Posted on 01/23/2015 11:17:07 AM PST by pabianice
The Harvard professor accused by the Boston Globe’s Boston.com of sending a racist email to a Chinese restaurant in a dispute over a food bill says “good journalistic practices” dictate that the website should officially retract the story.
Harvard Business School professor Ben Edelman said then-deputy editor Hilary Sargent, demoted after the website said it could not verify that Edelman had written the racist email, never contacted him before posting the story.
“My sense is that good journalistic practices would call for both a retraction and an admission that they didn’t follow the procedures understood to be appropriate — for example, publishing the piece without even attempting to reach me first,” Edelman told the Herald yesterday in an email.
“A deleted tweet from Hilary Sargent indicates that she had doubts about the authenticity of the emails, but published the piece anyway — which I found particularly puzzling,” Edelman wrote.
But the professor said he would “leave it to Boston .com readers” to demand a retraction. Asked if he was considering taking legal action, Edelman said he didn’t “have any specific plans at this time.”
In an email response to the Herald, Boston.com General Manager Corey Gottlieb said, “We’re more than happy to speak with Professor Edelman directly.”
Sargent’s story was pulled from the site shortly after it was posted and replaced by an editor’s note saying that Boston.com could not verify Edelman had sent it. The professor denies writing or sending the email containing a racial slur, which was sent through an online forum on the restaurant’s website.
Edelman came under intense social media fire after Sargent wrote about his emails demanding a refund from Sichuan Garden in Brookline over a $4 difference between his food bill and the restaurant’s prices as advertised online.
Sargent was later suspended for five days after she created T-shirts mocking Edelman and put them up for sale online.
Sargent declined to comment yesterday. Mike Sheehan, CEO of Boston Globe Media Partners, which includes both the broadsheet and its two main websites, did not return calls seeking comment.
Sheehan was forced to apologize to U.S. House Speaker John Boehner last week for what he admitted was a “tasteless” Boston.com story that mocked death threats aimed at the Ohio Republican. The associate editor who wrote that story was fired. More On: Ben Edelman
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This guy just cant stop can he.
The Interwebs are forever, Bucko.
Thats troubling to look at.
Hard to believe a Harvard professor doesn’t know the First Rule of Holes.
Ben learned a lot about business at Harvard Law School.
Jerks jerking jerks around over being a jerk.
Edelman = biggest jerk.
You know the speech they give all the new students at Harvard Law School.......
“You come here with a head full of mush, and after three years and $300,000, you leave here with a head full of oatmeal.”
i guess he’s an “expert” in journalism too now.
seems all harvard gives a person is the inability to not be an a$$hole.
One rule in business is that if you are involved in something embarrassing, try to make it go away. Publicizing it is only going to make you look worse.
That was great!! Thanks!
I actually feel for EVEN this guy on THIS issue. If the paper falsely reported he’d sent a racist email, then the paper should apologize to him. He may be annoying wiener, but he’s not a racist one.
To freaking bad.
Harvard Business School professor Ben Edelman said then-deputy editor Hilary Sargent, demoted after the website said it could not verify that Edelman had written the racist email, never contacted him before posting the story... "A deleted tweet from Hilary Sargent indicates that she had doubts about the authenticity of the emails, but published the piece anyway -- which I found particularly puzzling," Edelman wrote... Sargent's story was pulled from the site shortly after it was posted and replaced by an editor's note saying that Boston.com could not verify Edelman had sent it... Sargent was later suspended for five days after she created T-shirts mocking Edelman and put them up for sale online... Mike Sheehan, CEO of Boston Globe Media Partners... was forced to apologize to U.S. House Speaker John Boehner last week for what he admitted was a "tasteless" Boston.com story that mocked death threats aimed at the Ohio Republican. The associate editor who wrote that story was fired.The steady downward spiral of the financial health of the MSM puzzles analysts.
Harvard has always served as a nest for professional tightwad know-it-all pansies. Cambridge is full of them.
If they did that, he shouldn't settle for an apology, he should sue.
He's not going to sue, because then it would be established in a court of law that he did, in fact author and send the email.
This is old news.
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