I'd have to say no.
Standards matter, and every error eats away a little at a news organization's credibility. Mistakes have to be taken seriously.
But the death penalty for one error is overkill.
Yet that's what happened to Bob Lewis, a veteran Associated Press political reporter based in Richmond, Va.
Lewis' made a big mistake, no doubt. And he deserved to be punished. So suspend him. But kicking him to the curb just isn't warranted.
And Lewis' error had collateral damage, the AP also fired two editors over the incident: Richmond-based Dena Potter and Atlanta-based Norman Gomlak. That also seems over the top.
OK, I guess the wire service, which always, to its credit, has taken accuracy extremely seriously, wanted to send a message. No doubt it has been a little sensitive over the issue since, speaking of high-profile mistakes, it falsely reported that a suspect had been arrested in the Boston Marathon massacre. But you can send a message without cleaning house.
The cardinal sins of journalism are plagiarism and fabrication. Certainly, they are reason enough for dismissal. That's what happened to such high-profile offenders as Jayson Blair of The New York Times and Stephen Glass of The New Republic.
But even those high crimes don't always lead to termination. There are many instances in which the culprits are suspended rather than jettisoned.
And, let's face it, mistakes happen often in journalism. It's built in. Journalism is carried out by human beings, who in most cases, last I heard, are not perfect. Journalists are often reporting on complicated events, and doing so in a hurry. Journalism wasn't labeled "the first rough draft of history" for nothing. With the emphasis on "rough." Those corrections sections exist for a reason.
And there's little doubt that the warp-speed world of journalism in the digital era has raised the stakes enormously. The pressure to ! post rapidly is intense in America's newsrooms. And speed is often the enemy of accuracy.
None of which is to say mistakes don't matter. They do, a lot. Reporters with a pattern of inaccuracy belong in a different business. And, no argument, some mistakes are far more serious than others.
The Lewis affair stems from an AP story on Oct. 9 that began, "Documents in a federal fraud case allege that Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe lied to a federal official investigating a Rhode Island estate planner now imprisoned for receiving death benefits on annuities secured on terminally ill people without their knowledge."
Trouble is, the documents didn't. The AP rapidly retracted the story.
It seems there was mention that someone with the initials "T.M." had lied to the feds. The AP retraction said the indictment did not identify McAuliffe as the offending "T.M."
There were two big problems with this story. First, it sounds as if Lewis saw the initials and simply assumed they were McAuliffe's. That's never a good idea. Second, there was this troubling paragraph: "McAuliffe's campaign did not immediately respond to e-mail and phone requests for comment about the allegation."
A basic tenet of journalism is that when you are accusing someone of something, you do everything possible to give that someone a chance to respond. The scary word in the quote above is "immediately." This simply wasn't an "immediately" situation. You take serious time to get the other side. And in many cases, that saves you from major embarrassment.
So Lewis screwed up, big time. As I said, suspend him, sure. Give him a stern talking to. Warn him that something like this can never happen again. But don't fire him.
Asked about the AP's decision, Director of Media Relations Paul Colford said the wire service doesn't comment on personnel matters, adding only that the three were fired "after serious deliberation."
As for Lewis, he says he's constrained from saying m! uch abou! t the story and his interactions with the AP because the News Media Guild is contesting his ouster. But he does take full responsibility. "It was certainly no small error, and I certainly regret it," he says.
Many journalists were shocked by the severity of the AP's response. Lewis says he has been heartened by the outpouring of support he has received, not only from colleagues but from Virginia politicians as well, among them Gov. Bob McDonnell. He says he has had a number of job feelers, both in and out of journalism. He'd like to stay in the field if the right opportunity presents itself.
"The death penalty," he says, "was certainly not something I expected, was ready for or deserved."
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