Darts & Laurels
to Newsweek, for showing by its own example that
— as its December 15 cover line put it — “Fear of Litigation is
Paralyzing our Professions.” Under the inside slug of “Justice,”
Stuart Taylor Jr.’s 3,400-word article described one extreme situation
after another as evidence that frivolous, greed-driven lawsuits
are jeopardizing medicine, education, and the ministry — and therefore
society itself. Essentially an amicus brief in the case for so-called
tort reform, the article relied heavily on the testimony of one
Philip K. Howard, identified as a “corporate lawyer and civic
activist” who has “devised proposals to save Americans from a
legal system gone mad” — proposals not only to limit damages but
also to take some cases out of the hands of courtroom juries entirely.
But while noting (parenthetically) that Howard’s law firm, Covington
& Burling, represents Newsweek, the article failed
to mention a few related matters — among them, that a Covington
& Burling specialty is defending employers against discrimination
lawsuits; and that since 1999 Newsweek and its sibling,
Post-Newsweek Stations, have been the target of such discrimination
lawsuits at least three times. (One case went in the company’s
favor; one resulted in a $8.3 million verdict for the plaintiff;
one is pending.) Had this history been disclosed to readers, they
might have been less amazed when the newsmagazine so blatantly
took its stand. “One day, [Americans] may realize,” the article
concluded, “that their right to sue has become a trial for us
all.” Or, more accurately, perhaps, all of us at Newsweek?
to the News-Journal, in Daytona Beach, Florida, for an artful display of the power of the press. Having pledged $13 million for the naming of a planned performing arts center, and determined to persuade the Volusia County Council to up the disappointing $500,000 toward the center that the council had granted earlier, Tippen Davidson, the paper’s owner and co-editor — and the producer, along with his daughter, of a theater group that would be one of the center’s major tenants — invited council members to the paper for a little private chat. One by one, in back-to-back meetings behind closed doors of unmistakable weight, each of the seven members was interviewed by Davidson and a select group of business leaders that usually included Georgia Kaney, the News-Journal’s publisher. One by one, each was told that another $2.4 million was needed for the center and was asked for a promise of support. And one by one, each said yes. At the next official council meeting — with only some minor unpleasantness when the paper’s lawyer, who is also the publisher’s husband, was heard to tell an unexpected turncoat, “You’re a dead man walking” — the additional $2.4 million was approved. Subsequent rumblings about possible violations of Florida’s Sunshine Law came to naught. Groundbreaking ceremonies for the News-Journal Center are scheduled for some time in March.
to the Palm Beach Post, for adding a new course
of study to the investigative curriculum. After learning in July
that the Islamic Academy of Florida, which had ties to an organization
on the U.S. government’s terrorist list, was a beneficiary of
the state’s $88 million corporate school voucher program, the
paper focused its attention on the program itself. Over the next
six months, in seventy-plus articles, most of them by S.V. Dáte
and Kimberly Miller, the Post uncovered nothing less than a total
mess. Among the findings: that the program, which diverted millions
of dollars from public education by awarding dollar-for-dollar
tax credits to corporations financing scholarships for private
and religious schools — the brainchild of a local businessman
who contributed $100,000 to the GOP — had been given a high pass
by the Florida legislature with no strings, no oversight, no accountability
attached. Not only did the state have no way of knowing which
students were attending which schools or what they were being
taught or how they were being measured by what, if any, academic
standards, but there were also signs of possible fraud. By the
time of the Christmas break, resignations had been tendered, audits
launched, new regulations ordered, voucher funding pulled, criminal
probes begun. And oh, yes — three Palm Beach Post reporters
barred from a year-end interview with Governor Jeb Bush.
to The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Texas Monthly magazine, for going too deep into the heart of Texas p.r. On December 5, a “cocktail buffet,” as the invitation put it, was given “honoring The New York Times Houston Bureau Chief, Ralph Blumenthal and his wife, Deborah Blumenthal, author, and Los Angeles Times Houston Bureau Chief, Scott Gold and his wife, Dana Calvo, Los Angeles Times writer.” Co-hosts for all this honoring were Julie and Evan Smith and Catherine and Bill Miller, none of whose professional affiliations, unlike those of the honorees, were mentioned in the elegant script. Insiders, however, would have recognized Evan Smith as the editor of Texas Monthly; they also might have recognized the address of the event as that of Bill Miller’s home, and the RSVP phone number as that of Hillco Partners, the huge political lobbying firm in which Miller is a principal.
to The Associated Press, for putting stars in its reporters’ eyes. Here are only two of the many worthy efforts that competed in early January for the AP’s prize for Beat of the Week: the revelation that, buried in the Labor Department’s proposed new rules on extended overtime benefits to low-income workers, were tips on how employers could avoid paying them; and the disclosure that the governor of Connecticut had become the subject of a federal investigation into corruption. Here’s what the AP singled out for positive reinforcement with its $500 reward: news that annulment papers filed after Britney Spears’s quickie wedding were already signed — and that furthermore, the reporter had been the first to actually see them.
Darts & Laurels is written by Gloria Cooper, CJR's deputy executive editor. Nominations may be addressed to her by mail, phone (212-854-1887), or e-mail (gc15@columbia.edu).
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