BACKGROUND INFORMATION This investigation and analysis was undertaken by the Washington News Council at the request of The Spokesman-Review. Founded in 1998, the WNC is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help maintain public trust and confidence in the news media by promoting fairness, accuracy, and balance, and by creating a forum where the public and the news media can engage each other in examining standards of journalistic fairness and accountability. See www.wanewscouncil.org for more details. Shortly after he became editor of The Spokesman-Review, Steve Smith publicly pledged that he would seek an independent review of the paper’s River Park Square coverage. In 2005, Smith informally approached the WNC to ask whether it would consider undertaking an “outside audit.” Conversations took place between Smith, WNC Executive Director John Hamer, and WNC Media Members Chuck Rehberg and John Irby (now a WNC member emeritus). After several conversations, Smith asked the WNC to undertake the independent review. The WNC acknowledges that it is rare for any newspaper or other media organization to ask for outside oversight – and even more rare for an editor to grant complete autonomy to those who are conducting the independent review. But that’s what Smith proposed doing. At Hamer’s invitation, Smith to came to Seattle on Feb. 4, 2006, to make a formal request and presentation to the full News Council at its annual board meeting. WNC members asked Smith about access, openness, independence, cost, and other matters. After Smith left, the board discussed the request at length and then voted unanimously to undertake the project. The board asked Cliff Rowe, a WNC media member emeritus, to be leader of the project team. Several other WNC members agreed to join the team. A few members said they would recuse themselves from any involvement because of professional or personal connections to Steve Smith and/or The Spokesman-Review. The cost of the project was a major consideration. The Washington News Council is a small, non-profit organization with an all-volunteer board, one full-time staff member, one part-time assistant, and a limited budget. Smith pledged that The Spokesman-Review would help underwrite the cost. He initially offered $10,000, and then raised that to $15,000 at the WNC’s request. Council members unanimously agreed that the newspaper should not be the sole funder of the project, and pledged to match the paper’s funds from other sources to cover the costs. The WNC designated $5,000 from an Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation grant for this project, with that foundation’s approval, and added $10,000 from its operating budget. The WNC is funded by a wide range of individuals, foundations, associations, corporations, and news-media organizations, plus revenues from its annual Gridiron West Dinner. (For a full list of donors, see www.wanewscouncil.org.) The Engagement Letter An important early task was to draft a Memorandum of Understanding between the Washington News Council and The Spokesman-Review to clearly define the scope and parameters of the project. That effort took several months of discussions and document exchanges. A final agreement, termed the “Engagement Letter,” was completed and signed by both sides in August 2006. The letter read, in part: “Our engagement is to perform an analysis of (1) The Spokesman-Review’s coverage of River Park Square parking garage redevelopment project (the “RPS coverage”); and (2) the reporting guidelines, ethical standards, and related policies and procedures in effect at the time.” The WNC agreed to “form an opinion whether the RPS coverage was fair, accurate, balanced, complete and consistent with the generally held ethical standards of newspaper journalism.” It also pledged to “make recommendations we believe will improve The Spokesman-Review’s coverage of events involving its owners and where a potential conflict of interest exists.” One goal of the WNC from the beginning has been to use this report as a curriculum “case study” in college and high-school journalism classes statewide and/or nationwide. The engagement letter states: “On completion of the analysis and publication of the report, educational forums, school classes or professional appearances may be scheduled.” The WNC project leader and team members hired an outside freelance reporter to conduct the primary research and interviews, and draft a report. Bill Richards, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reporter, began work in the late summer of 2006. Richards met regularly with the WNC project leader, team members, and staff. The WNC team acted as his editors, but they were not directly involved in interviews or research. Richards was primarily responsible for the Narrative and Analysis section. The WNC project team took primary responsibility for the Findings and Recommendations. However, the final report represents the official position of the Washington News Council. The Project Team Bill Richards, Investigator / Writer – Bill Richards is a freelance journalist and was formerly senior staff writer and assistant San Francisco bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal. In 2003-2005, he was a contract writer for The Seattle Times, hired to cover stories relating to its Joint Operating Agreement dispute with the Hearst Corp. Richards was nominated by The Seattle Times for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize, and The Times won the 2004 Ancil Payne prize for ethics in journalism for his assignment. Richards lives in Indianola, Wash. Cliff Rowe, Project Leader – Cliff Rowe has taught journalism at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., since 1980. Prior to that, he was on the news and editorial-page staff of The Seattle Times for 11 years. He was previously a writer and editor with the Paddock Publications newspapers in the Chicago suburbs, a copy editor with The Chicago Sun-Times, and a reporter with The (Portland) Oregon Journal. Rowe is a graduate of Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore., and has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. He has chaired the Society of Professional Journalists’ national ethics committee. He served two 3-year terms as a media member of the Washington News Council, and is now a WNC member emeritus. Rowe lives in Burien. Everett Billingslea – vice president, administration
and legal affairs, Lynden Inc.; WNC public member. Other Washington News Council Members (not part of Project Team) Karen
Seinfeld – former presiding chief judge, Washington
State Court of Appeals, WNC chair. The WNC would like to thank Charles G. Nordhoff, public member emeritus, for his valuable contributions to this report. |