Editor’s Note: Following the publication of a story about the death of Indianapolis Star Photographer Mpozi Tolbert in Friday’s edition of the Monitor, Star Editor Dennis Ryerson sent the following letter to Linda Williams, editor of the Monitor. Williams’ response appears below.
Text of letter from Dennis Ryerson, Editor, The Indianapolis Star
The Indianapolis Star is pleased to have provided computer equipment and arrange for the printing, on our presses, of the NABJ Monitor. I remember my days as a student journalist and the invaluable experience I gained as a reporter and editor at my university newspaper, learning and putting into practice the basic principles of journalism.
Among those principles are balance, perspective and accuracy. With those things in mind, I am compelled to respond to the Monitor’s Friday morning story about the death of a wonderful Star employee, photographer Mpozi Mschale Tolbert.
The story strongly implies that authorities are investigating the fact that defibrillators were not available the evening Mpozi died in the middle of our newsroom. It suggests that our newsroom staff could not call emergency services because our phones are “not configured to dial the emergency number.”
I made clear to the reporter the truth in each of these situations, and now must set the record straight for Monitor readers.
No law in Indiana requires that defibrillators be present in the workforce. That is not an issue of any investigation. Many businesses, and I suspect many newspapers represented at NABJ, do not have defibrillators. Even if that were a matter of law, and I emphasize again that it is not, it may have not been a factor in Mpozi’s death. Did he have a heart attack? We do not know. We do know that it is very unusual for a 34-year-old person to die of a heart attack.
The telephone matter is no issue. The facts are that Star staff did use company phones to reach 911 services. It’s easy. You press 9 for an outside call, then dial 911. There may have been confusion in that some people may have forgotten to dial 9 for an outside line first, but the fact remains that some staffers did reach 911 quickly.
The story quoted “news” reports. There have been no such reports. The reports came from a blog by a former columnist who so far as I know did not talk to the staff members who were directly involved in trying to save a beloved colleague.
Nor did she talk to me. I was there that night. I was the first one to reach Mpozi after he was stricken. I followed the ambulance to the hospital. I was on the phone with Mpozi’s father minutes after a doctor and chaplain told me and three other of my colleagues gathered in a small room, that Mpozi had died.
If newspapers are to have a future, it will be in providing fair and accurate reporting, with appropriate perspective. We will not succeed by spreading rumors and innuendoes, many of them posted anonymously on the blogosphere.
We can benefit from blogs – members of my staff do their own blogs. Readers observing the news and having information that we may not know, can contribute greatly to our news report. As we all know, they can spot inappropriately doctored photographs and other journalism misdeeds. But all the same, we must apply standards to our use of blogs, just as we apply high standards to our overall news report.
I hope that is a lesson student journalists learn this week, in the newsroom of NABJ.
Text of Monitor Editor Linda Willams’ response to the Star
The Monitor editors will review your response for inclusion in a story we plan to run in the Saturday edition.
I, the professional staff members who are mostly financially sponsoring themselves in order to travel to Indy to volunteer on this project, and the students, thank the Indianapolis Star for its donation of computer equipment and for printing the paper.
But, let me tell you the same thing that I have told members of the NABJ board and the students each year that I have directed this project. This project is designed to give students a real life experience in putting out a daily newspaper.
We strive for the students to uphold the standards of the industry, and, as editor I take full responsibility when those standards are not met. However, I also tell board members that the Monitor will not make in the news pages special concessions to NABJ sponsors, NABJ board members or NABJ staff members.
I also tell students that independent journalism is not exactly a free ride. Sometimes you will feel squeezed by your publishers and your advertisers. This morning’s episode over the Tolbert story is certainly a great example of what they will face in the real world.
I have been a journalist for more than 30 years, and while I take exception to the tone of your letter, and some of your specific comments, I understand as a human being how upsetting the death of Mr. Tolbert was for you personally and for the members of your staff.
I do agree that there are some things in the story that the students could have done better. But, some of the charges in your letter, and some I have heard made by members of the Indy staff today are unfair to the students.
You and your staff members may not consider the OSHA inquiry to be serious, but it is, in fact, an investigation. You are angry that the story quoted from the blog of a former employee, but you seem to be overlooking the fact that we included your statements that the report was false.
