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Why did Reuters put my name on a horribly slanted story?
BY DEANNA WRENN Thursday, July 24, 2003 CHARLESTON, W.Va.--This is from a story that Reuters news service ran this week with my byline: "Jessica Lynch, the wounded Army private whose ordeal in Iraq was hyped into a media fiction of U.S. heroism, was set for an emotional homecoming on Tuesday. . . . Media critics say the TV cameras will not show the return of an injured soldier so much as a reality-TV drama co-produced by U.S. government propaganda and credulous reporters." Got problems with that? I do, especially since I didnât write it. Hereâs what I sent last week to Reuters, a British news agency that compiles news reports from all over the world: ELIZABETH--In this small county seat with just 995 residents, the girl everyone calls Jessi is a true heroine--even if reports vary about Pfc. Jessica Lynch and her ordeal in Iraq. "I think thereâs a lot of false information about her story," said Amber Spencer, a clerk at the townâs convenience store.What I typed and filed for Reuters last week goes on in that vein. They asked me if they could use my byline, which I had typed at the beginning of the story I sent, and I said that would be no problem. When I got to work Wednesday, e-mail messages were flooding my inbox calling me everything but Peter Arnett. A colleague told me a fill-in host on the nationally syndicated Glenn Beck radio show had nothing but contempt for me. I donât blame him. Thanks to Reuters, he didnât know any better. I hope the people of Wirt County have been too busy to notice the Reuters story, the beginning of which takes a tone I never would have used. Iâm not sure what reporter or editor actually wrote the story that has my byline attached. Reuters did use one quote from the story I wrote last week in the final paragraphs of one of their earliest Lynch stories, which was sent out for publication early Tuesday morning. By Tuesday afternoon, the quote was reduced to one sentence. Still, my byline appeared. By Tuesday night, the quote was gone and Reuters was siphoning information from television reports. The beginning of the story was toned down. The part about "media fiction" was removed. But even then, my byline remained. I understand that news wire services often edit, add, remove or write new leads for stories. What amazed me was that a story could have my byline on it when I contributed only a few sentences at the end--and in later versions I didnât contribute anything at all. The stories contained apparently fresh material attributed to sources I did not interview. Maybe thatâs the way that wire service works. I would like to make it abundantly clear that somebody at Reuters wrote the story, not me. I may not be a member of the worldâs largest multimedia news agency, but I learned at West Virginia University how to report fairly, which is what I thought I was doing for Reuters last week. Apparently, when Reuters asked me last week if they could use my byline, they werenât talking about the story I wrote for them last week. They were talking about a story I never wrote. That was the misunderstanding. By the way, I asked Reuters to remove my byline. They didnât. Iâm offering this column as an explanation to the people Iâve talked to in Wirt County. Iâve been traveling there since Pfc. Lynch was reported missing in Iraq — reporting on the anxious, worry-filled days before her rescue, when some thought she would never come home. Before the family became swamped by national media phone calls, I talked to Greg Lynch on the phone about his missing daughter. I talked to old teachers, friends and neighbors. These people told me their stories, openly and honestly, and I reported what they said as accurately and honestly as I could. When the national media flooded Elizabeth, some tabloid reporters tried to deceive the Lynch family. One uninvited cameraman had the audacity to walk right into their Palestine home. Like the Lynch family, I may never know why some members of the media act the way they do. Ms. Wrenn is a statehouse reporter for the Charleston Daily Mail, where this article originally appeared. Nice to know that there is no media bias huh? Calling Mr. Alterman? Posted by: Frank G 2003-07-24 |
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