The hapless Gallatin News-Examiner has stepped in it again, this time by apparently plagiarizing a news story from WSMV-Channel 4.
During the 6 p.m. news on Oct. 8, Channel 4 reported that Shannon Moore, the first female police officer in White House, Tenn., had sued both the department and the mayor for sex discrimination. The next day, the same story appeared in the News-Examiner under the joint byline of news editor Cameron Collins and staff writer Cheryl Tatum.
Three quotations from Moore were copied verbatim from the Channel 4 broadcast. Other sentences were slightly re-worded. The only new information in the article came in two paragraphs quoting the White House mayor.
Moore herself said the paper never called her. The newspaper never mentioned Channel 4. A manager at Channel 4 said the station is “reviewing its options,” but hasn’t yet contacted the Gallatin paper, which is owned by the Gannett newspaper chain and has been plagued by a series of ethical and legal problems over the past two years. Gannett also owns The Tennessean.
The News-Examiner story misspelled both Moore’s name and the name of her lawyer. The paper ran a correction on Oct. 14. A week later, The Robertson County Times, also owned by Gannett, republished the original story, errors included. This time, Tatum and Collins were listed as “Times Correspondents.”
News-Examiner editor Steve Rogers said Channel 4 had sent the paper a copy of the newscast script, which the paper used as a source for the article. He agreed that Channel 4 should have received credit for the story, and speculated that a reference to Channel 4 might have been inadvertently omitted during the editing process.
Speaking of Flub-Ups . . .
The Scene’s own media column last week reported that The Tennessean was behind other media in covering the murder of state Sen. Tommy Burks. One of three examples cited was the paper’s failure to report that an eyewitness had seen and identified Byron Looper as the shooter. That example was inaccurate.
The Tennessean did, in fact, report last Tuesday that a farmhand saw Looper meet Burks, heard a “pop” sound, and then found Burks’ body. The information appeared under the headline, “Looper defense likely to seek venue change.”
Last week’s column also said that all anchors, reporters, and even many photographers at WKRN-Channel 2 have been required to sign non-compete contracts. There are no photographers under contract at Channel 2, according to news director Matthew Zelkind.
Red Lining
The dozen-or-so Tennessean staffers who met last week with community residents in East Nashville appeared “shocked,” one witness said, when told that the morning daily refused to deliver papers in and around the James A. Cayce projects, a few blocks from the new Oilers’ stadium.
“One reporter suggested they ought to do a ‘sting’ operation on their own circulation department,” recalled Stephanie Manning, a social worker at the Martha O’Bryan Center. “Another said she wanted to write a story about it this week.”
As Manning told the Scene, she lived until recently on Ozark Street, two blocks from the Cayce Homes. In May, she signed up for the Saturday and Sunday Tennessean, wrote a check, and took home a promotional umbrella.
But the papers never came. After two or three calls, she said, a newspaper employee finally told her that the paper didn’t deliver in that neighborhood. Manning eventually got her check back, along with some coupons for free papers and a letter explaining that delivery services were “not set up” in that area.
“I was so stunned I didn’t know what to say,” Manning said. She’s since moved, and now gets the paper delivered at home, but The Tennessean’s red-lining practices haven’t changed.
According to Jerry Seay, an MDHA official who called a customer service representative at the newspaper Monday, The Tennessean still won’t deliver newspapers in and around the Cayce Homes. The paper hasn’t delivered there since 1994—the same year, ironically, that two Tennessean reporters spent a month posing as residents in the Cayce homes and then wrote a controversial series about the private lives of their unwitting neighbors.
The newspaper’s red-lining policy is no secret except, it seems, in the paper’s own newsroom. A year ago, when Tennessean columnist Tim Chavez fretted about how to “reconnect” the Sam Levy projects in South Nashville to the rest of the city, the Scene suggested that Chavez start by visiting his own circulation department because, as reported here, The Tennessean won’t deliver in Sam Levy either.
Manning added that there used to be a Scene rack at the Martha O’Bryan Center, and she’d like to see it replaced. Scene publisher Albie Del Favero said there hadn’t been a rack there for several years, but that he’d put one in if “50 to 100” people wanted to read the paper.
To comment or complain about the media, leave a message for Henry at the Scene (244-7989, ext. 445), call him at his office, 252-2363, or send an e-mail to hwalker@nashvillescene.com
