Obviously, journalists try to avoid misstating concrete facts. But sometimes people in the news make errors, either by accident or deception.
In those cases, then, is it enough to attribute the bad information, or is it wrong for The Kansas City Star ever to print the mistake in the first place?
In Wednesdays Sports section, a wire brief about the BALCO sports-drugging investigation said that Troy Ellerman’s lawyer “asked a federal judge for leniency Tuesday, noting that President Bush commuted I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby’s prison sentence for a similar crime.
The problem? “Scooter Libby was not convicted of leaking anything,” wrote one reader. “Yet, there is The KC Star, reprinting the lie that this lawyer told in court.”
Hes right. Libby was convicted of four felonies: two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements to FBI agents and one count of obstructing justice. He was acquitted of a fifth count.
Here, then, the fault lies with Ellerman’s attorney, and the story makes that clear. However, I think it’s fair to say that The Star let that false assertion go unchallenged in a news story, which adds to the fog already surrounding the incredibly complex CIA-leak case. I agree with the reader that the brief should have mentioned that caveat.
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“Why dont you print my letters to the editor?” asked a caller last Monday morning. “Ive probably sent in at least eight or nine over the past year, and you only put one of them in there.”
The odds of being published on the page can vary pretty dramatically, depending on a lot of factors. Letters editor Lajean Keene estimates that on average, she is able to run approximately 20 to 25 percent of the letters she receives these days.
There are lots of limiting issues, though. When a subject draws a huge number of similar comments, she chooses the ones that make the point most directly. Pithiness makes for powerful letters.
During periods of high letter volume, like in the run-up to the 2004 elections, there was room for only about one in 20. But in a spate of slow news days, that percentage can go way up.
Letters from Kansas City area residents always get preference over those from out of town. And while organized letter-writing campaigns from political groups sometimes generate very good mail, those clusters are also usually pretty obvious. They go lower on the priority list, too.
Keene reports that she’s getting increasing numbers of letters every year, and she senses that the people who write her are paying more attention to politics all the time. That engagement is a great benefit to the newspaper community, writers and readers alike.
