Blackwater Reporting

We'll be watching press coverage at the October 2 hearing

We will be watching the press coverage of Congressman Waxman's October 2 hearing on Blackwater. We'll be paying close attention to unwarranted bias, omission of facts, spinning of facts, and other journalistic unprofessionalism.

And we'll be reporting on it here, with the names of the sloppy or one-sided journalists and their news organizations, with excerpts from and links to their articles and comments.

The Duke 'rape' reporters now bring you Blackwater 'news'

Remember the sensational fake story about the Duke University lacrosse team members who supposedly raped an "escort service dancer"? As one of Duke's nearby newspapers, the Raleigh News & Observer played a big role in that story, for better and for worse.

Now that same paper - through Joseph Neff, one of the very same reporters on the Duke story - is doing a job on Blackwater. And as with the fictitious rape report, the wire services and big chains like the McClatchy Newspapers are trusting the News & Observer (N&O) and recycling its stories. (The News & Observer is a McClatchy subsidiary).

US News & World Report suspected the Duke rape story was untrue and called reporter Joseph Neff on it in the summer of 2006. Neff got defensive. "It would be irresponsible for us not to report what the local district attorney is telling the community," he said. "That's our job." US News didn't buy it, calling the coverage "Duke's Trial by Media."

Contact Joseph Neff and his editors

Joseph Neff of the Raleigh News & Observer openly solicits readers' views. Please oblige him by posting comments on his blog, or contacting the newspaper directly. Just be sure to be polite, not use abusive language and so forth. Show a little class and gentility.

Letters to the Editor. To write a letter to the editor of the Raleigh News & Observer, click here. Pay close attention to the rules: concise writing at 200 words or less, with all your contact information so the editors can verify that you are who you say you are.
Write to News & Observer editors by fax: (919) 829-4872.
Write to News & Observer editors by mail: The People's Forum, PO Box 191, Raleigh, NC 27602.
Call the News & Observer editors by phone: (919) 829-4517.
Contact Executive Editor Melanie Sill. Telephone: (919) 829-8986. Email: msill@newsobserver.com.
Contact Joseph Neff. Telephone: (919) 829-4516. Email: joseph.neff@newsobserver.com. Include your name and hometown.

Washington Post obscures partisan nature of allegations

In covering the report issued by Rep. Henry Waxman's oversight committee, Washington Post reporters Glenn Kessler and Karen DeYoung (pictured) obscure the partisanship of the authors.

Their September 28 story fails to make clear to the reader that the opposition Democrats running Waxman's committee were the sole official authors. Kessler and DeYoung do report in passing that the report is "by the majority staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform." However that reference, well-located in the second paragraph, is not explicit about the partisanship involved.

The journalists quote a Blackwater spokeswoman as calling the report "one-sided," but do not cite any Republican staffer or member of the committee. By contrast, the Associated Press did quote the Republican chief of staff, David Marin.

Finally, the Post article completely omits the fact that the authors based their report heavily on material provided by a trial lawyer who stands to gain financially from a lawsuit against Blackwater. (A copy of the trial lawyer's letter asking for initiation of a hearing is here: Download callahan_pelosi_letter.pdf)

Click here to send an email to Glenn Kessler and Karen DeYoung. Keep it concise and polite.

Sizemore's article is misleading about partisan report

Reporting on Congressman Henry Waxman's staff report about the 2004 attack on Blackwater guards in Fallujah, Bill Sizemore of the Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA) fails to tell the reader that the "congressional probe" was carried out exclusively by Democratic staffers and based heavily on information from a trial lawyer who seeks to make millions from a suit against Blackwater.

Sizemore's omissions in his September 28 article, "Congressional Probe Faults Blackwater in Fallujah Ambush," are either sloppy or deliberately misleading.

The reporter makes no reference to the partisan nature of the report, identifying the authors merely as "investigators on the staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee." By contrast, AP and the McClatchy Newspapers were up-front about it.

Nor does Sizemore's article quote the congressional committee's Republican staff director, David Marin, who criticized the report. Other reporters, including Richard Lardner and Mike Baker of the Associated Press, did provide the minority party's side.

By portraying the "probe" as objective, Sizemore misled his readers.

Ready for Waxman: Neff starts Blackwater blog

Just in time for the October 2, 2007 Waxman hearing before which Blackwater CEO Erik Prince will testify, Joseph Neff launched a new Blackwater blog on the Raleigh News & Observer website. (The N&O is owned by McClatchy Newspapers.)

Blackwater fans are encouraged to post comments on Neff's blog. Here's the link: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/blackwater

Neff makes little attempt to be fair and objective. In announcing his new blog, he writes that Prince has a lot to tell Congress, then rattles off a litany of issues that reflect poorly on Prince and his company. Not that Neff, whom US News & World Report took to task for his reporting on the fake Duke University lacrosse rape case, would find anything positive in a business whose guards take gunfire almost daily form insurgents and which lost 30 of its own people protecting American diplomats, congressmen and convoys.

Neff inaccurately portrays Prince's willingness to appear before Waxman's committee. Implying that the Blackwater founder is somehow recalcritant or unwilling to appear, Neff claims that Prince "is not knocking down the door to testify."

Rep. Henry Waxman's office indicates that Prince will be testifying freely on October 2, adding that Waxman only requested the testimony - and didn't require it or make any threats to subpoena.  Click here to contact Neff and his editors.

Violating ethics, in search of a Pulitzer

Few people outside the greater Norfolk, Virginia, area have heard of the Virginian-Pilot, but the newspaper is influential in a major mid-Atlantic military community and has broken some national and international stories. One of its star reporters, Bill Sizemore, is finally making a big name for himself with his aggressive reporting about Blackwater.

Aggressive reporting is healthy when the journalist attempts to be objective and fair. The Virginian-Pilot has had a good reputation in that regard until Sizemore went over the edge from objective reporter on Blackwater to relentless partisan against the company. Some longtime readers are worried that though Sizemore's coverage is bringing the newspaper international attention, it is also imperiling the integrity of the paper's own Code of Ethics and Professionalism.

After 35 years in relative journalistic obscurity, Sizemore has been nominated for the coveted Pulitzer Prize for his Blackwater articles. But so far nobody seriously has called him for some sloppy and unprofessional aspects of his reporting. Since his stories are now fodder for the wire services and major newspaper chains on Blackwater, the Virginian-Pilot has an inordinate influence in shaping national and international perceptions.

So we encourage people to make their opinions known to the reporter, his editors and the public.

AP omits, then adds, major fact in gun story

How did federal authorities learn about the two Blackwater employees who ultimately pled guilty to stealing guns in Iraq?

Readers wouldn't know from most of the press coverage. AP's September 21st article about a Joseph Neff Raleigh News & Observer/McClatchy story omits a major detail: Blackwater USA discovered the crime, fired the employees, and alerted federal authorities who made the arrests.

The next day, on September 22, the AP's David Scott reported a very different version: "Blackwater said Saturday the company immediately fired the men after learning they were stealing from the company and invited the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to investigate. The company pointed to news coverage from 2005, in which a spokesman for the ATF's Charlotte office confirmed the company came forward to authorities and asked for help."

Again we see a bias in the headline-writers. Rather than say that Blackwater alerted ATF in 2005, the Associated Press editors chose inflammatory and guilty-sounding language in the headline: "Blackwater Denies Smuggling Allegations."

AP casts doubt on Neff's word

The Associated Press has picked up on Joseph Neff's Blackwater coverage, and in at least one case cast doubt on its reliability.

On September 22, AP correspondent Matthew Lee ran a piece based on Neff's now-discredited report that federal authorities were investigating Blackwater as a company for arms smuggling. "The News & Observer, citing unidentified sources, reported that the probe was looking at whether Blackwater had shipped unlicensed automatic weapons and military goods to Iraq without a license," the AP reporter wrote, adding his own professional doubts about Neff's report: "The paper's report that the company itself was under investigation could not be confirmed by the AP."

Washington Post headline not supported by facts

The Washington Post ran Matthew Lee's September 21 AP story on page A10 of its September 22 edition, attaching a headline and sub-head indicating that Blackwater as a firm is the subject of a smuggling probe, and that the company might be charged.

The version appearing on the WashingtonPost.com contained the full AP text. But Post editors cut down the story to 9 paragraphs in the print edition - none of which said that Blackwater USA was the subject of investigation or might be charged.

Nevertheless the headline and sub-head stated as fact, "Security Firm Is in Smuggling Probe; Blackwater May Be Charged for Bringing Weapons Into Iraq."