D-G Changes Policy On Datelines … Finally (Media Review)
by June 23, 2003 12:00 am 79 views
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette news and business departments’ unusual policy regarding datelines was long an ethical pothole on an otherwise mostly high road traveled by the state’s largest newspaper.
The D-G had maintained that it could use a dateline (city and state at the beginning of a story) from anywhere that a portion of the information was collected (even if via telephone).
During the past three years, the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal has pointed out on numerous occasions what newspapers nationwide are now saying — such a policy misleads readers because it implies that a reporter “was there,” when the reporter may have done all the news gathering from their desk in the newsroom.
The scandals involving Jayson Blair and Rick Bragg at the New York Times have forced newspapers nationwide to clarify their policy on bylines and datelines, and that’s a good thing. Blair is accused of fabricating and plagiarizing. Bragg (or his editors) allegedly put his byline on stories that were written primarily by stringers.
The DG changed its policy on datelines on May 13, after the Blair incident but before Bragg’s resignation. DG Deputy Editor Frank Fellone said the change had nothing to do with the Times debacle, which led to the resignation of its two top editors. DG reporters will still get a byline if they do an interview via telephone, he said, but reporters won’t get datelines on stories unless they travel to the datelined city.
“The average reader doesn’t make a distinction [with datelines] … I’ve never had a reader say word one about datelines, period,” Fellone told Arkansas Business. It’s an issue for journalists, he said, but “for readers, it’s completely off their radar screen.”
We disagree. As readers before we became journalists decades ago, we understood the dateline to mean that the reporter was in that city. It’s just common sense. If it wasn’t an issue, then why did the DG change it’s policy? The newspaper has done the right thing, and we commend it for that.
It’s O.K. to admit you were wrong, Frank.