E-Mail Deriding Katherine Harris Costs Editor's Job

The Washington Post ^ | June 28, 2002 | Howard Kurtz

[Timesink]

The Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune recently ran a 4,400-word, 2 1/2-page spread on Republican congressional candidate Katherine Harris. And when one reader complained that Democratic candidates were getting short shrift, Managing Editor Rosemary Armao responded with a remarkably candid e-mail -- one that wound up costing her her job.

"Katherine Harris is an international figure, like her or not," Armao wrote of the woman who became a central player in the presidential recount in Florida. "She's going to be the next congresswoman from this area, like it or not. . . . I have no intentions of covering each of the Democratic candidates to the same extent."

[Timesink]

Because this is a Washington Post article, you will have to click here to read the full story.

[ozzymandus]

Ha,ha,ha! Too bad she'll just get another high-paying media job. She should tak a job scrubbing other people's toilets.

[Reagan is King]

Liberal bias in the media? Nah...couldn't happen.

The only thing in her favor is that it sounds like the article wasn't a hit piece.

[kcvl]

The 95,000-circulation Herald-Tribune, a New York Times Co. paper, has had a rough period recently. The resignation of Armao, who is the sister of Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Jo-Ann Armao, came days after Weaver fired reporter Karen S. Parker for plagiarizing an unpublished manuscript about a local marina.

[spectre]

Anybody in this day and age that think E-Mails can't come back and bite you has to have S**t for brains.

[VaBthang4]

CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and MSNBC are all hiring.

She is sure to land on her two left feet.

[chnsmok]

WOW! She could be replacing Perky Katie soon...

[E=MC²]

I read the article and while it is not a hit piece on Katherine, it is not the puff-piece the demonrats claim. The compliments were mostly back-handed, there were many snide statements and for every positive statement there were two negative ones. One paragraph was devoted to a rambling, nonsensical statement supposedly made by Harris in a speech, "proving" that she is an intellectual lightweight and inarticulate. All the pictures were NOT flattering (as claimed by Armao) and it grudgingly admitted that Harris will probably win, but only because she has much...much...much more campaign funds and fame that her opponents have (did I mention that her campaign has much more funds than her opponents???). The Sarasota Herald-Tribune (just like its parent) was, is and always will be slanted to the demonrats.

[SpringheelJack]

I think she got a bum rap. She wrote the email in response to someone who thought she had been too favorable to Harris; I guess she felt she had to bolster up her liberal credentials to this guy by bashing Harris, but in her email she stated that she thought it was pointless to deny that reporters don't have their own personal opinions: but that shouldn't stop them from attempting to write balanced reportage. And by all accounts, her story on Harris was pretty even-handed.

I wish (without sarcasm) that we had more reporters like her. People who didn't deny their personal politics, but at the same time were serious about reporting things accurately and nonpartisanly, to the best of their ability. I hope she will work in journalism again.

[VA Advogado]

The only thing in her favor is that it sounds like the article wasn't a hit piece.

I dont see a problem here. Her email is actually very candid and refreshing. She's not idealogical. She's being very practical and stated the facts as they are.

[VA Advogado]

I read the article and while it is not a hit piece on Katherine, it is not the puff-piece the demonrats claim. The compliments were mostly back-handed, there were many snide statements and for every positive statement there were two negative ones.

I agree. I think most on this thread are over reacting. There's no here here.

[Rodney King]

I agree, I think she got a bum rap.

[NativeNewYorker]

Incestuous? Nah.

[JulieRNR21]

Here's the story printed in the SHT today:

Article published Jun 28, 2002

H-T managing editor resigns

SARASOTA -- The managing editor of the Herald-Tribune resigned Thursday after she expressed her personal views about congressional candidate Katherine Harris in an e-mail to a reader.

Rosemary Armao, who served as the newspaper's managing editor for nearly three years, told the reader that she would not vote for Harris, who gained national attention during the 2000 election recount as Florida's Republican secretary of state.

Janet Weaver, executive editor of the Herald-Tribune, said Armao's e-mail response demonstrated a serious lapse of judgment and reflected badly on the newspaper's credibility.
"At the core, what we have is a philosophical disagreement about whether the way she responded to an e-mail inquiry from a reader was appropriate," she said.

Weaver said she had not made a decision about Armao's status when the managing editor resigned Thursday. Armao said she had no doubt she would have been fired if she had not quit.

"When it became evident that my e-mail to a reader was interpreted as harmful to the newspaper's credibility, the best choice for the sake of the organization was for me to leave," Armao said in an e-mail response to The Associated Press. "In hindsight, it is probably fair to say that I was indiscreet in an e-mail and I know that e-mails are not private."
Armao was responding to a June 18 e-mail from Bradenton lawyer Dennis Plews, who criticized the newspaper's lengthy profile on Harris as a "one-sided puff piece" and asked whether other candidates would get similar coverage.

Armao responded that Harris was an international figure who deserved the newspaper's scrutiny and defended the story as balanced and thorough. She said she expected Harris to be the region's next U.S. representative, "like it or not." She added she did not intend to vote for Harris, who is seeking to replace Rep. Dan Miller, R-Bradenton, who is retiring.
"But I don't blame the media for the situation," Armao wrote Plews. "I blame the Democrats for not finding a better candidate and getting him or her funded, and I blame our culture for craving its public figures, women like Katherine who are very pretty, hardworking and without original ideas that I can find. That image, by the way, I got from reading the Sunday profile."

Rori Patrise Smith, spokeswoman for the Harris campaign, said the campaign would not comment about Armao's resignation.
Plews did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Thursday.

Armao said her resignation "ends three of the most productive and exciting years I've had in journalism."

"Suffice it to say that those comments have been construed in ways that I never intended. Readers who may come across the e-mail will decide if it breached any ethical boundary. On this count, my conscience is clear."

Weaver said Armao's resignation should not diminish her accomplishments at the newspaper.
When Armao, a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors, arrived at the Herald-Tribune in 1999, Weaver touted her as someone who could improve the newspaper quickly, particularly in investigative journalism.

"In a very short time that's exactly what she did," Weaver said Thursday, noting the newspaper's coverage of the dangers of beach renourishment, homelessness in Sarasota and problems with group homes for the mentally handicapped.
"It's a very sad day for the newsroom and the newspaper," Weaver said. "Everybody is really mourning this. It's a loss for the Herald-Tribune."

The newspaper is part of the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group, which also owns The Gainesville Sun, the Ocala Star-Banner and The Ledger of Lakeland.

[JulieRNR21]

I read the Harris article and it was not a 'puff piece'...see comments by E-MC2 in post #8.

I'll try to find a link to it for you.

[kinganamort]

i know right!

[JulieRNR21]

Here's the URL of the so called 'puff piece', Katherine's Climb, that prompted the email that caused the resignation:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?SearchID=73103144783218&Avis=SH&Dato=20020617&Kategori=NEWS&Lopenr=206170001&Ref=AR

[katherineisgreat]

Yes, well this exposes how the SH-T is liberal.

But I'm glad the woman at least admitted that Harris is hard working. It's nice to see the libs admitting that she'll win!

[denydenydeny]

The "pretty" part is what amazed me, since no mainstream commentator used such an adjective at the time KH was in the national spotlight.

[katherineisgreat]

Made me laugh too.