Tag Archives: New York Times

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Margaret Sullivan, public editor of The New York Times

 

This morning, on RTÉ  Radio One’s Morning Ireland, reporter Laura Whelan spoke with the New York Times Public Editor, Margaret Sullivan regarding the paper’s coverage of the Berkeley tragedy.

The interview was conducted before former President Mary McAleese sent a letter to the newspaper, saying it “should be hanging its head in shame” over the article.

Margaret Sullivan: “Well I think the first thing that happened was the New York Times ran a short of brief and sort of to-the-point news story online, on Tuesday about this tragic and really terrible event that happened in Berkeley, California. After that, as I understand it, editors and reporters felt that they should develop the story in some way and looked for a different kind of angle and the angle that they ended up deciding on was this idea of looking more deeply at the J1 programme and that’s what ended up being this very controversial and very much criticised article and I think the criticism is completely valid.”

Laura Whelan: “A lot of people, Margaret, in Ireland, have been badly offended by this article. Can you understand these feelings?”

Sullivan: “Yes, absolutely, I completely understand where the criticism is coming from. I wrote a post today [yesterday] in something called the Public Editors Journal that said you know I understand the criticism, I called the article insensitive and, even though I can’t apologise on behalf of the Times because, as Public Editor, I only actually express my own, independent opinion, I did say that I personally was very sorry that so much pain was caused by this.”

Whelan: “Margaret, a Government minister here in Ireland [Aodhan Ó Riordain] has accused the New York Times of victim blaming. Would you agree with that stance?”

Sullivan: “There is an element of victim blaming in this article but I believe it was inadvertent. I know, for example, the lead reporter on the article – whose name is Adam Nagourney – he’s a very good reporter, he’s a very solid fellow and I’ve had a lot of correspondence with him today [yesterday]. He feels terrible about this. I think he feels that he essentially made a mistake.”

Whelan: “What changes will be made to the article now? It’s  still available, up online.”

Sullivan: “Yes. The article is pretty much as it was to begin with. Mr Nagourney said that he made some, small changes before it went to print. But the Times’s policy is not to unpublish something once it’s been published and to keep the archive version of it pretty much as is. So I’m not expecting it to be taken down or, as we say, unpublished.”

Whelan: “I understand what you’re saying about the New York Times’ policy on that but I suppose given the level of feeling here in Ireland and the fact that the New York Times has now received a letter actually from Ambassador Anne Anderson, do you think this would maybe be an incident where perhaps the New York Times should go against its own policy and withdraw this article, take it down offline?”

Sullivan: “I don’t, again I want to sort of say, that I can’t speak for the paper, about that, all I can tell you is that, in my experience, that just never happens. I mean there can be criticism and there can be apology, there can be an acknowledgement but the story pretty much stays as is.”

Whelan: “In terms of the level of complaints received Margaret and, you know, the involvement of an ambassador, and also a Government minister here in Ireland, can you remember any other article, you know, going back a couple of years in the New York Times, that caused this much upset?”

Sullivan: “There certainly has been a great deal  of complaint and many, many emails and, as you say, official ones. I’ve had, I’ve been in the role of Public Editor for coming up on three years and I would say it’s among the ones that I’ve had the most complaint and response about. But, you know, perhaps not at the very top of the list.”

Listen back here in full

Previously: Anything Good In The New York Times?

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Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, above, and the balcony which collapsed, leaving six young people dead and seven injured, top

7 News WSVN reports:

“Berkeley’s mayor says early investigation points to moisture-damaged wood as a prime cause of a deadly balcony collapse. Mayor Tom Bates said Wednesday that investigators believe the support beams may not have been sealed properly at the time of construction.”

“Independent structural engineers who examined photographs of the broken balcony beams also have pointed to decayed wood as a likely main cause.”

“A structural engineer says it’s “surprising and unexpected” that the wooden beams supporting the Berkeley, California, apartment balcony that collapsed and killed six people had deteriorated so much on a building less than a decade old.”

“Darrick Hom, president of the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California, visited the site and said the wood was so decayed that the broken beams crumbled in the hands of investigators.”

“He said Wednesday that the wood breaking off at their touch indicates major deterioration in the joists and wondered how that level of damage happened in just eight years.”

“Hom says any building material exposed to the elements requires weatherproofing at the time of construction, so investigators likely will look at how weatherproofing was carried out at Library Gardens apartments.”

Meanwhile, further to that New York Times article, Eileen Murphy, spokeswoman for the newspaper, writes:

“This piece was a second-day story following yesterday’s news story of the collapse. It was intended to explain in greater detail why these young Irish students were in the US. We understand and agree that some of the language in the piece could be interpreted as insensitive, particularly in such close proximity to this tragedy. It was never our intention to blame the victims and we apologize if the piece left that impression. We will continue to cover this story and report on the young people who lost their lives.”

And one of the reporters who contributed to the article, Adam Nagourney, writes:

“… I mean this as by way of explanation and not excuse. By the time I came on the story, it had already been on our site for five hours or so and we wanted to do something to move it forward. The idea for a second-day story was to focus on the J-1 visa program, and the number of Irish students who, through the program, came here in the summer; I think that was a relatively new thought to us and many of our readers.”

“There are obviously positive aspects to the program, which has been a great resource for thousands of young Irish students, as well as negative ones. Looking back, I had the balance wrong; I put too much emphasis on the negative aspects, and they were too high in my story. That did not become clear to me until I got a distraught email from a reader right after the story posted. I made a minor change in the story to try to address that, but it did not go far enough.”

“Do I think that the program – as well as the problems associated with it – are fair game for a news story? Yes. But there was a more sensitive way to tell the story. I absolutely was not looking to in any way appear to be blaming the victims, or causing pain in this awful time for their families and friends. I feel very distressed at having added to their anguish.”

The Latest: Probe points to water damage in balcony collapse (7 News WSVN)

Valid Complaints on Story about Berkeley Balcony Collapse (Margaret Sullivan, Public Editor’s Journal, New York Times)

Previously: Anything Good In The New York Times?

Pics: SF Gate and Jessica Guynn

nytimes:IW

Alan Kelly, the minister of environment, community and local government, said that creating an authority with a dedicated revenue stream that can sell bonds is the best way to finance the infrastructure work that is needed. He dismisses the protesters as “left wing” or “populists” and recently suggested they were in “cloud cuckoo land.”

But Sarah Murphy, 35, who lives in Ballymun, one of the poorest areas of Dublin, said that her husband has been unable to find work since his business collapsed in 2008. The family, after paying rent and electricity, lives on $73 a week for five people, she said.

“We are not paying it,” she said. “We don’t have it.”

Ireland’s economy has been recovering. It grew by nearly 4.8 percent in 2014, and unemployment fell to about 10 percent from a high of 15 percent. But many experts say the figures are misleading, as the unemployed continue to leave the country and many multinational companies, based in Ireland because of its low corporate tax rate, are recording financial transactions that actually take place elsewhere.

A report by the country’s Central Statistics Office that was released in January painted a more dire picture of what has happened in Ireland since the crisis began. The most recent figures available show that Nearly a third of the population in 2013 was suffering from “enforced deprivation” characterized by a lack of two or more basic requirements for a comfortable standard of living, such as adequate food, heating or a warm winter coat, up from 13.7 in 2008, before the financial crisis and the recession.

Many in Ireland Vow Not to Pay a New Water Tax (Suzanne Daly, The New York Times)

(Paulo Nunes/New York Times)

Thanks Niinecare

david_carr_shane_snow_spielDavid Carr (left) at the Spiel event in Dublin during last year’s web summit with tech entrepreneur Shane Snow

I am sorry to have to tell you that our wonderful, esteemed colleague David Carr died suddenly tonight after collapsing in the newsroom. A group of us were with his wife, Jill, and one of his daughters, at the hospital. His daughter Erin said he was special, and that he was.

He was the finest media reporter of his generation, a remarkable and funny man who was one of the leaders of our newsroom. He was our biggest champion, and his unending passion for journalism and for truth will be missed by his family at The Times, by his readers around the world, and by people who love journalism.

An email sent by Dean Baquet, editor at the New York Times, informing staff of the death of David Carr.

David Carr, Times Critic and Champion of Media, Dies at 58 (New York Times)

Previously: Turning Down Isis And Taking On The Man

The Daily Beast

Screen Shot 2014-08-25 at 09.06.20Jozef Wesolowski

You may recall an interview Pope Francis gave last month in which he pledged that bishops who covered up the abuse of minors would be held accountable.

It has now emerged that the former Papal Nuncio to the Dominican Republic, Jozef Wesolowski has been defrocked after being accused of sexually abusing boys.

But far from settling the matter, the Vatican has stirred an outcry because it helped Mr. Wesolowski avoid criminal prosecution and a possible jail sentence in the Dominican Republic. Acting against its own guidelines for handling abuse cases, the church failed to inform the local authorities of the evidence against him, secretly recalled him to Rome last year before he could be investigated, and then invoked diplomatic immunity for Mr. Wesolowski so that he could not face trial in the Dominican Republic.

The Vatican’s handling of the case shows both the changes the church has made in dealing with sexual abuse, and what many critics call its failures. When it comes to removing pedophiles from the priesthood, the Vatican is moving more assertively and swiftly than before. But as Mr. Wesolowski’s case suggests, the church continues to be reluctant to report people suspected of abuse to the local authorities and allow them to face justice in secular courts.

The Vatican says that because Mr. Wesolowski was a member of its diplomatic corps and a citizen of the Holy See, the case would be handled in Rome.


For Nuncio Accused of Abuse, Dominicans Want Justice at Home, Not Abroad (Laurie Goodstein, New York Times)

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BuzzFeed reports:

A 96-page internal New York Times report, sent to top executives last month by a committee led by the publisher’s son and obtained by BuzzFeed, paints a dark picture of a newsroom struggling more dramatically than is immediately visible to adjust to the digital world, a newsroom that is hampered primarily by its own storied culture.
….
The report largely ignores legacy competitors and focuses on the new wave of digital companies, including First Look Media, Vox, Huffington Post, Business Insider, and BuzzFeed.
“They are ahead of us in building impressive support systems for digital journalists, and that gap will grow unless we quickly improve our capabilities,” the report warns. “Meanwhile, our journalism advantage is shrinking as more of these upstarts expand their newsrooms.”
“We are not moving with enough urgency,” it says.
…
The deep problems, the report says, are cultural, including a sense that the Times will simply serve as a destination — leading to a neglect of social promotion. One factor is an obsessive focus on the front page of the print paper, with reporters evaluated in their annual reviews on how many times they’ve made A1. “The newsroom is unanimous: we are focusing too much time and energy on Page One,” the report says.

Yikes.

Exclusive: New York Times Internal Report Painted Dire Digital Picture
(BuzzFeed)

NYT Innovation Report 2014

The leaked New York Times innovation report is one of the key documents of this media age (Nieman Journalism Lab)

Snowdenn

“The shrill brigade of his critics say Mr. Edward Snowden [above] has done profound damage to intelligence operations of the United States, but none has presented the slightest proof that his disclosures really hurt the nation’s security. Many of the mass-collection programs Mr. Snowden exposed would work just as well if they were reduced in scope and brought under strict outside oversight, as the presidential panel recommended.”

“When someone reveals that government officials have routinely and deliberately broken the law, that person should not face life in prison at the hands of the same government. That’s why Rick Ledgett, who leads the N.S.A.’s task force on the Snowden leaks, recently told CBS News that he would consider amnesty if Mr. Snowden would stop any additional leaks. And it’s why President Obama should tell his aides to begin finding a way to end Mr. Snowden’s vilification and give him an incentive to return home.”

Yesterday’s New York Times editorial comes out in defence of Edward Snowden.

Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower (New York Times)

Pic: Wired