UPDATE: The column has reappeared with no explanation or acknowledgments.
A “Riding Shotgun “ opinion column by writer Rachel Stewart in which she related how seeing openly armed patrons in Texas diners left her “spellbound and queasy” is no longer accessible on the Taranaki Daily News website. Clicking on the link where the piece formerly resided results in a “Not Found” error message. [UPDATE: The piece has now returned with no acknowledgement of any controversy.]
This follows publication of my Gun Rights Examiner column pointing out that open carry is not permitted under Texas law, as well as email inquiries to the paper by me and others, none of which, to my knowledge, have been answered.
Because I do not see a retraction and apology to notify their readers, I have followed up with this request:
I'd like to give my readers an update. Do you have a link to a retraction and apology, and would you care to make a for-the-record statement about what happened and what you are doing to prevent future fabrications/let-downs of the public trust?
The piece has also disappeared from Ms. Stewart’s index page, where it looks like she posts every two weeks on Mondays, meaning, if she has not been suspended or canned, her next column should appear on Jan. 10. We’ll see if it does, and if she has anything to say for herself about this. [UPDATE: Again, the linkage has reappeared with no word from the paper on why it was temporarily taken down.]
Lest it seem like following up on this is beating a dead horse, I’ll point out this is not the first time retractions have followed exposure of journalistic malpractice publicized in this column. In August, I challenged the Akron Beacon Journal for “spreading the Violence Policy Center’s machine gun confusion” by incorrectly reporting a semi-automatic pistol was a “submachinegun,” resulting in the paper printing a correction. In the same column I also related a similar reporting error that had been subsequently corrected in the Yuma Sun after firearms designer Len Savage called them on their error.
Similarly, less than two weeks ago, we discussed the El Paso Times lowering that bar to new depths, and while their forced correction was hardly satisfying, at least resulting protests compelled them to make one.
It’s important that the Taranaki Daily News also publicly address the blatant falsehood they published, because if they simply remove it and say nothing, most of their readers will never know their trust has been abused.
A comment left by “Henny Youngman” (great screen name) under my Stewart rebuttal points to a specific incident indicative of a wider issue, one unfortunately we in the gun rights advocacy movement see all too often:
I think we've just discovered what happened to Janet Cooke!
Cooke, for those of you unfamiliar with the name, was a “journalist” for The Washington Post (incidentally, a rabidly anti-gun newspaper). She was a Pulitzer Prize winner. And the story she won it for was a "fabrication". That's what people who want to diminish the seriousness of complete ethical abandonment call a "lie."
The response from her managing editor, Bob Woodward of “All the President’s Men” fame, who had submitted her story for prize consideration?
I think that the decision to nominate the story for a Pulitzer is of minimal consequence. I also think that it won is of little consequence. It is a brilliant story—fake and fraud that it is. It would be absurd for me or any other editor to review the authenticity or accuracy of stories that are nominated for prizes.
Good grief--and this from one of their "top men."
Yeah, and it would be absurd for us to expect that of you, Bob. Which is why it’s incumbent on those of us who aren’t “Authorized Journalists” to heed Patrick Henry and apply his “Guard with jealous attention the public liberty” admonition to every hit piece where we see ignorance, an agenda, and outright...uh...fabrications.
And then do what we can to make guilty media parties eat their words in as public and noisy a manner as possible, to make up for the reality that their readerships and audiences are often in the millions, and their voices can reach so many more people than ours.
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Comments
I wrote a "letter to the editor" in response to that piece, never got a response.
I sent an e-mail. Haven't had any response. Didn't expect it when I questioned the journalistic integrity of the entire organization. Keep up the good work.
Agh! Did anyone see her pic on her op-eds? No wonder she's a lesbian!
Sorry, anyone who professes to being "into guns" should do a little fact-checking before submitting such blatantly erroneous material!
And Mr Codrea, you are absolutely correct, the paper owes its readers a correction!
Simply removing the article does not right the wrong!
We need to bring back the 'stocks'.
It sounds like the public is finally waking up and demanding truth in what they read. The fault lies with men like Bob Woodward who are responsible for everything published under them when they assume the mantel of editorial leaders. The editor should be goneif there are any ethics left.
Ooh, David. You do have a gift for turning a phrase. Keep 'em coming.
David,
I wrote to their entire senior staff and said the writer had lied and telling them I wanted to know if this was typical of their organization. One of them replied and said he needed my address to publish a letter to the editor. I responded with the address and the statement that I was not looking for them to publish a letter to the editor, I was looking for them to conduct an ethics investigation and report to us what measures they had taken to ensure this type of nonsense never happens again. I have received no additional follow up.
One other thing - the piece is still available. If it was offline at some point as of 0830 on 1-8-2011 it is still up on their site.
Phillip--yes, I noted that yesterday evening--see "UPDATE" statements.
I sent an email to the Taranaki News taking them to task for letting such nonsense be published. Following is a reply I received from the editor Mr. Ray Pilott:
Dear Jack,
I note you were one of a handful of people in the US to send complaining emails to the Taranaki Daily News about Rachel Stewart's latest column. I also note some have written what you would probably term ``cheap-shot'' postings on sites in the US.
My initial plan was to ignore all the emails sent to me because so many were no more than vitriolic nonsense from conspiracy theorists and people with an inflated view of their own importance. However, some email were quite genuine and given the possibility some of the postings may eventually gain some unwarranted credibility, I have changed my mind.
Ms Stewart spends quite a bit of time in the US, and frequently sees firearms in Texan diners. Some are worn by police, others are worn by members of the public who have attempted, without success to keep them hidden from view at all times. She does not need a lesson on the respective laws pertaining to firearms.
Regards
Roy
Funny—not a word about police officers or accidental disclosures of concealed guns in the original article. She wrote “men, with shooters on their hips in plain view.”
I guess if an “Authorized Journalist” going to be a professional liar, it helps to work for professional liars.
I received exactly the same email this morning from Mr. Pilott.
Mr. Cordera - You can view a reply I received from Mr. Pilott and my email to him regarding your first article on Ms Stewarts piece on a thread on Free Republic.com.
Your spam filter here prohibits me from posting a link to the thread. A search using your current article title l bring up the thread.
My comment is in posts 4 & 5
Thanks--do me a favor--Could you ask "Mark Twain" to please stop posting my entire article? A teaser paragraph or two with a link is OK and much appreciated, but please not the entire copyrighted work. Free Republic has been contacted about this before.
I received the same pablum, with no acknowledgement of the fact I pointed out I have more than 30 years as a reporter and editor.
I replied with an explanation of US slander law concerning "false light" - in this case, slandering the people of Texas and how it then was used to connect to the totally unrelated case of an ex-con attacking a Florida school board.
I also pointed out that, had she worked for me, a suspension without pay would have been the minimum result of such sloppy reporting.
I'll let you know if he send a more personalized response.
FYI, despite being a defender of a free and open press, Pilott includes a lovely legal boilerplate at the bottom of his email claiming copyright and confidentiality of his response.
I'd love to see him attempt to take that to a US court.
David,
They're back and quite smugly "firing back" on the topic. They have posted "Editorial: Americans take pot shots at us". The spam filter won't allow me to provide the link, but it should be easy enough to find with the title. They are circling the wagons on this one...
Phillip
So, let me get this straight: This slimeball editor not only defends the lies of his reporter, he includes copyright and confidentiality demands on his emails to those who complain - BUT QUOTES THEM OUT OF CONTEXT AND WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION IN HIS SLANDEROUS EDITORIAL????
Anyone got the address of a good libel solicitor in New Zealand? Commonwealth doesn't have US "public figure" legal provisions - so David... want to own a newspaper down there?
I'm actually grateful to him. He has proven my point better than anything I could have possibly added.
Let me see..... I used to live in Texas, now I spend about 6 months each year there, I eat out all the time there and let me count how many times I've seen someone 'accidentally' show their firearm..... hmmmm, that would be about zero. I'm calling BS on the rebuttal in New Zealand.
I find that if you remove the acronyms for "HyperText Transfer Protocol", and "World Wide Web" from a URL, the reader can eithre C&P it right into their browser and it'll take, usually without adding it back in on their end.
stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/opinion/4518313/Americans-take-pot-shots-at-us
I've written about this on my New Zealand blog. You need to read Rachel's introductory piece, where she describes herself as a key-jangling, overall-wearing, God-hating deviant from hairy armpit city.
http://truebluenz.wordpress.com/
OK, Redbaiter, how did you do that? Your link is 'hot': I can click it and go straight there.
Just posted it as plain text on its own line. No HTML.
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