April 4, 2008

Nebraska Governor's Office Penalizes Student Newspaper for Article It Didn't Like

The governor’s office in Nebraska has sought to punish a student newspaper it says published a sneaky story, the Omaha World-Herald reported today.

The article, which appeared on Thursday in the University of Nebraska at Lincoln’s Daily Nebraskan, profiled a convicted murderer who gives tours of the governor’s mansion through a Department of Corrections work-release program.

According to the governor’s press secretary, the student reporter who wrote the article said she was planning to write about the mansion’s spot on the National Register of Historic Places.

“We feel very deceived, very deceived,” the press secretary, Jen Rae Hein, told the World-Herald.

The governor’s office first considered banning Daily Nebraskan reporters from all news conferences, the Omaha newspaper reported. Then it said it would remove them from its e-mail list.

The student newspaper responded with an article today in which several experts take its side. —Sara Lipka

Comments

1. Wouldn’t it be great to see these kinds of tricks pulled on newspapers themselves? E.g., infiltrate newsrooms to get additional embarrassing evidence of political bias. I’ll bet that everyone from the NY Times to the local Bugle would find outrage enough to support a peck of self-righteous editorials.

   — S. Britchky    Apr 4, 07:44 PM    #

2. I applaud the student for following a story that enlightens rather than sedates. Hey Gov.; if you have nothing to hide why all the heat?

   — Dr. Bill    Apr 6, 12:00 AM    #

3. Sounds like an overzelous press secretary of the governor! Not much apparently is going on in the Cornhusker state!!

   A tempest in the proverbial teapot!

   — Gary    Apr 6, 11:39 AM    #

4. The reaction of the governor’s office to the article may well be negative, but if they take action they threaten freedom of the press. There was nothing wrong with the reporter’s subterfuge. And in the future, if the Nebraska governor has something to hide, he should expect the press to find it.

   — Jo    Apr 6, 08:56 PM    #

5. It is incorrect that there was nothing wrong with the reporter’s subterfuge. The Ann Arbor News ran a recent story on student athletes at the University of Michigan, in which they relied heavily on quotes from student athletes that could be construed to mean that the workloads in one professor’s independent study classes were light. However, the U-M student newspaper then published its own investigation of the Ann Arbor News coverage and discovered that the student athletes had been told that they were being interviewed for a celebratory article on this professor’s retirement. Once one knows this, and rereads the student athletes’ comments, they tend no longer to support the spin the newspaper gave them. When the Daily contacted the former ethics editor of the New York Times about his opinion on this, he confirmed that such reporting strategies are not considered appropriate.

   — U-M reader    Apr 7, 07:42 AM    #

6. Is the Governor’s Office over-reacting? Sure, but the student reporter misrepresented herself and her newspaper. The newspaper’s faculty advisor needs to teach the reporter that while she got the story, she burned bridges, lost sources and contacts, and now no sources will ever trust her again. What credibility she had, she lost. Stupid mistake.

   — Kenner    Apr 7, 09:48 AM    #

7. The student reporter also learned that controversy sells more than content. Even if (s)he loses credibility in Nebraska, the resume is now filled for jobs elsewhere.

   — Stephen    Apr 7, 10:04 AM    #

8. Besides stupidly turning every ear of food corn into Ethanol to make some fat profits, what else is there for a Governor to do in the most boring State I have ever been in?

   — AW    Apr 7, 10:15 AM    #

9. When reporters (student and otherwise) fail to fully disclose the story they REALLY are working on — sources don’t know what information to provide. And the newspaper shortchanges the very public it says it wants to serve.

   It may be true that a convicted murderer gives tours of the guv’s mansion — but what are the circumstances of his conviction? What behavior in prison did he exhibit that allowed him to be put into the Dept. of Corrections’ program? What behavior does he exhibit while giving tours? Is this program working or not? We’ll never know because this naive reporter (maybe stupid, maybe just simply young and uninformed) didn’t bother to tell anyone what her true agenda was and hence didn’t bother to get the FULL story.

   What could be a model program of prison rehabilitation is now being sensationalized by this student reporter and her newspaper. And it is the readers of the newspaper that are definitely not being served.

   This could have been a wonderful instructional exercise for the reporter and an excellent way to highlight the pros and cons (no pun intended) of this correctional program — but we will never, never know because the reporter withheld her true intentions. What a lost opportunity and a sad commentary on Nebraska “journalism.”

   — JPS    Apr 7, 10:36 AM    #

10. It astounds me that a Governor’s office would be so media-ignorant as to make a big deal of this. There’s no way they can come off looking good. Going after a student newspaper for this IN PUBLIC is the height of PR stupidity.

    Wait – what am I saying? This is a Governor’s office, so it doesn’t surprise me. The level of stupidity in public office and public relations today is even more astounding!

    — Al    Apr 7, 10:54 AM    #

11. AW,

    I agree that it sounds like the governor’s office has too much time on its hands, but how about not stridently insulting the whole state? I lived in NE for years and it is a lovely place. It gets a little old to hear people beat up on “flyover states.” If you can’t find anything to do in an entire state it probably says more about you than the place you’re in.

    — AG    Apr 7, 12:02 PM    #

12. Even though it seems petty on the part of the Governor’s office, student journalists need to learn that there are consequences for unethical behavior. Perhaps a compromise can be reached if the student reporter in question apologizes and is disciplined by the paper, and in turn the Governor’s office continues to grant access to the paper’s reporters.

    — J. Ward    Apr 7, 12:08 PM    #

13. The reporter lied and grossly misrepresented herself and her purpose. I know of no reputable journalist who would not consider that unethical.

    — josefina    Apr 7, 12:42 PM    #

14. Here’s the catch – the Daily Nebraskan has NO faculty adviser. They are accountable to NO ONE. The Gov’s office said they would have been happy to help the student’s get the full and accurate information for the story of the working program (that has been in place in NE for 60 some years). There are proceedure, though, that need to be followed when working with the department of correction and inmates. the inmate had also declined an interview by this reporter PRIOR to the tour she claimed was about the historical registry. She set the inmate up, blew off state policy, blew off privacy rights, and then lied to the Gov’s office to gain access to his HOME. The Gov’s office never took away any rights, they said they were considering limiting access, given the paper’s response that they feel completely comfortable lying to get a story. And yet, many on here criticize the office, not the paper… revoking a courtesy of being on a media advisory list is a completely measured and reasonable response. especially since that office posts all information on the Gov’s web site.

    — sarah    Apr 7, 01:46 PM    #

15. As a UNL student acquainted with many DN staffers I can tell you that attempts to deceive the Governor’s staff did not play into this scenario in the least. The student reporter fully intended to write the article that she had initially proposed regarding the Governor’s Mansion’s place on the National Registry, however while researching the story the student journalist uncovered this convenient fact. Although not a journalism major myself, I fully understand that it is highly likely that, in investigating another planned story, evidence regarding a different story that deserves to be recognized emerges. This article does not fully represent the facts of this story and therefore leads the makers of the posts above mine to make false accusations against a student journalist who was merely fulfilling one of the most important responsibilities of the media in contemporary society, holding our elected officials accountable!

    — Rachel    Apr 10, 12:50 AM    #

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