August 23, 2011

San Diego Union-Tribune | Union-Tribune Letters | New York Times
The New York Times’ Eric Lichblau wrote last week “most wealthy members of Congress push their financial activities to the side, with many even placing them in blind trusts to avoid appearances of conflicts of interest, but [Republican congressman Darrell] Issa may be alone in the hands-on role he has played in overseeing a remarkable array of outside business interests since his election in 2000.” Issa’s hometown newspaper — the San Diego Union-Tribune — says it “decided not to publish the original [NYT] story while the Times reviews Issa’s complaints” about the piece. Some Union-Tribune readers are unhappy about that. One says:

I find it interesting that the Union-Tribune never reproduced the original article in any shape, way or form on Mr. Issa in the Times, but has devoted almost an entire page to his rebuttal.

How would your readers know what the original questions posed by the Times were if they never read anything about it?

I would say the Union-Tribune is pandering once again to its political base of extreme Republicanism, which we have witnessed in the past.

Another reader, who brings up Howell Raines and Jayson Blair in her letter, thanks the Union-Tribune for declining to run the Times piece. “I know you are going to take some flak for it, so I want you to know that your response is professional and appropriate.”

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From 1999 to 2011, Jim Romenesko maintained the Romenesko page for the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based non-profit school for journalists. Poynter hired him in August…
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