Trib rumored to print rumors
The Tribune's readers' advocate, Connie Coyne's last column leads off with this headline:
ional Enquirer and later — only after Edwards copped to the affair — by the mainstream media.
Take the ultra-juicy Joyce McKinney story. Joyce, infamous in the late 1970s for kidnapping and forcibly making love to a shackled Mormon missionary, re-emerged in South Korea as Bernann McKinney where she cloned her beloved pit bull.
Though the Trib had gotten tips that dog-cloner Bernann was Joyce the missionary stalker and we saw similarities in photos — we could not confirm this extremely important story. Columnist Paul Rolly had tracked down Bernann, but she denied she was Joyce.
Finally, a British tabloid printed the rumor, offering a long list of Bernann-Joyce connections. In the Crawler, I linked to the story and wrote a blog item, tabloid-style, on McKinney.
Somehow the British newspaper's reporting of the McKinney rumor gave the Trib the green light to print Rolly's column that still contained only Bernann McKinney's denial — rescuing Trib readers from a slow news week.
Within a day, Bernann admitted that she was, indeed, Joyce. But by then we had moved on to other things.
*Coyne goes on to print rumors: "The National Enquirer, apparently hearing the rumor, rushed out to California where it exercised its stock-in-trade, checkbook journalism, to buy information from a source extremely close to the mistress (some folks guesstimate the information came from the mistress in exchange for a big fat check)."
And: "Also there are allegations that some prominent Democratic moneybags have supported the mistress and [Edwards pal Andrew] Young to keep the ruse alive."
We're not in the business of printing rumors*.She was, of course, discussing the John Edwards affair/love-baby scandal, pursued so diligently by the Nat
ional Enquirer and later — only after Edwards copped to the affair — by the mainstream media.Remember, please, that the flap is about printing rumors, not investigating rumors to track down fact.Coyne goes on to quote Trib editors, including political editor Dan Harrie and top editor Nancy Conway, explaining why it is bad, very bad, to print rumors. Says Harrie:
For the most part, rumor and innuendo are kept out of the news pages. AnDan was referring to news stories. But the Trib does print rumors on occasion in columns and in blogs. Some readers would call that splitting hairs.d that's a good thing, serving as a protection for the reputations of innocent people and the credibility of the press.
Take the ultra-juicy Joyce McKinney story. Joyce, infamous in the late 1970s for kidnapping and forcibly making love to a shackled Mormon missionary, re-emerged in South Korea as Bernann McKinney where she cloned her beloved pit bull.
Though the Trib had gotten tips that dog-cloner Bernann was Joyce the missionary stalker and we saw similarities in photos — we could not confirm this extremely important story. Columnist Paul Rolly had tracked down Bernann, but she denied she was Joyce.
Finally, a British tabloid printed the rumor, offering a long list of Bernann-Joyce connections. In the Crawler, I linked to the story and wrote a blog item, tabloid-style, on McKinney.
Somehow the British newspaper's reporting of the McKinney rumor gave the Trib the green light to print Rolly's column that still contained only Bernann McKinney's denial — rescuing Trib readers from a slow news week.
Within a day, Bernann admitted that she was, indeed, Joyce. But by then we had moved on to other things.
*Coyne goes on to print rumors: "The National Enquirer, apparently hearing the rumor, rushed out to California where it exercised its stock-in-trade, checkbook journalism, to buy information from a source extremely close to the mistress (some folks guesstimate the information came from the mistress in exchange for a big fat check)."
And: "Also there are allegations that some prominent Democratic moneybags have supported the mistress and [Edwards pal Andrew] Young to keep the ruse alive."
5 Comments:
This is all very funny. Let's be honest: That son of a bitch Paul Rolly wouldn't have a column without rumors. The guy is a bigger gossip queen than the most egregious preacher's wife / relief-society president.
You're right, jeffjames, and people love it. We all love gossip--why not admit it and move on.
As is the case fairly often with the National Enquirer, when it came to the Edwards "rumor," they were right. Mainstream media hates it, but it's true. Then they had to follow on it,admit the NE had it first, and that's why we get snooty columns like Coyne's.
Yep, rumor and innuendo are as much a part of journalism as paper and ink. Coyne was just trying to realtionalize the Trib's getting scooped.
Meh. The point I was making was not about whether people like rumors, but whether they should be printed in the paper.
The Enquirer, as they are occassionally prone to do, actually did their homework. Rolly just gets calls from people with an axe to grind and then prints it.
Ah, Mr. Warchol.
Just another excuse to run a picture of Joyce McKinney's hooters.
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