Frank talks about a scandalous event

If it isn’t, let me refresh your memory. Blair is the now-fired

New York Times reporter who lost his job amid allegations that he

fabricated quotes and details in stories.

He’s even on the cover of the latest edition of Newsweek.

While most Daily Pilot readers probably don’t stay up nights

worrying about how this affects the world of journalism, I can tell

you that your loyal staffers at this paper are worried.

They are worried about how this scandal will stain them. They are

worried that our readers will use this as proof that we get quotes

wrong or, even worse, that we make up stories out of thin air.

So, sensing some anxiety among the scribes and editors and

photographers, Managing Editor S.J. Cahn called two meetings last

week in the hopes of clearing some air.

The Jayson Blair Meetings, as they have come to be called, would

be the place to discuss newsroom communication, correction policies

and any other policy that the reporters think we may need, Cahn noted

in an e-mail.

They hadn’t even held a meeting yet when police and courts

reporter Deepa Bharath dropped this little bombshell in an e-mail of

her own.

“Yesterday, during the closing arguments at the [Trenton] Veches

trial, the defense attorney told the jury how they must never trust

anything that’s written in the newspapers and referred to the Blair

incident as ‘we all know what I’m talking about if we’ve read about a

recent incident in the newspaper,’” she wrote. “To hear that from an

attorney, defending an alleged toe-sucker, was very disturbing to me.

And the worst thing was, I realized it’s not going to be the first or

last time I’m going to have Jayson Blair thrown at my face.”

I missed the first Jayson Blair meeting on Tuesday, but decided to

sit in on the Thursday afternoon confab. Here’s some of what I

learned:

Because Jayson Blair is African American and only 27 years old,

about the same age as many of the reporters and editors here, some

Pilot staffers believe this will hurt minority journalists and young

journalists because there is a common misconception by some that

minorities and young people get handed jobs they aren’t qualified

for.

Now bigger news conglomerates will hesitate to promote or hire

these journalists, they said.

In the news gathering aspect, Blair’s sins give more credence to

those who say they have been misquoted, even though they really

haven’t, was one message in the room.

Others said that Blair being a print journalist, and one at the

New York Times at that, made it the worst of all.

Many of us in the print media, smugly, look down our noses at TV

news reporters. Geraldo Rivera and those who chase cars in

helicopters aren’t real journalists, we say. They are the ones who

give us the blemish in the public’s eye.

Now the blemish is blurred with newspaper ink.

Already, the public perceives that ours is among the least

trustworthy and most dishonorable professions around -- we rank

somewhere near used car salespeople and lawyers. This will only make

it worse, our staffers say.

How did that happen?

How did a profession that was considered sacred by the founding

fathers get so vilified?

How did a profession recognized in our very Constitution as a

protection of democracy, liberty and freedom of speech get so off

kilter with the public it serves?

“We need a ‘Got Milk’ campaign,” said Alicia Lopez, a city editor

at our sister paper in Laguna Beach, “to give people a better image

of journalists.”

Of course, we do have our periodic “Got the Pilot” ad campaign,

but that has more to do with getting our name out than it does with

keeping our name clean.

She’s right, we need to reacquaint ourselves with those who read

us and prove to them that we are in this for a noble cause.

But first we need to know: Do our readers trust us?

Most in the room believe that Pilot readers do, and they believe

that it would be very difficult for a Jayson Blair incident to happen

here because our readers are too savvy.

If something doesn’t ring true to our readers, they let us know

right away. Trust me on that one, really.

Still, I’m asking our readers for help.

Tell us what we can do to keep your trust. Tell us what we have

done to lose it.

This very column came about because I wanted to give the readers a

chance to communicate with the editor, to give them a convenient

sounding board for their grievances and a place to tell me when they

think we are going astray. It hasn’t always worked, but in many

cases, I think it has.

And stay tuned as we come up with new ideas and ways to connect

with our readers.

Meanwhile, maybe Jayson Blair will really be the best thing to

happen to the media. Maybe editors and reporters will realize that

they have to spend more time listening to complaints and get out of

the office and meet real people, not just those inner-circle elites.

Time will tell, but I hope we heed the call.