by Jon Ralston Sun, 10/14/2012 - 12:28
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That this is even a story says everything about where we are.
That this is a story five days before the inaugurati… t.co/pwWhhzwM2Q
6 hours 9 min ago.
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"Public charter schools in Nevada have stepped up to take on this great challenge of serving our state’s youth and… t.co/p9T6cu1p5a
6 hours 25 min ago.
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All the COVID context in Nevada fit to publish... t.co/fTihwEtU0z
6 hours 47 min ago.
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@MeghinDelaney On the spectrum of "feisty," I start at "too."
And to answer your question: VERY.
6 hours 49 min ago.
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@MeghinDelaney Fastest reply we have ever gotten for a request for information.
6 hours 52 min ago.
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@MeghinDelaney Headline:
"Gov wears mask, while staff ignores state mandates"
6 hours 53 min ago.
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This court case comes against the backdrop of a major PR push by the largest mining conglomerate in advance of the… t.co/7qiiazxE6l
7 hours 15 min ago.
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"While the money sits unused, nearly half of the 118 families surveyed for the audit said it was 'hard' or 'very ha… t.co/1530858Jc0
7 hours 41 min ago.
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“I hope that parents and teachers and administrators give us their time and their patience, because there's no such… t.co/ZwOzARXaDj
8 hours 5 min ago.
To paraphrase Poe, the thousand injuries of the "newspaper" I have borne as best I could.
The stolen stories. The failure to give credit. The purposeful slights, flouting basic courtesy, conventions and ethics.
But this weekend, the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Laura Myers went a step further: She published -- and her "newspaper" let her do it -- a demonstrably false piece of information, so she could give the illusion she did reporting.
Here's what happened:
On Friday evening, after pushing and prodding for a week, I finally obtained the third-quarter fundraising totals for both U.S. Senate candidates. And there was a significant story there: Sen. Dean Heller had $1 million more on hand than Rep. Shelley Berkley.
I published that information at 8:30 on Saturday morning, as you can see from the time stamp.
What happened next defies belief and should outrage any real journalist.
First, Myers Tweeted the news at 11:17 AM, as if she had learned it on her own. Eventually, the Heller folks gave her their figures; the Berkley folks say no one ever talked to her.
That's bad enough, but I am used to that kind of behavior -- my enterprise reporting ignored, "newspaper" claims it has story on its own.
But it gets worse.
At 6:10 PM, Myers posted a story. In the piece, she sourced the Heller campaign for his numbers.
But where did she get Berkley's? Her story says the numbers are from "reports filed with the Federal Election Commission." (The plural here is strange, making me think she actually is implying both sets of data came from the FEC.)
But there is a tiny problem here: Berkley's report isn't even done, much less filed with the FEC. So Myers just made that up.
After wondering if I were missing how egregious this is, and getting feedback from other journalists who were appalled, I emailed Myers. Here's what she said when I asked her about pilfering the story and making up the FEC reports:
Myers: "Hey sorry. I didn't steal the info from you ... It was passed along to me by a third party.
"Really Jon. I know you had info first but I followed up."
So: She wouldn't even address it. Nor did she correct an easily verifiable piece of information (why would she say that an FEC filing exists that clearly does not?). I have attached a screen shot of the story because I have to figure her editors will want to change it after this is published.
I understand the "newspaper" doesn't like me and that no reporter likes to be beaten on a story. But fabricating a source to deny credit and pretend you did actual reporting?
That's a line crossed that cannot be erased.
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