Current
Council News
Gridiron West Dinner 2007: A huge success!
Bill & Jill Ruckelshaus were "toasted"
by the WNC on Nov. 8, 2007, at the Washington State Convention and Trade
Center.
WNC “Toasts” Bill and Jill Ruckelshaus at Annual Event
The Washington News Council’s 9th Annual Gridiron West Dinner, held on Nov. 8, 2007, to “toast” Bill and Jill Ruckelshaus, was a great success.
About 450 people attended the gala event, held at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.
Mike Egan was Emcee again for the fifth year in a row, and Jim Anderson and his Cabaret Productions team made the program sing – literally. They sang several songs about Bill and Jill that were big hits with the entire audience. For song parody lyrics, click HERE.
Killian Noe of Lakeside School (Jill is on their board) gave the invocation. WNC President David Schaefer and Executive Director John Hamer welcomed the crowd before dinner was served.
Bill Gates Sr. gave opening remarks and introduced a WNC video. He and his wife, Mimi Gardner Gates, were honorary co-chairs of this year’s “Toast” Committee. They were “toasted” together in 2005.
In his remarks, Bill said: “Unlike other nonprofit organizations that help children, or the homeless, or the hungry, or the sick, the News Council’s mission is to ensure that we get fair, accurate and balanced information about everything that goes on in our community and our society. And that’s really important, because the news media are so vital to our democracy. As I’ve said before: When the media get it right, we all benefit. When they get it wrong, we all suffer.”
King County Sheriff Sue Rahr gave a brief testimonial to the News Council. She successfully brought a complaint to the WNC against the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last fall, and expressed her great appreciation for the Council’s existence and process: “I can’t tell you how grateful and relieved I was to have the forum that the News Council provided….The presence of the News Council is a powerful reminder to editors that accountability extends into the newsroom.”
The entire WNC board of directors took the stage to sing their group song. This year’s tune was “Bridge Over Troubled Stories.” They were led by Michael Harris on the guitar, and were a huge hit with the audience, as they are every year.
Mike Egan’s annual slideshow photo retrospective was again one of the evening’s highlights. He had collected dozens of old photographs of Bill and Jill from their family and colleagues, and his “caption” comments were hilarious.
Another highlight was the video tribute produced by Ken Jones, which combined video, still photographs, and music by Simon & Garfunkel and Randy Travis, who are Jill and Bill’s favorite singers, respectively.
“Toaster” pairs who took the stage together included:
- Jerry Grinstein, former president of Delta Airlines and a longtime friend of the Ruckelshaus family; and Ernesta Ballard, senior vice president at Weyerhaeuser and former regional director of the Environmental Protection Agency.
- Egil “Bud” Krogh, former Nixon White House aide and now a Seattle attorney and author of the new book, Integrity; and Ralph Munro, former Washington Secretary of State who appeared as the Ruckelshaus’ “Cousin Homer” from rural Indiana.
- Jay Manning, director of the Washington State Department of Ecology; and David Dicks, executive director of the Puget Sound Partnership, who appeared in fly-fishing garb.
- And finally, four of Jill & Bill’s children – Billy, Mary, Robin and Jenny -- gave a tribute to their parents that included old photographs and comments which were irreverent, poignant, funny and affectionate all at once.
In their responses to the “toasters,” Jill and Bill were both pointed and appreciative. Jill said of Ralph Munro: “I’m happy for you that you didn’t have to pass a sobriety test on the way in here.”
Bill referred to Munro as “Benedict Arnold” and to Grinstein as “Brutus.” He gave as good as he got, “roasting” both of them in hilarious remarks that were the highlight of the evening.
Bill also complimented the News Council for its work of “insisting on sunshine” for the news media while encouraging accuracy, fairness and balance. He said of the media: “We must keep it strong and trusted – and therefore held accountable.”
Finally, John Hamer presented Bill and Jill with a framed copy of the Jeff Johnson cartoon drawing that was on the programs and invitations, and a signed copy of photographer Art Wolfe’s new book, On Puget Sound. The event ended shortly after 9:30 pm.
NOTE: Check www.tvw.org (Weekly Schedule) for days/times that the event will be broadcast. It is also streamed on the TVW website, and DVDs may be ordered online for $25 each ($10 for additional copies).
••••
NEW! Puget Sound
Business Journal reports that Tacoma woman may file complaint
with Washington News Council against USA Today.To read
it, click HERE: Ethics
author says she'll ask paper to apologize
••••
WNC
Executive Director John Hamer wrote an article called "Tomorrow's
Newsroom" for The Seattle Times Sunday
Opinion section on Sept. 23, 2007.
To read it, click HERE: John
Hamer's Article
••••
WNC
hosts Public Forum on "Today's News:
A Webolution in Progress."
The
Washington News Council hosted a Public Forum on Sept. 17,
2007, in the Microsoft Auditorium at Seattle Public Library,
to discuss the future of the news media in the Internet age.
The two-hour panel discussion was moderated by Merrill Brown,
former editor-in-chief and senior vice president of MSNBC,
who is now chairman of www.nowpublic.com.
Panelists included Cory Bergman, digital media director of www.king5.com;
Josh Feit, news editor of www.thestranger.com;
Robert Hernandez, senior producer of www.seattletimes.com;
Alex Johnson, senior producer at www.msnbc.com;
Joan McCarter, blogger at www.dailykos.com;
and Chuck Taylor, editor of www.crosscut.com.
The event was filmed by TVW and broadcast statewide. It may
be viewed at www.tvw.org.
••••
Spokesman-Review
Editor AND former Editor Respond to WNC's Critical
Report on River Park Square Coverage
Spokesman-Review Editor Steve Smith
and former Editor Chris Peck responded to the Washington
News Council's critical report on the newspaper's River Park
Square coverage in columns that ran in the Sunday, May 13
edition of the paper. Here are links to their columns:
Spokesman
Review Column -- Chris Peck
Spokesman
Review Column -- Steven A. Smith
In addition, The Spokesman-Review
has posted webcasts of a May 14 editors' meeting and a newsroom
staff meeting where the WNC's report and the response columns
were discussed at length.
To watch and listen, CLICK
HERE
WNC
Issues Critical Report on The Spokesman-Review's Coverage
of Spokane's River Park Square Development
The Washington News Council on May
5, 2007, released "Reporting
on Yourself –" An Independent Analysis of The
Spokesman-Review’s Coverage of and Role in the River
Park Square Redevelopment Project.
River Park
Square (RPS) is a major downtown Spokane mall whose developer
was the Cowles Co. –-- which also owns and publishes
The Spokesman-Review. That dual role led to widespread criticism
of the newspaper's performance.
Editor Steve Smith in early 2006 asked the Washington News
Council (WNC) to conduct an independent outside audit of
the newspaper's performance. The council had complete autonomy
to review the coverage and make recommendations.
The report's principal findings:
-----••
The newspaper did not investigate thoroughly in a timely
matter and report promptly and forthrightly
the financial structure of RPS.
----- • The
newspaper suppressed financial information of importance
to decision-makers and the public at-large, but potentially
unfavorable to developers.
-----•
Ownership’s involvement in news stories it deemed sensitive
was inappropriate.
-----•
A news editor overseeing the reporting of a controversial
issue involving the owners of the newspaper should not
advocate a particular outcome.
-----•
The Spokesman-Review suffers from the potential for self-censorship
of the news product by reporters and editors.
-----•
The same attorney simultaneously influenced decisions on
related business and newsroom matters.
The report was posted simultaneously
on the News Council's website and The Spokesman-Review's
site (http://www.spokesman-review.com) on
Saturday, May 5. It is printed in its entirety in the Spokane
newspaper's Sunday, May 6, edition, together with an explanatory
column by Editor Steve Smith (http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=9773) and
a contrary response from Publisher Stacey Cowles -----------------------------(http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=9772).
The News Council invites and welcomes
comments. Please send to info@wanewscouncil.org.
The Spokesman-Review also invites
comments. Send to editorforum@spokesman.com.
For some examples of regional coverage
of the report, see www.crosscut.com/media/2787/ and www.ridenbaugh.com.
It is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, for any American
newspaper to ask an outside news council to review and
critique its news coverage. The project was jointly funded
by the newspaper and the news council. The WNC had the
help of a grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism
Foundation.
Critics inside and outside The Spokesman-Review charged that
its coverage did not meet sound journalistic standards because
of the Cowles Co. connection. They contended that another
company would have received far greater scrutiny.
Under an agreement between the newspaper
and the WNC, the non-profit news council had several months
to review and critique the paper's coverage over more than
a decade. The paper promised to publish the report unedited,
regardless of its findings and conclusions. It also had the
right to publish a simultaneous response.
When evaluating the newspaper's coverage,
the news council used as its criteria the relevant sections
of the Codes of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists
(SPJ) and the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME).
Bill Richards, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal
reporter, was the primary researcher, investigator, interviewer
and writer. He produced a detailed narrative and analysis
section on a contract with the WNC.
Cliff Rowe, Professor of Journalism at Pacific Lutheran University
in Tacoma and a WNC media member emeritus, was the WNC project
leader. Rowe is past chairman of the SPJ's national ethics
committee.
He led a team of several WNC media and public members, who
oversaw the project and edited the final report. They were
responsible for the report's findings and recommendations.
The report's principal recommendations:
1. Newsroom management should consider
creating a "Cowles Co." beat. It should staff that
beat with an experienced reporter assigned to look routinely
at all aspects of the Cowles Co. operations
–- journalistic, political, environmental, financial
(including development of land it owns).
2. The newspaper's owners should
know what's being published about them before the paper hits
the newsstand. However, Cowles Co. representatives should
be given the same opportunity to influence the choice and
content of news articles prior to publication as any other
source or subject, no more and no less.
3. An editor involved in supervising
news coverage should avoid even a perception of conflict
by not taking a public position on an issue in these circumstances.
News reporting and editorial opinions should remain separate.
4. The Cowles Co. should explore
possible ways of separating the newspaper from other business
interests. Members of the Cowles family –- including
the publisher –- should vest the editor of the newspaper
with the authority to make any and all decisions about news
coverage of Cowles business interests.
5. The Spokesman-Review should find
a separate law firm from the one used by the Cowles Co. generally.
Avoiding the perception of a conflict outweighs the advantage
of having the newspaper's lawyer standing by the editor's
desk.
The report concluded: "We also
hope this report will be a cautionary tale to The Spokesman-Review
and to other similarly situated publications around the country.
Editors should not feel stifled by competitive pressures,
but rather their publishers should embolden them to fulfill
their journalistic obligations to their readers. Publishers
must recognize that their publications, as businesses, bring
a special obligation to the marketplace. That obligation
is to the communities they serve."
In a column that ran with the report,
Editor Smith wrote:
"The council's findings are
troubling, and in my view, they illuminate as nothing else
has done why some in our community questioned our RPS coverage
and why that story so wounded our credibility. In an accompanying
column on these pages, Publisher Stacey Cowles says he rejects
the report's findings of interference, direct or indirect.
I can appreciate his viewpoint, though we come at the situation
from different perspectives. Furthermore, I appreciate the
freedom he extends me to draw differing conclusions. So,
in the newsroom, we accept the findings. And we sincerely
apologize for not adequately living up to our journalistic
standards."
In an email to the WNC, Smith added: "My
sincere thanks to the News Council for taking on this difficult
task and the audit team for their hard work over several
months. Freelance reporter Bill Richards, in particular,
demonstrates how independent outside review can shed new
light on complex and contentious ethical debates."
CONTACTS:
John
Hamer, WNC Executive Director, jhamer@wanewscouncil.org,
206.262.9793
Cliff
Rowe, WNC Project Leader, rowecg@plu.edu,
253.535.7632
Bill
Richards, WNC Investigator/Writer, wrich33195@aol.com,
360.297.8281
Steve
Smith, Editor, The Spokesman-Review, steves@spokesman.com,
509.459.5423
Peter
A. Horvitz joins WNC Board as Media Member
Peter A. Horvitz
was elected to the Board of the Washington News Council as
a Media Member at the WNC's quarterly board meeting on April
18, 2007. He is Chairman, President & Chief Executive
Officer of Horvitz Newspapers, Inc., a privately-owned communications
company based in Bellevue, WA, which publishes the:
- Peninsula Daily News, a 17,000-circulation daily
newspaper published in Port Angeles, Wash.;
- Sequim This Week, a 10,000-circulation free
distribution weekly newspaper published in Sequim, Wash.;
- The Daily Times, a 21,000-circulation daily
newspaper published in Maryville and Alcoa, Tenn.;
- Blount County Voice, a 10,000-circulation free
distribution weekly newspaper published in Maryville and
Alcoa, Tenn.
He
formerly headed King County Newspapers, Inc., which published
the daily King County Journal and several weekly
newspapers in the Puget Sound region. He was previously President & Publisher
of the Marin Independent Journal in Marin County,
California, and the Chillicothe Gazette in Chillicothe,
Ohio.
He is a board member
or trustee of the American Press Institute, ArtsFund, Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Foundation, Jewish Federation
of Greater Seattle, Overlake Hospital Association, Pacific
Northwest Ballet (chairman), PAH Foundation, Performing
Arts Center Eastside, Seattle Foundation, and Syracuse University,
among other organizations.
He holds a BS in
Journalism from the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
at Syracuse University, and an MBA in Finance from
New York University's Graduate School of Business Administration.
The WNC held a
reception in Bellevue on April 12 to thank him for his contributions
to the community and to welcome him to the board. Nearly
100 people attended the event at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
It was made possible by generous donations from Kemper Freeman,
Skip Rowley, Aya Hamilton and Alex Smith, plus Puget Sound
Energy, Bob Wallace, Carl Behnke, Betty Nokes, Ken & Cathi
Hatch, David Brown, and Mark Davis.
WNC President David
Schaefer welcomed attendees, including other board members
and members of "100 Friends of the WNC." WNC Executive
Director John Hamer described recent activities of the News
Council, including the River Park Square audit, the hearing
concerning the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and the
creation of two new news councils, one in New England and
one in Southern California.
Remarks thanking
and saluting Peter were made by Cathi Hatch of Zino Society
and Aya Hamilton of Citigroup, both members of the Pacific
Northwest Ballet board of trustees; Mike Fancher, editor-at-large
of The Seattle Times; and Barbara Morgan, former
editor of the King County Journal.
WNC
co-hosts Public Forum on Student Press Freedom at The
News Tribune in Tacoma; DVDs now available
The Washington News Council co-sponsored
a Public Forum on Student Press Rights -- "What Does
'Freedom of Speech Really Mean for Students?" -- on
Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007, at The News Tribune in Tacoma.
Other co-sponsors were the Washington
Journalism Education Association (WJEA) and Pacific Lutheran
University's (PLU) Department of Communication.
The News Tribune hosted
and helped advertise the forum. The event was free and open
to the public. About 60 people, including many student journalists,
attended.
Students from PLU-TV filmed the event
for possible future broadcast on TVW. DVDs are now available.
(Call 206.262.9793 for details on broadcast and DVD purchase.)
Press coverage
of the event included:
1.
News article in The News Tribune: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/6353270p-5669944c.html
2. Editorial
in The News Tribune:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/story/6357182p-5673120c.html
3. Opinion
column in The Seattle Times:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003559796_rams07.html
The forum
featured a lively discussion of a bill before the Washington
State Legislature (House Bill #1307) that would:
--
make high school and college students solely responsible
for the content of their student media;
--
specify that they must follow the law;
--
ensure that school administrators who do not require prior
review or censor student media will not be liable for what
is published or broadcast.
Six other states, including California,
already have passed similar legislation.
The Washington News Council was the
neutral convenor of the event, and did not take a position
on the proposed legislation.
Panelists
at the Feb. 3 forum included:
--
Breanne Coats, editor of The Mast at PLU and Society
of Professional Journalists (SPJ) student chapter president;
--
Vince DeMiero, publication advisor and teacher at Mountlake
Terrace High School;
--
Mike Hiestand, attorney for the Student Press Law Center;
--
Jonathan Kellett, Principal, Stadium High School, Tacoma;
--
Dr. Eddie Reed, Tukwila School District instruction coach
and WNC board member;
--
Brian Schraum, president of SPJ student chapter at Washington
State University;
--
State Rep. Dave Upthegrove (D-Burien), author of H.B. #1307;
--
Summer Yates, senior and editor of JagWire at Emerald
Ridge High School.
Moderator of the panel was John Hamer,
Executive Director of the Washington News Council. Kathy
Schrier, WNC executive assistant and president of the WJEA,
organized and coordinated the panel.
Karen Peterson, Managing Editor of The
News Tribune, welcomed the crowd.
(NOTE: The Washington News Council
extends special thanks to David Zeeck, Cathy Brewis and
Karen Peterson of The News Tribune; Rob Wells, Travis Pagel,
Tove Tupper and Ingrid Stegemoeller of PLU; and Kathy Schrier
of WJEA, for all their help in making this event possible.) |
