As ombudsmen see it

(The following is reprinted from the Winter 1994 issue of Nieman Reports.)

In response to a request from Nieman Reports for flagrant judgment calls by editors and reporters, ombudsmen sent the accompanying reports.

Readers’ Caution Exceeds Editors’

By Henry McNulty
The Hartford Courant

The reading public, so we are told, increasingly distrusts and dislikes the press; when it comes to credibility, journalists are right up there (or down there) with used-car salesmen, politicians and televangelists. Much of this antipathy, I am convinced, comes about because journalists and readers inhabit two different worlds governed by different value systems.

If common ground …