Internal Distress (article about the Houston Chronicle's rail conspiracy memo)

Internal Distress To: Jeff Cohen, CC: The entire World Wide Web BY RICHARD CONNELLY

Memo to the Houston Chronicle: Internal memos are not supposed to be posted on your Web site. You'd think that'd be obvious, but in an embarrassing incident that has revived memories of the Chron's bad old days of slanted journalism, just such a memo was posted publicly for a few hours November 20.

Written by an unnamed member of the paper's editorial board (reportedly David Langworthy), the memo outlines suggested plans for the Chron leading up to the proposed referendum next November on expanding the light-rail system.

"I propose a series of editorials, editorial cartoons and Sounding Board columns…with this specific objective: Continuing our long-standing efforts to make rail a permanent part of the transit mix here," the memo says.

So far, so good. But then it goes on: "The timing, language and approach of the paper's editorials would, of course, be the decision of the Editorial Board. But I suggest that they could be built upon and informed by a news-feature package with an equally specific focus." That focus, the memo says, would be looking into how U.S. Representative Tom DeLay and former mayor Bob Lanier have "operated to back, fund and promote an anti-rail agenda for the past two decades."

The memo then outlines "the broad elements of the news/feature package," including stories on how Lanier manages to buy land near future highway projects and who's funding DeLay. "Sidebar topics," the memo says, include "Elyse Lanier: From jewelry salesperson to Houston political insider." (To its credit, the memo also mentions looking at the Chron's role in helping local big business stymie federal clean-air deadlines a decade ago.)

Local conservatives have been howling on talk radio and in print about the memo. (Read the memo in its entirety here.) "Expect the Chronicle's radical pro-rail editorial opinions to seep over into their news coverage," the right-wing Houston Review wrote.

Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen says the memo was a "story pitch" outlining one person's view of topics that should be explored as the rail debate heats up.

"It's no different than what the Houston Press would do as it was contemplating a series," he says. "I make no apologies for having a thorough discussion of the issue. We have nothing to apologize for…There was an inadvertent posting of it to the Web site, and I'm sorry about that, but I make no apologies for the contents of it."

Cohen gets some support from Bob Steele, a senior faculty member and "ethics group leader" at the Poynter Institute, a leading journalism think tank.

"I don't believe there should be a 40-foot-high wall between the editorial board and members of the news side," he says. "There should be great respect for their separate and unique roles, but that should not preclude an honest, legitimate, respectful sharing of thoughts, including bouncing around ideas for coverage."

Houston voters, the memo concluded, "need to know who has wielded the power to pour concrete, who still wields it and to what lengths the concrete pourers will go in order to stop rail."

Cohen gets some support from Bob Steele, a senior faculty member and "ethics group leader" at the Poynter Institute, a leading journalism think tank.

In other words, a den of communists...

"As long as they're not conservative in nature."

Don't know. Here's a picture:

Jeff Cohen is executive vice president and editor of the Houston Chronicle. He was named to the position in May 2002 and formally assumed its responsibilities in June. The Chronicle is the nation’s seventh largest daily newspaper and 10th largest Sunday newspaper. Cohen is the 10th editor of the Chronicle, which was founded in 1901. Cohen came to the Chronicle from its sister newspaper, the Times Union in Albany, New York. The Times Union won more than 100 writing and graphics awards under Cohen's direction. In 1998, 1999 and 2001, the Times Union was named the best daily newspaper in its circulation class in New York by the Associated Press. In 1999, the Newspaper Association of America named timesunion.com the best medium-sized North American newspaper Web site. The Web site also has won a prestigious Online Journalism Award from Columbia University for its coverage of the trial of four New York City police officers accused of murdering Amadou Diallo. Cohen was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, but moved to Houston as a young child. After receiving his journalism degree at The University of Texas, Cohen joined The Hearst Corporation's San Antonio Light in 1976. As a sports writer at the Light he covered the National Basketball Association and as a feature writer he won many writing awards, including one for best story in Texas for an investigative series on cockfighting. Cohen became the managing editor of the Light in 1989. Cohen also has worked at Hearst's corporate headquarters in New York, where he was a special projects editor for new media. Cohen was a fellow in the Multicultural Management Program at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and was elected class president. He was a fellow at the Newspaper Management Center at Northwestern's Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He served as a Pulitzer juror in 1999 and 2000.

He wasn't the author of the memo by the way, he was the recipient.

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