My experience as an activist blogger researching stories is there are inevitably side stories that may seem irrelevant to the larger story but are still worth telling. One such tidbit stemming from what is growing into a voluminous tale about ORCCA is worth sharing because it may help to illustrate the priorities of the agency’s board of directors.
Most of us can remember how The World wrote a series of negative stories about the agency. The board did not relish a repeat of that experience. Earlier this spring, during a regular meeting of ORCCA’s board, the newly hired executive director, Mike Lehman, assured the members that because he maintained a close personal relationship with Clark Walworth, then editor of The World, the board need never again worry about bad publicity. Walworth is gone now but the implications, if Lehman’s claim is true, are staggering. Not reporting news as a favor to someone is going well beyond poorly written editorials and casts a cloud on all the paper’s reporting*.
Whether Lehman was exaggerating his influence over the paper to calm a skittish board or sincerely believed his claim, it is clear that in his mind at least controlling the media was a board priority. The board’s priorities will be play a part in the ensuing stories that will unfold over the next few weeks.
*Jeff Precourt, Publisher, The World Newspaper replied to my query regarding the paper’s editorial policies.
What I can say with absolute certainty is that we will never make promises to ignore items that are newsworthy.
Not for clients, or friends, or anyone. News is news and we will cover as much of it as we can.
I also can promise you that in the time I’ve been with The World (I arrived on January 7) I have neither seen nor heard of
someone on my staff making decisions to ignore a news story to protect an individual or an organization.
