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May. 3rd, 2003 07:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ciroccojSee, this is what an apology should look like.
An Apology
A newspaper is comprised of many tangibles -- a building, printing presses, a newsroom, to name a few. But it is intangibles that ultimately matter most to newspapers and their readers, and chief among them are trust and credibility.
The Salt Lake Tribune in recent days has sustained blows to its credibility and to the trust placed in us by you, our readers.
Two of the newspaper's reporters, Michael Vigh and Kevin Cantera, were terminated Tuesday for having failed to give their editors an accurate account of how they came to be paid $10,000 apiece for information they gave the National Enquirer for a story about the Elizabeth Smart family that the national tabloid published last July 2.
The Enquirer, in a settlement with the Smart family announced over the weekend, recanted lurid details in the story that it claimed came from the two Tribune reporters. It also apologized to the Smarts.
Vigh and Cantera, The Tribune's principal reporters on the Elizabeth Smart abduction, were taken off the Smart story and placed on one year's probation last week by Tribune Editor James E. Shelledy. The punishment was for having failed to seek permission from the editor to engage in any outside work for another publication. The requirement is unequivocally stated in The Tribune's rules governing news gathering.
The Enquirer on Monday demanded a retraction from The Tribune for statements in Shelledy's Sunday column, in which readers were first informed of the Vigh-Cantera affair. Shelledy responded yesterday with an acknowledgement that parts of his column that were based on the two reporters' initial assertions were in error.
The reporters' employment was terminated after Cantera admitted that the information he provided the Enquirer went well beyond what he first had admitted to Shelledy, and after Vigh could not guarantee his earlier recollections were complete.
The actions of the two reporters and the newspaper's handling of their case have, justifiably, raised questions about The Tribune's professionalism, ethics and credibility.
Sometimes we need to be reminded, as we have been in the last few days, that the ethical standards of journalism go beyond what appears in print. The ways in which we gather information, evaluate its relevance and accuracy and pass it on to others do, at times, affect our precious credibility just as much as the words and images that appear in our pages. The salacious information that the Tribune reporters discussed with the Enquirer was never judged worthy of publication by Tribune editors. But that proved no deterrent to Vigh and Cantera, who made the deal with the tabloid.
Standards for judging the credibility of information are important, particularly when the information has the potential to hurt others, in this case a family that was enduring a terrible ordeal. To pass such gossip along, whether it is sold to be printed under another newspaper's nameplate, or simply given away to find new life in the cruel rumor mill, does not serve a newspaper's mission of seeking and presenting the truth.
Our readers need to be able to trust that those who report, write and edit this newspaper will follow the truth wherever it may lead. They need to be just as certain that we are above spreading malicious and hurtful rumors.
We owe you, our readers, an apology for not meeting your expectations, for having breached your trust. These are words that, while deeply felt by all Tribune employees, are merely words if they are not accompanied by action.
Credibility and trust can be lost in a day. They are earned, and regained, over time. It is our singular intent to do just that, not only to work to regain your trust, but to more jealously guard the credibility that is our only currency.
An Apology
A newspaper is comprised of many tangibles -- a building, printing presses, a newsroom, to name a few. But it is intangibles that ultimately matter most to newspapers and their readers, and chief among them are trust and credibility.
The Salt Lake Tribune in recent days has sustained blows to its credibility and to the trust placed in us by you, our readers.
Two of the newspaper's reporters, Michael Vigh and Kevin Cantera, were terminated Tuesday for having failed to give their editors an accurate account of how they came to be paid $10,000 apiece for information they gave the National Enquirer for a story about the Elizabeth Smart family that the national tabloid published last July 2.
The Enquirer, in a settlement with the Smart family announced over the weekend, recanted lurid details in the story that it claimed came from the two Tribune reporters. It also apologized to the Smarts.
Vigh and Cantera, The Tribune's principal reporters on the Elizabeth Smart abduction, were taken off the Smart story and placed on one year's probation last week by Tribune Editor James E. Shelledy. The punishment was for having failed to seek permission from the editor to engage in any outside work for another publication. The requirement is unequivocally stated in The Tribune's rules governing news gathering.
The Enquirer on Monday demanded a retraction from The Tribune for statements in Shelledy's Sunday column, in which readers were first informed of the Vigh-Cantera affair. Shelledy responded yesterday with an acknowledgement that parts of his column that were based on the two reporters' initial assertions were in error.
The reporters' employment was terminated after Cantera admitted that the information he provided the Enquirer went well beyond what he first had admitted to Shelledy, and after Vigh could not guarantee his earlier recollections were complete.
The actions of the two reporters and the newspaper's handling of their case have, justifiably, raised questions about The Tribune's professionalism, ethics and credibility.
Sometimes we need to be reminded, as we have been in the last few days, that the ethical standards of journalism go beyond what appears in print. The ways in which we gather information, evaluate its relevance and accuracy and pass it on to others do, at times, affect our precious credibility just as much as the words and images that appear in our pages. The salacious information that the Tribune reporters discussed with the Enquirer was never judged worthy of publication by Tribune editors. But that proved no deterrent to Vigh and Cantera, who made the deal with the tabloid.
Standards for judging the credibility of information are important, particularly when the information has the potential to hurt others, in this case a family that was enduring a terrible ordeal. To pass such gossip along, whether it is sold to be printed under another newspaper's nameplate, or simply given away to find new life in the cruel rumor mill, does not serve a newspaper's mission of seeking and presenting the truth.
Our readers need to be able to trust that those who report, write and edit this newspaper will follow the truth wherever it may lead. They need to be just as certain that we are above spreading malicious and hurtful rumors.
We owe you, our readers, an apology for not meeting your expectations, for having breached your trust. These are words that, while deeply felt by all Tribune employees, are merely words if they are not accompanied by action.
Credibility and trust can be lost in a day. They are earned, and regained, over time. It is our singular intent to do just that, not only to work to regain your trust, but to more jealously guard the credibility that is our only currency.
