Worcester, but in one of the outlying towns. In my comparison, I included articles about the colleges that were written by T&G staff and editorials. I did not include press releases or articles from the sports section.

I found that The T&G refers to AUC and Anna Maria very differently. In 17 articles about AUC, 15 of them (88%) referred to the college as a Seventh-day institution. There was no consistency in the placement of the reference—sometimes it was referenced in the lead but more often the reference was added later in the story—but it was consistently there.

In contrast, of 13 articles about Anna Maria College, the institution was only specifically referred to as Catholic three times (23%). There were a couple of occasions where the reference was not specific but a reader might infer the affiliation (by the mention of a bishop, for instance), but generally speaking, the college’s religious affiliation was not included.

Now, I don't know if this is a T&G policy or if it is simply the preference of Karen Nugent, the reporter the T&G has assigned to the Clinton/Lancaster area. On the one hand 88% is pretty consistent, one could argue that the paper clearly has a policy it uses in referring to AUC's affiliation. On the other hand, the only two articles that do not reference Seventh-Day Adventists were two of the three articles written by reporters other than Nugent. In other words, Nugent is 14-for-14 in including the reference, other reporters are only 1-for-3 in including the reference.

Let's look at how different writers reference the college in articles written about the same event. On August 6, 2008, Nugent wrote about an oil spill that took place at AUC:

LANCASTER - Diesel fuel that leaked from a generator at Atlantic Union College Monday was contained before it reached the nearby Nashua River, a state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman said yesterday.

Between 300 and 500 gallons of fuel used by college generators to produce electricity and hot water at the Seventh-day Adventist college were discharged when a gasket in one of the generators broke, spokesman Edmund J. Colletta said.

Matthew Bruun filed this report last month, outlining the action taken against the college:

LANCASTER - Atlantic Union College is facing steep penalties from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in connection with an oil spill last summer that polluted a brook feeding the Nashua River.

The EPA is seeking penalties of up to $177,500 against the college for violating the Clean Water Act, and additional penalties of up to $32,500 per day for violating the Emergency Planning and Right to Know Act, according to a news release issued yesterday.

I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing that Nugent would have written "The EPA is seeking penalties of up to $177,500 against the Seventh-day Adventist college" had she been the one to file the story. When the Clinton Item covered this story, they omitted the religious reference; articles in the Lancaster Times and Clinton Courier also did not find the church affiliation germane.

Again, I'm not sure why Nugent, who I have written about before, always includes the reference. Is it because she finds the affiliation important to the subject of the articles? If so, her colleagues and competitors do not agree. Is it because she thinks AUC is small and obscure enough that most readers won't know what it is without an identifier? Perhaps, but the college has been around since 1882, it's probably well enough established by now. Does she think that Adventists are peculiar? Well, she wouldn't be the only one.

Maybe I should begin referring to the T&G as "a New York-owned publication."

Tags: Atlantic Union College Massachusetts Telegram and Gazette Seventh-day Adventist Lancaster

Welcome to the news, Telegram & Gazette

The Telegram & Gazette ran an article on the $410 billion appropriations bill this morning, outlining those items earmarked for North Central Massachusetts.

Readers of this blog were tipped off to this list five days ago.

As we noted once before, as the T&G has begun to shrink they have started to publish items when they get around to it, without relation to when the news actually happened.

Sunday, T&G columnist Dianne Williamson (who is fantastic, by the way...her column is easily the best part of the paper) wrote a spirited defense of the newspaper business in general and the T&G specifically. In her column, she compared news reporters to bloggers:

Anyone can become a blogger and some are better than others, but they’ll never replace reporters trained to report the news fairly and objectively. Call me elitist, but some voices are simply more credible than others. As a rule, people who get paid to report on human events are more skilled than those who do it for fun.

Perhaps there is some merit in that--although I was paid to be a reporter in a previous life so maybe I am an exception to the rule--but is the newspaper that regurgitates a press release from Congressman John Olver more credible that the blogger who spends three hours slogging through the actual bill? Is the newspaper that publishes the article on March 2 more credible than the blog that publishes the same information on February 26?

Perhaps. But if it is, it's credibility comes from it's reputation and it's longevity. For obvious reasons, community bloggers weren't an option 10 or 20 or 100 years ago. But as the T&G shrinks, it just doesn't have the ability to cover any but the most pressing stories with the kind of depth or immediacy that it could provide 30 years ago when it was publishing two robust dailies, and when the papers that are now no more than inserts--the Clinton Item, for example--also published every day.

I am more apt to get a sense of what is going on in certain communities by reading Wormtown Taxi or Save Fitchburg than I am by reading the T&G. That isn't to say that the T&G isn't important, but they no longer have the resources to cover the region comprehensively. Local bloggers are the only way to fill in the gaps.

And in some cases, bloggers are the only way to get news when it happens, not when the T&G gets around to it.

Tags: Bloggers Massachusetts Telegram and Gazette

T&G Reporter still posting on controversial message board

Yesterday, I noted that Telegram and Gazette reporter Karen Nugent had been assigned to write a story about charges filed with the Worcester County DA and the Attorney General that members of the clintonmass.us discussion forum had threatened opponents of the rifle range, yet she did not disclose in the article that she is a poster on the web site.

In my post from yesterday, I questioned whether or not it was a conflict of interest for Nugent to report on the controversy since she was a member of the message board and had been an active poster. Let me add another question to yesterday's list: Should a reporter who has reported on a message board of which she is a member joke about the article with members of the board...including one who is a subject of the story...after it has been published?

In the article, which reported that members if the web forum were alleged to "have engaged in stalking, gay bashing, slander, sexual harassment and other civil rights violations," Nugent refers to complaints against William Connolly, Jr. and quotes his response. She also notes that Connolly is also a poster at the site. Yesterday, after the article had been published, Connolly posted the following as part of a comment in a thread discussing the complaint:

I think Karen has lost her edge. She left out all the really good stuff. Where was the "White Supremacist Gun Hate" stuff. She left out the "rugmuncher=vaginal oral sex" story line too. No kidding they really did send that stuff to the AG's office. Why wasn't it in the story too?

Reporter Nugent replied:

Really, Bill...You expect the editors to let "rug muncher" get in the paper? (I had to explain to one of them what it means!)

Should the reporter be discussing "rug munchers" with one of the subjects of an article about a discussion forum where gay bashing is alleged to have occurred, on the forum in question?

Tags: Clinton Massachusetts Telegram and Gazette

Conflict at T&G? Message board poster reports on complaints against message board

This morning, Karen Nugent of the Telegram and Gazette reported on a complaint lodged by a group of citizens--including two selectmen--against the webmaster and members of the clintonmass.us message board, alleging that the members have threatened and intimidated citizens opposed to the rifle range on the Lancaster-Clinton line.

There is one significant problem with the article: no where does Nugent mention that she is also a member of the message board, having logged 59 posts at the site and posting a comment as recently as November 7.

Without commenting on the issue (OK, one small comment...while I do not condone the attacks I have read at that site, the prospect that someone would be investigated based on anonymous message board posts is chilling), there are a couple of questions that need to be answered:

• Did Karen Nugent inform her editors before reporting the story that she is a member of the site that is being investigated by the DA and the Attorney General?
• If not, did she have a duty to disclose that to her editors?
• If so, should her editors have kept her on the story, despite the appearance of a conflict of interest?
• And then, should they have included a disclaimer that the reporter was a member of the site being investigated?

I am not suggesting that Karen Nugent reported the story poorly, or even that she has engaged in the specific discussions that the folks who lodged the complaint found so offensive. But I do think she and the Telegram have an obligation to either steer the story to a reporter not affiliated with the site, or at the least to disclose in her reporting that she is a member of the message board.

Tags: Clinton Massachusetts Telegram and Gazette

Reporter apologizes for timing of story

I don't know if I've ever seen anything like this before: a reporter taking to the comment section of the online newspaper to apologize for her editor's decision to sit on a story.

The Telegram and Gazette published a story this morning on the state of negotiations between the town of Sterling and Comcast. The selectmen's meeting which triggered the story was held last Wednesday, July 23.

Readers getting the story in their morning paper would probably think nothing of it, but readers of the online T&G have the opportunity to share comments; the first comment posted to this story is this:

Sorry for the delay, Sterling residents. This story was submitted last Thursday.
-pat

Pat is apparently Patricia Clark, the correspondent who filed the story.

As a reader and a Sterling resident, I guess I appreciate the apology. It would be nice if the T&G covered our selectmen's meetings as they happen and not treat our news as though it were something to get to whenever the T&G gets to it. But I can't imagine the section editor is too pleased that his reporter is throwing him under the bus.

Update: In the 90 minutes since I first posted this item, the comment has been removed.

Tags: Sterling Massachusetts Telegram and Gazette

Town Meeting: Groundhog Day

Either the Telegram and Gazette has made a mistake, is trying to play a cruel joke on the people of Sterling, or someone has made the mother of all motions to reconsider. According to today's online version, we're all getting back together Monday for Town Meeting:

Friday, May 16, 2008

Town meeting to act on $18.6M budget
Wachusett articles also on warrant

By Sandy Meindersma CORRESPONDENT

STERLING— Voters will be asked to spend $18.6 million for municipal and school budgets as part of the 61-article annual town meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday.

One nine-plus hour Town Meeting is enough, thank you.

Tags: Sterling Massachusetts Town Meeting Telegram and Gazette