How Newspapers Fail Miserably and Consistently---Nationally and Locally....

How the PNJ's Story read
once the misleading headline
and my picture was
"clicked" by readers

I hate to sound critical--but sometimes it is warranted.  As I watched President Trump sound off on the media this morning on an interview with Sharyl Attkisson--- it really resonated with me.  He is right to call them out--they have been unfair to him in many ways.  He called them corrupt and dishonest--and in many cases and instances--- they are.  In stories they cover and more importantly in stories they don't cover or how they are covered.  They play favorites and do so blatantly.  I believe he's right and I have seen it locally as well.  So although I don't like to be critical--sometimes it is warranted--so here goes.

At a lunch I attended Friday afternoon with two advertising executives, a discussion of media honesty and integrity began----- even before we talked about the real reason for the meeting which was an altogether different topic....

"I cannot believe they did that to you--I'm pissed off!" stated one attendee.  "I'm thinking about pulling my advertising with them!"  The other reaction I got from another attendee was somewhat more measured---but equally illuminating.  "They did this on purpose--no doubt."

I knew immediately what they were talking about.  "How did you all know?"  I asked.  "We are getting calls about it from people that are calling B.S. on it--plus we saw it" was the joint response from the gentlemen sitting at my table.

I knew what happened and tried to get it fixed as quickly as I could earlier that morning--but obviously it didn't get fixed quickly enough.  "If they saw it online---how many others did as well?" I thought out loud...

WHAT HAPPENED:

How the Hard Copy
 in print story eventually appeared
 on Saturday Morning

At Thursday's regular BCC meeting--I revealed that I had received indisputable, factual information that pointed to a damaging release of confidential documents by one member of the board who I did not name. I had blogged about it the day before--and that post received numerous hits and comments.  I requested the board authorize an investigation into this breach by our newly-created Ethics and Compliance division.  This request received immediate support from the chairman and at least one other Board member-- and so County Administrator Janice Gilley stated she would begin the investigation.

HOW THE PENSACOLA NEWS JOURNAL  PRESENTED THIS

At around 6:00AM Friday, this story was online at the Pensacola News Journal's site covering this request for an ethics investigation.  It was accompanied by my picture--which with the corresponding headline "Bergosh says another commissioner leaked confidential documents; seeks ethics investigation"  was fine.  No problem, so far, so good.

How PNJ Portrayed the story
online for hours and hours
on Friday morning and
into the afternoon ....

How PNJ kept the headline
and switched the picture
 Friday afternoon ....

About fifteen minutes later, though, this story got knocked from the main portion of the electronic site over to the side column--at which point my picture was left but the tag line was changed to "Commissioner allegedly leaked confidential legal documents"  The obvious insinuation/implication for a reader glancing through the site would be that I, Jeff Bergosh, leaked the document.  It was portraying me in a false light, and it was neither accurate nor fair.

HOW I ATTEMPTED TO GET IT FIXED

Horrified-- I called the PNJ Editor Lisa Savage immediately and explained what was going on and why it needed to get fixed.  To her credit, she acknowledged it was problematic and said she would get if fixed. "Thanks for letting me know.  Maggie is changing it right now to a different picture" stated Savage.  I suggested "How about something fair like "Bergosh requests investigation over Leaked Documents" to which I did not receive a reply.  I assumed it was being corrected-- but hours later, I realized it had not been completely fixed....At 10:30 I saw that on the sidebar of the PNJ under "more stories" it still had my picture and the headline "Commissioner allegedly leaked confidential legal documents"  Once again I contacted executive editor Savage, at 10:34 AM and told her it still was not corrected....."Yes, [Maggie] is working on fixing that" was the editor's reply this time.  How long should that fix have taken though?!?

WHAT FINALLY HAPPENED?

After my luncheon ended, I once again checked the PNJ site and they had by that time left the headline in place "Commissioner allegedly leaked confidential legal documents" but had finally pulled down my picture and replaced it with an Escambia County logo (Which I had actually suggested Lisa Savage do on our phone call from earlier in the morning when I first tried to get this corrected).

But how many people saw the misleading headline that was up for hours, how many readers were left with the inaccurate impression (due to the false light in which I was portrayed by the PNJ) that I leaked classified documents?  I am in a hotly-contested primary election with votes beginning to be cast within 60 days---so this sort of portrayal is damaging.  Why did it happen, though?  Why did it take hours to fix once it was brought to PNJ's attention?

More than one person I have spoken with believe it was on purpose.  One in particular had a terse response:

"Come on Jeff--if they wanted to fix it they could have gone into their program and fixed it immediately and easily.."

See the pictures and the screenshots for yourself, on the right.