Wednesday, July 15, 2009

News-Leader Publisher still has not set record straight

Five days have passed since Springfield News-Leader Publisher Tom Bookstaver, giving his best impression of a medicine show snake oil salesman, told his readers that no one in the newsroom lost his job.

As noted in The Turner Report and elsewhere, one of the people who was given his walking papars was videographer Chris Brewer, who clearly was a contributing member of the News-Leader's newsroom.

Either Bookstaver lied or made a mistake, but he owes it to the readers and to Brewer to acknowledge the mistake.

Don't hold your breath waiting to see that happen.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"We did not reduce our reporting staff..." was the quote. Is this not accurate?

Randy said...

It is not accurate. At best, it is misleading. Bookstaver is a publisher in a company that continually pushes its diversification into delivering news through various means other than print. Those people are reporters the same as the one who submit their stories in the traditional way. To turn around now and claim that a videographer is not a reporter is hypocritical.

Anonymous said...

Interesting analysis. It's reaching on your part to call it a "mistake" but I can see misleading -- but at worst, not at best. Doesn't warrant a correction of any kind.