By Ted Vaden
The News & Observer
Published: 8/13/2006
Excerpt:
It's a reporter's greatest fear. He has been working for a month on a
major investigative piece, part of the biggest ongoing local news story
of the year. It runs as the lead story on the Sunday front page. And
the key fact that begins the article is wrong.News
& Observer investigative reporter Joseph Neff didn't sleep at all
last Sunday night, after he learned of the error in his article
headlined, "Duke lacrosse files show gaps in DA's case."
The opening paragraphs of the story said Durham District Attorney Mike
Nifong had proceeded with rape indictments against two lacrosse players
the same day he asked a police investigator to look into whether the
accuser's injuries might have had causes other than the alleged rape.
That
information was wrong. Nifong actually had asked investigator Michele
Soucie for background information about the accuser on April 4, nearly
two weeks before the indictments, not on April 17, as the story said.
The N&O ran a front-page correction Tuesday that said, in part,
"This error changes the implications of the first five paragraphs of
the story: that the conversation between Nifong and Soucie was an
example of the words and actions of police and investigators outpacing
the facts in the file." ...
... Bob Steele, who teaches journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute in
Florida, said he thought the correction, which he read, should have
been more forthcoming. "If there was a mistake ... I believe that the
transparency and accountability should have gone to greater length. To
not only say 'we blew it,' but to give readers information as to how
the mistake happened."
More of this article...
Search Google News for more quotes by Bob Steele...
