New woe for brass at Times

New York Daily News ^ | 5/23/03 | PAUL D. COLFORD

[kattracks]

The New York Times has another reporter problem.

This time, it's Rick Bragg.

The paper will publish an editor's note today stating that the Pulitzer Prize-winning national correspondent did not do all the reporting on a story from rural Florida that carried only his byline.

Bragg - a friend and favorite of the executive editor, fellow Alabaman Howell Raines - could bring a heap of extra trouble on the top Timesman if the writer's stories are questioned.

It was unclear last night whether Bragg faced any punishment.

The Florida story investigated by Times editors was published last year and datelined Apalachicola.

It bore the Bragg trademarks of colorful rustics viewed in their environs, describing how second-generation oysterman Bobby Varnes pursued his hard trade against threats to the water posed by growing development.

However, the word at The Times was that Bragg did not do all the legwork on the story, but may have woven in material gathered at the scene by a stringer, or nonstaff contributor to the paper.

The Times is believed to have zeroed on the story in response to a complaint that came in after the paper published a four-page Mother's Day chronicle of Jayson Blair's serial fabrications.

Blair was forced to resign May 1 because he plagiarized a story from a Texas paper.

The Times invited readers and news sources who, as the paper put it, "know of defects in additional articles" to E-mail the paper at retrace@nytimes.com.

Bragg, who joined The Times in 1994 and won a Pulitzer in 1996 for feature writing, is based in New Orleans. He was among the staffers who attended a March reception in Manhattan celebrating Raines' wedding.

Bragg could not be reached in New Orleans last night.

Originally published on May 23, 2003

[ArcLight]

Actually, this is trivial. Sounds more like a conflict over bylining than any attempt at deceit. This sort of thing happens at newspapers. I sometimes get help on a story, and then have to decide whether or not the other fella's name should go on at the bottom, or maybe as a shared byline. It usually depends on the extent of the assistance received. This is nothing like a major ethical lapse, and at any other time it would be worthy of no more than a shrug. But with Blair in the air, the timing couldn't have been worse.

[martin_fierro]

The Times invited readers and news sources who, as the paper put it, "know of defects in additional articles" to E-mail the paper at retrace@nytimes.com.

(flailing arm) Ooooh! Can I be an Anonymous Source for this story???

[martin_fierro]

I sure wouldn't buy a used car from him.

[Grampa Dave]

Martin, you may be an Anonymous Source for this story! Go send an email to them.

[martin_fierro]

Wasn't there a guy that jumped from the roof of the Times building a year or so ago? I wonder what that was really all about.

There was, but I haven't been able to find the story about it.

I seem to recall that the guy was partially paralyzed from a previous accident, and that he was in a lot of pain.

[Liz]

Be my guest........have at it.

[martin_fierro]

Martin, you may be an Anonymous Source for this story!

(furtive glances)

You may call me ...

... DEEP BOMBILLA <|:)~

[Consort]

[Grampa Dave]

DEEP BOMBILLA Martin has a nice positive ring to it.

Bombs away.

[Rummyfan]

Bragg is white, a Georgian by birth I believe. Wrote a book called ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTING, semi-autobiograhpical.

[Cyber Ninja]

The New York Times constipated my canary, FReePeep. I lined his cage with the Times and he seized right up. Poor thing hadn’t pooped in three days. He was looking really sick. I had to do something to help him. So, I printed out a postage stamp sized pic of HRC on her book cover and put it in the center of FReePeep’s cage. About three minutes later I heard what sounded like a gun shot coming from FReePeep’s cage. I looked in and could not see any sign of Hillary’s face. Just the biggest pile of bird crap that bird has ever produced. Any way both FReePeep and I are very relieved. True story!

CB^)

[razorback-bert]

It bore the Bragg trademarks of colorful rustics viewed in their environs

NYT's code for inbred yahoos.

Blair's story of PFC Lynch's family bore the same fingerprints and his description of VW people having no options except joining the military, fits Bragg's gratuation speech too.

Could there be a pattern here?

[Spook86]

Bragg is white and (like Howell Raines), a native of Alabama. He is unique among Times reporters in his lack of a college degree. He completed one journalism course at Jacksonville State University in Alabama before becoming a full-time reporter for a local newspaper. From there, he worked his way up the ranks, with stops at papers in Birmingham, St. Petersburg and (briefly) the Los Angeles Times before joining the NYT.

Bragg published a memorable autobiography a few years back entitled "All Over But the Shoutin,' chronicling his rise from poverty in Alabama to the Times newsroom. Bragg is a superb writer, perhaps the best on the Times staff. But his articles are also filled with lots of "local color," seemingly based on his observations and not directly attributed to anyone--remember Jayson Blair's decription of Jessica Lynch's hometown in West Virginia? Bragg's work has some of the same elements, so it's no surprise the Times is taking another look at some of his articles. However, I don't think Rick Bragg is guilty of any of the sins that Jayson Blair committed.

If you read Bragg's work, you'll discover (no surprise) that he's very much a liberal. However, he writes about the South without being condescending or unfair, which is rare for anyone from the NYT.

BTW, why is it so difficult for the Times to catch these errors of omission and commission? For a paper top-heavy with editors, the Times can't seem to check facts, or verify what appears in its pages. Some of that is their elitist, arrogant attitude, but a lot of it is old-fashioned laziness and sloppiness. By comparision, The Wall Street Journal proves--on a daily basis--that a great newspaper can do it right. From what I'm told, the Journal typically has two editors assigned to every major piece that appears in the paper. Every sentence is carefully reviewed, and if the assertion can't be verified, or if the editors think it's more opinion than fact, it's deleted from the story.

[Dog Gone]

This doesn't begin to compare with the Blair story. The information published wasn't false; it was a case of a reporter taking credit that he shouldn't have.

It was wrong, but I don't think it's that big of a deal. You ought to see how this happens all the time in major corporations where employees try to claim credit for other people's accomplishments.

[b4its2late]

Excellent!

[Dog Gone]

[martin_fierro]

[Grampa Dave]

Martin this great! In the great tradition of stealing good things on Free Republic. This will be "borrowed" from you.

[VOA]

Actually, this is trivial. Sounds more like a conflict over bylining than any attempt at deceit.

I'm not a journalist and am sure you are right in about 90% of the cases where
stringers make significant contriubtions, but...

It wouldn't be trivial to a "stringer" if that did the a substantive amount of the
work for an article...
And a Rick Bragg or a Jayson Blair won a Pulitzer Prize for the article.

Of course, the New York Times wouldn't threaten such a peon if they were tempted
to blow the whistle on such a practice. (end sarcasm)

[The Old Hoosier]

They are losing circulation, according to the last audit, and that came before the blair business.