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Posted on 10/02/2003 6:27:46 PM PDT by Simmy2.5
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Critics slammed the Los Angeles Times on Thursday for printing -- just days before the California recall -- allegations that Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger sexually harassed women, but the paper's editor said the decision to publish was made solely on journalistic grounds.
Times Editor John Carroll said the story, which was investigated for seven weeks, was printed as soon as it was ready -- even though that was five days before the Oct. 7 recall election.
"We expected criticism, but we're in the business of publishing information, not withholding it from the public," Carroll told Reuters in an interview. "We published the story as soon as it was fully reported and edited and we didn't hold it even a single day beyond that."
Political analysts and officials with the Schwarzenegger campaign have said that the prominent page-one story, which relies heavily on unnamed sources, was evidence that the paper had an agenda to see the recall of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites) -- and the front-running "Terminator" star -- defeated.
The story contained allegations that Schwarzenegger groped six women on movie sets and in other settings over the past three decades, including an incident three years ago. Schwarzenegger responded by acknowledging that he had "behaved badly" in the past and apologizing.
A PLANNED POLITICAL HIT?
"I think it was a planned hit by the L.A. Times," syndicated columnist Jill Stewart, a former Times reporter, said. "You'd almost have to be working for the Democratic party to throw it out this late when you know Schwarzenegger would have no time to respond. It's staggering that the L.A. Times has done this."
But Carroll said the story had to wait until it was nailed down before it could run.
"It took a long time just to find people and then persuade them to talk and even then we failed in some cases," he said. "We had to do everything we could to verify these stories."
Democratic political consultant Rich Lichtenstein called it "odd" that the Times would run the story on page one while relying heavily on unnamed sources, adding: "If you're not prepared to come forward it doesn't resonate with people. He has a right to face his accusers. That's what makes it thin."
Carroll said he would have preferred to name all six of the women who accused Schwarzenegger of groping them, but was comfortable with the way the story was handled.
"I always prefer named sources to unnamed sources but in cases in which women are humiliated and feel abused in sexual ways it's very difficult to get them to speak for the record," he said. "And some of the women also expressed concern that if their names were used they would have a hard time finding employment."
He said that while Schwarzenegger and his advisors were not given the names of the women making the accusations, they were allowed to respond to the allegations in the story before it was published.
The Times in editorials has urged readers to vote against the recall. Although it has criticized Davis, it also declined to support a replacement candidate for the governor, saying he should be allowed to finish the term he was elected to in November.
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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The same John Carroll who admitted in a memo to his staff that the Times had a liberal bias?
Yeah, that's the guy.
Is that amusing, or what?? I defy any man 50 or older to prove that he never groped or harassed any woman in the previous 3 decades. In her opinion, not his.
Deadline Hollywood
Imitation Is . . .
L.A. Times’ Cohn called Premiere article author for help
by Nikki Finke
We all knew it was in the works, and even people at the paper despaired whether it would ever see the light of day, but the word was that the Los Angeles Times was trying to be exhaustive in its investigation of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s background.
The more fitting word to describe it is exhausted.
Published four days before the election after seven weeks of reporting by three Times staffers, the article turned out to be nothing more than another detailing of Schwarzenegger’s "grab and grope" behavior not just similar to John Connolly’s Premiere article back in 2001 but even with one of the same women cited in his story. That may not be a coincidence.
The L.A. Weekly has learned that the Times’ much-vaunted new investigative reporter, Gary Cohn, started his reporting on this piece by calling — get this — Connolly.
According to Connolly, Cohn asked him not to pen an article but to "maybe help us out a little" without pay or credit. Responded Connolly: "I don’t think so." Nor does he now think that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
It’s a real blot on the Times’ new administration that the article doesn’t advance the Schwarzenegger character story one iota. And it’s not an auspicious debut for Cohn, who was hand-picked by old pal editor John Carroll. This is so typical of the Times, especially on entertainment-related stories: a lot of anticipation during the reporting only to be followed by disappointing results. There’s not even a sidebar that tries to get to the bottom of why the women making the sexual-harassment charges are so convinced they’ll be blackballed if the movie industry knows their names. What a pity that Hollywood can rest assured it’s still business as usual on Spring Street despite the different ownership.
one of the supposed charges from the newspaper article:
and the sixth said Schwarzenegger pulled her onto his lap and asked whether a certain sexual act had ever been performed on her.
A response [if this is the same incident]:
Arnold's Co-Workers Decry Article As Fictional Gossip-Mongering
Linda Hamilton, who co-starred with Schwarzenegger in both of the wildly-successful Terminator films, denounced as "fantasy" the story of an incident in a limousine in which the Premiere article claimed Arnold lifted her onto his lap in the presence of her then-boyfriend Director James Cameron and others (including Schwarzenegger's wife, Maria Shriver). Hamilton stated in a letter she sent to Premiere's Editor in Chief: "Let me be perfectly clear. In my nearly twenty years of friendship with Arnold Schwarzenegger I have never witnessed ANY HINT of the behavior you so carelessly ascribe him. I have known and witnessed Arnold on set as a man who is tirelessly PROFESSIONAL, and in life as a singularly devoted husband, father, and family man." Hamilton went on to describe the publication as "unsubstantiated/gossip-mongering/character-assassinating/smear campaign/tactics."
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