The Anthrax Files, an investigation by ProPublica and McClatchy
pbs.orgAn amazing report on the FBI’s disastrous (and largest ever) investigation into the 2001 Anthrax bioterrorism case. The first suspect they fingered was formally cleared after five years of intense, public FBI harassment. Then they hounded the mentally unstable second suspect to suicide before a case could be made. Now, ProPublica and McClatchy uncover information that casts serious doubt on the case against that suspect. Both times, the FBI was certain they had their man. You can stream the report here or catch it on PBS.
Kind of makes you think twice about the US government deciding that it’s ok to summarily kill its own citizens based on supposedly foolproof evidence from our intelligence agencies (in case you weren’t thinking twice about that already).
McClatchy Chimpanzee Exposé
mcclatchydc.comquality reportage by a quality newspaper chain
What are those OWS people so angry about?
One of the most revealing aspects of the rapidly growing OccupyWallStreet protest movement has been the bewilderment and befuddlement expressed by so many media stars as to what the “message” is of these protests and what these protesters are so angry about. Perhaps this juxtaposition can clarify things, from The New York Times today:
Citigroup Earnings Rise 74% to $3.8 Billion
And from McClatchy today:
Millions of homes lurk on bank inventories, casting doubts of rebound
Marines promoted inflated story for Medal of Honor winner
mcclatchydc.comBig scoop for McClatchy:
Crucial parts that the Marine Corps publicized and Obama described are untrue, unsubstantiated or exaggerated, according to dozens of military documents McClatchy examined.
Sworn statements by Meyer and others who participated in the battle indicate that he didn’t save the lives of 13 U.S. service members, leave his vehicle to scoop up 24 Afghans on his first two rescue runs or lead the final push to retrieve the four dead Americans. Moreover, it’s unclear from the documents whether Meyer disobeyed orders when he entered the Ganjgal Valley on Sept. 8, 2009.
The statements also offer no proof that the 23-year-old Kentucky native “personally killed at least eight Taliban insurgents,” as the account on the Marine Corps website says. The driver of Meyer’s vehicle attested to seeing “a single enemy go down.”
What’s most striking is that all this probably was unnecessary…
But an exhaustive assessment by a McClatchy correspondent who was embedded with the unit and survived the ambush found that the Marines’ official accounts of Meyer’s deeds — retold in a book, countless news reports and on U.S. military websites — were embellished. They’re marred by errors and inconsistencies, ascribe actions to Meyer that are unverified or didn’t happen and create precise, almost novelistic detail out of the jumbled and contradictory recollections of the Marines, soldiers and pilots engaged in battle
#McClatchy corrects 8 stories about #Assange in 4 newspapers, Editors not informed: How McClatchy Quietly Corrected the Record
imediaethics.orgBy Rhonda Roland Shearer, Sydney Smith, June 27, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS :
- McClatchy corrects four newspapers’ stories without notification
- After iMediaEthics emails, Miami Herald runs print correction, Sac Bee adds blog correction, Charlotte Observer plans print correction
- LAT Bureau Chief: Two of three errors in my stories made by McClatchy
- Assange asked for prominent corrections; McClatchy buried them on their website
- Wichita Eagle: No comment on correction request because article is 18 months old
- McClatchy: It’s “Assange’s responsibility” to tell McClatchy-owned news outlets of errors
Earlier this month Julian Assange of Wikileaks fame emailed iMediaEthics to ask our help in pushing for greater prominence for eight corrections he obtained from McClatchy Co. news outlets for stories about him.[…]
Exclusive news McClatchy corrects 8 stories Assange Editor not informed
Note: Of course, because it takes courage to admit when one was/is wrong.
McClatchy's Washington Bureau establishes no-alter quote policy | McClatchy
mcclatchydc.comKudos to McClatchy for this. See here if you don’t know what this is about.
From the piece:
To our staff and to our readers:
As you are aware, The New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg and others are agreeing to give government sources the right to clear and alter quotes as a prerequisite to granting an interview.
To be clear, it is the bureau’s policy that we do not alter accurate quotes from any source. And to the fullest extent possible, we do not make deals that we will clear quotes as a condition of interviews.
With the government trying to do more of the public’s business in secret, the demands that interviews be conducted off the record is growing. While it puts us at a disadvantage, we should argue strenuously for on-the-record interviews with government officials.
When they absolutely refuse, we have only two options. First, halt the interview and attempt to find the information elsewhere. In those cases, our stories should say the official declined comment. Second, we can go ahead with the interview with the straightforward response that whatever ultimately is used will be published without change in tone, emphasis or exact language.
These days government is trying mightily to constrain access to public information. Each of you has had no comments, demands for FIOAs that goes unanswered and worse. More recently our sources have been chilled by threats of leak investigations and some have endured full blown leak inquiries.
As advocates of the First Amendment, we cannot be intimidated into letting the government control our work. When The New York Times agreed with Bush Administration officials to delay publication of its story of illegal wiretaps of Americans until after the 2004 election, it did the nation a great disservice. Acceding to the Obama administration’s efforts to censor our work to have it more in line with their political spin is another disservice to America.
And judging from the controversy that has ensued from the disclosure of these requests, the people don’t like this either.
If you believe there is a compelling reason for an exception to this policy, please clear it with me.
James Asher
Washington Bureau Chief
McClatchy Newspapers
No love for The State, McClatchy among sports hacks
The recent sports copy editor opening at The State didn’t exactly get rave reviews among the denizens of the sportsjournalists.com message boards.
FreddiePatek: McClatchy house … University of South Carolina shill for a publisher … shell of its former self.
michael_bradley: As such, and given how I hear things go down at the State, expect to be low-balled on the salary.
FreddiePatek: Indeed. Frankly, I’m surprised they’re filling the vacancy. I expected them to shift deck chairs as the boat continued to sink.
1HPGrad: Spent one year there in the mid-1990s and had a lot of fun. Can’t speak to the current product or staff, but the town is cool, the fans are beyond nuts, and Williams-Brice is a 10-minute walk from the office. Imagine if you are a young editor who likes the south, you could do much worse.
lone star scribe: Given McClatchy’s recent layoffs and buyouts in the region, you will be the first out the door. Probably in 12 months or less.
GIs in alleged plot to kill for the Zetas
blogs.mcclatchydc.comA U.S. Army first lieutenant and a sergeant are among six people busted over the weekend in a plot to hire themselves out to Los Zetas to kill rival gangsters and provide tactical training.
It’s one thing for Zetas to poach Mexican soldiers. It’s another to get training from renegade U.S. soldiers.
According to a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Laredo, Texas, Army 1st Lt. Kevin Corley “offered to provide tactical training for cartel members and to purchase weapons for the cartel under his name.”
Unfortunately for Corley, the people he was dealing with were undercover DEA agents. Corley, the statement says, “mailed an Army tactics battle book to the agents, thoroughly explained military tactics and told undercover agents he could train 40 cartel members in two weeks.”
He later allegedly agreed to “wet work,” or murder-for-hire, and helped arrange transport of 500 pounds of marijuana from Texas to South Carolina.
Earlier this month, Corley met again with the men he thought were Zetas and showed some excitement at the brutality they seemed to want from him against a particular rival:
“Corley allegedly stated he had purchased a new Ka-Bar knife to carve a ‘Z’ into the victim’s chest and was planning on buying a hatchet to dismember the body,” prosecutors said in the statement.
To read the U.S. attorney’s statement, click here. The Colorado Springs Gazette said Corley, who was Fort Carson, was discharged earlier this month. The Houston Chronicle says Corley served in Afghanistan in 2010. Also arrested with Corley was Sgt. Samuel Walker, and four other men.
