The red flags were up, but somehow no one in the newsroom followed them.
Citing anonymous sources, Bill Olds’ Privacy column last Sunday on Page H3 proclaimed that “The FBI Has Bugged Our Public Library.” The headline alone sounds like front-page news. But then there were those anonymous sources, whose allegations evidently weren’t thoroughly discussed and challenged by Olds and his editors before being published. The story slipped through and so did inaccurate information.
Olds said in his column that he had learned from sources that the FBI had bugged the computers at Hartford Public Library to search for information that might lead to terrorists. He also said, “It’s probable that other libraries around the state have also been bugged.”
The red flags really became apparent after the column was published and an editorial writer decided there needed to be an editorial reaction. After the writer’s calls to various people, the FBI sent a letter to The Courant about the bogus report.
Courant Editor Brian Toolan said: “The story deserved a full-blown discussion. … The anonymity of the sources wasn’t the root cause of the problem. The sources’ information was wrong. We failed to journalistically challenge their contentions.”
Kyrie O’Connor, assistant managing editor/features, conceded the discussion about the column should have been more rigorous. She said she sought advice from a fellow editor more versed on the subject of the column but then failed to follow up.
Olds, a former executive director of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union, has been writing free-lance columns on privacy issues for the paper for a little over a year and a half. When asked if he attempted to verify his sources’ information with the FBI, Olds said, “I called the Justice Department but I was told they could not discuss issues involving the FBI and libraries. … In the atmosphere of secrecy created by the Patriot Act, my sources misinterpreted what the FBI was doing.”
Odds are more people saw The Courant’s retraction on Page B1 Thursday than saw the original story. FBI Agent Michael Wolf said in Thursday’s story that his agency used a search warrant to seize evidence from a specific library computer for a criminal investigation.
It wasn’t a good day for The Courant. Sheepish feelings still lingered over a Life section story published Nov. 1 about author Gabe Hudson’s claim that President Bush had critiqued his short story collection “Dear Mr. President.” That bogus claim went unverified until the White House called The Courant – after the story was published. At least the source of that information was clear.
But false information from an anonymous source is double-edged. As Don Sellar, ombudsman at The Toronto Star, once said, “When the sources are wrong, they’re wrong anonymously and it’s the newspaper’s credibility that gets publicly dented.”
Solid information from an unnamed source is a great place to start a story, but it’s not where most journalists like it to end. Rounds of discussions between reporters and editors and reporters and sources seek to corroborate and verify information and to get it on the record. If there had been more discussion about the column, it’s possible the unreliability of the information might have been sorted out.
Clearly, the folks at the FBI weren’t happy about the bad information, and The Courant’s credibility took the hit.
Karen Hunter, The Courant’s reader representative, reports on the fairness and accuracy of news coverage. Contact her at 860-241-3902 or from outside the Hartford area at 800-524-4242, Ext. 3902 , or by e-mail at readerep@courant.com.
