“The North Pole is melting.” Now that was a heck of a lead paragraph.

When The New York Times on August 19 printed on page one John Noble Wilford’s story, “Ages-Old Icecap at North Pole is Now Liquid, Scientists Find,” it got some attention.

“Why Didn’t We Have That?” You could almost hear editors shouting in unison across the country.

Editors everywhere believe profoundly that if a story is in The New York Times, it is 1) news and 2) true. Wilford’s story was quickly snapped up by the Associated Press and other media outlets. Time magazine, in its issue dated September 4 (on the street August 28), featured it in a 5-page spread, under the head, “The Big Meltdown,” in type more than 2-1/2 inches high. Even that clarion of professional standards, Environment Writer, jumped on the bandwagon, citing the August 19 Pole piece as an item of note in the “Reading Rack” department.

The original Times story cited Dr. James J. McCarthy, director of Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, in offhand remarks made as a tourist cruise lecturer, saying how “totally unexpected” it was that they found open water at the North Pole. The cruise was on an ice-breaker. His remarks were reinforced by another lecturer, Dr. Malcolm C. McKenna, a paleontologist, who said to the Times reporter, “Some folks who pooh-pooh global warming might wake up if shown that even the pole is beginning to melt ....”

Time (to give credit where due) cited, along with the lecturers’ remarks, NASA’s satellite ice-watchers’ observation that open water at the North Pole was not all that unusual.

So we feel duty-bound to report to our readers that on August 29, the Times corrected its story. Not only did it run a notice in the “Correction” column on page 2, but it ran a substantial story, again by Wilford, on page 3 of Science Times, “Open Water at Pole Is Not Surprising, Experts Say.”

And it gets better. By 9:42 a.m., EDT, the Associated Press had filed “AP Corrects North Pole Story.” It began: “Citing a report in The New York Times, The Associated Press erroneously reported ...,” making sure no one could miss whose fault it really was. But of course, AP had not run its correction until the Times corrected itself.

“Late Show” host Dave Letterman even took a shot at the Times, with his “Top Ten Signs The New York Times Is Slipping.” By Sept. 4, the whole story had found its way into Howard Kurtz’ “Media Notes” column in The Washington Post. Kurtz listed some of Dave’s Top Ten, including: “Notice on sports page: All scores are approximate.”

Crow was duly eaten. Perhaps there were also a few lessons to learn. Like don’t stake your whole story on what a paleontologist or a biological oceanographer has to say about ice, the proper study of glaciologists. Don’t rush to report scientific findings that have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. Don’t assume that anything related to climate won’t be controversial ... or seized upon by controversialists. Don’t assume a thing is newsworthy and true just because it is in The New York Times.

As this story spins and is counter-spun by people with axioms to grind, a few last observations.

One: Whether or not open water at the North Pole is normal, a lot of other instrument data interpreted by specialists suggests that Arctic polar ice is thinning and melting significantly. Discrediting the story does not necessarily discredit the observation that Earth is warming.

Two: The Times’ correction was a class act. It non-defensively set about adding to what was known about ice and warming. By doing what it did in the way that it did, the Times demonstrated again that is it is a high-quality publication, more interested in getting it right than in looking good.

A Florida state court jury on August 18, 2000, awarded $425,000 to broadcast reporter Jane Akre in her lawsuit against a Tampa station (WTVT-TV) and Fox Television, its owner. Akre and reporter Steve Wilson charged in their suit that Fox had killed a story on bovine growth hormone (BGH) under industry pressure.

Both Fox and Wilson, who received no award, filed appeals immediately. The court will begin hearing them October 12.

Although a jury denied three other claims in the lawsuit filed by the wife-husband reporting team, it found in late August that Akre had been fired in viola-tion of Florida’s Whistleblower Act after she threatened to complain to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about Fox’s attempt to falsify her story.

In February 1997, Akre and Wilson had put together a four-part series on BGH and milk (see EW, May 1998), quoting several experts expressing worries that BGH-produced milk may increase cancer risks in humans. BGH’s main producer, the Monsanto Company, put pressure on the Fox station not to air the series, saying its concerns were unsubstantiated. The reporters refused to change the series; as originally reported, it never ran. Akre and Wilson were fired in November 1997, and the couple sued the station for breach of contract and retaliation in 1998.

Of the four counts in the lawsuit, the jury decided one in Akre’s favor, saying she had been fired in violation of the state’s whistle-blower law after threatening to tell the FCC “of a false, distorted, or slanted news report which she reasonably believed would violate the prohibition against intentional falsification or distortion of the news on television.”

The jury found that the retaliation count did not apply to Wilson. It also found that there was no breach of contract by the station with either Akre or Wilson.

Wilson filed a motion on September 1 asking the court to order a new trial, based on questionable jury instructions. Fox TV lawyers filed a motion on September 7 asking for a vacating of the jury decision.

More information and news developments on the case are available on the plaintiffs’ Web site devoted to the story at http://www.foxbghsuit.com.

The emergence of alternative fuel cars, the viability of the electric car, and the future of the local gas station are among the new topics added to the already-teeming agenda of the Society of Environmental Journalists’ National Conference in East Lansing, Michigan, October 19-22. Another new workshop on culling information from the Internet will help journalists get accurate facts, credible experts, and comprehensive context for their stories.

Previously unannounced speakers include scientist Peter Glieck of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, and Frank Quinn of NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab, who will discuss the regional impacts of global warming; Jeff Ruch of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, who joins the panel on covering state environmental agencies; and Paul Eisenstein, publisher of TheCarConnection.com, and Amy Gahran, content consultant for online media and editor of CONTENTIOUS, who will share some stories of success and stumbling with Internet publishing. John O’Dell, automotive writer for The Los Angeles Times, is to moderate the session on the implications of California’s recent decision to uphold its 2003 deadline for requiring 10 percent of new cars and trucks to be zero emission vehicles.

The Great Lakes, Detroit’s auto industry, and the November election are the highlights of the national conference, which will feature as speakers William Clay Ford Jr., Chairman of Ford Motor Company; David Suzuki, Canadian scientist and broadcast celebrity; Mike Dombeck, chief of the U.S. Forest Service; and Yvan Hardy, head of the Canadian Forest Service.

Speakers are being added almost daily to the program, according to conference organizers. For the latest program details, check the SEJ’s Web site at http://www.sej.org.

Journalists can register for the conference online at SEJ’s Web site or in person at the conference starting Wednesday evening, October 18; Friday morning, October 20; or Saturday morning, October 21.

Is This Any Way to Pitch a Book Proposal? Environmental media superstar Julia “Butterfly” Hill sought a court order last month barring Berkeley activist Alan Moore from coming near her or trying to contact her. She told a judge he has been following her since she refused to join him in writing a book on nature. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports that other Northern California activists are either criticizing Hill’s celebrity or trying to capitalize on it. In July, Hill filed suit against two phone companies, AT&T and OmniSky, for allegedly ripping off her image. They were running a TV ad showing a female tree-sitter using a cell phone to invite a man up to help her take a bath. Hill’s book, The Legacy of Luna, is selling well (Amazon.com rank 3,607 in September). Rumor has it that Winona Rider and Robert De Niro will star in a movie based on her story.

AdBusters and Greenpeace Join in Media Monkey-Wrenching. The net-savvy media criticism zine, Adbusters, has joined with camera-wise Greenpeace to tweak Coca-Cola Co. They surfed the wave of Olympic publicity to pressure Coke to abandon HFC refrigerants. (HFC’s, remember, were ozone-friendlier substitutes for CFCs.) Coke caved – agreeing to replace HFCs with “Greenfreeze” (a propane-butane mixture which Greenpeace says is safe). Coke, “an Olympic Games partner for more than seven decades,” had a big stake imagewise in the supposed “Green Games” in Sydney. Coke is estimated to have some 16 million cooling units worldwide. Adbusters, a media review with an activist edge, has also taken on disposable diapers, plastic peanuts, and Monsanto. Co-conspiritors in Adbusters’ “Culture Jammers Network” even spoofed Monsanto’s Web site (see http://www.monsantos.com/). No lawsuit yet. We’ll keep checking.

ENN Makeover Turns Plain Jane into Media Queen. Environmental News Network (ENN) treated itself to a Web-spa makeover last month, and the changes are revealing. ENN seems to have changed its mission from selling content to selling eyeballs. Subscriptions (now “memberships”) now cost nothing – down from the nominal $12 fee of yore, but the advertising sales link is on the first screen you see. Its News page runs “News from Affiliates” in parallel with another commodity, labeled merely “News.” The affiliates section carries “Press releases direct from environmental organizations, universities and businesses.” ENN actually carries the releases free. Two other potentially money-making features: a “marketplace” listing of ENN-approved green goods and services, and an area where viewers can donate money to ENN-listed charities (mostly enviros). ENN gets a 10 percent fee on donations. Another cool gimmick: the “Ecobytes” breaking environmental news box which can be added to an affiliate’s site. Despite all this, ENN is still a useful info resource for reporters.

Verde.com Heads for Compost Bin. There was a big buzz this year about the launch of Verde.com, one of those Web entities that defies easy classification. A Verde exec, Kelly Rickenbacker, pitched the site to the SEJ board last winter, presenting it as a major news organization hungry to recruit environmental journalists. Verde got publicity with its pre-launch campaign to pick up litter (e.g. oxygen bottles) along Mt. Everest trekker-trails. It went live on (when else?) Earth Day, April 22. As realized, the site put more emphasis on activism and lifestyle material than on hard news. The original concept was to get ads and sponsorship from companies that had passed Verde’s green-screen – but ads were nowhere to be found on the site. Major investors included billionaire CNN founder Ted Turner and also Turner relatives. Reuters reported on June 22 that Verde had filed for bankruptcy, but the event got little media attention. The site is still online (http://verde.com/), but content has not been significantly updated since June.

The National Safety Council’s Environmental Health Center, publisher of Environment Writer, is highlighting geographic information systems (GIS) as a useful “reporters tool” as part of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) 10th National Conference, October 19-22 at Michigan State University.

The GIS events EHC is working on:

• A Friday 12:30-2 p.m. “Network Lunch” session on using GIS as a tool in reporting on environmental and natural resources issues. Reporters with first-hand experience in using GIS, the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, and a representative of ESRI, Inc., a major GIS software producer, will be participating in this session, one of the SEJ annual meeting’s traditional “network lunch” sessions.
• A Saturday 8-9:15 a.m. “Beat Breakfast” session focusing on coverage of natural disasters such as wildfires in the West, the West Nile Virus outbreak, flood and drought, and hurricanes. Director Chip Groat of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will be among resources reporters can draw on during these “beat breakfast” sessions, a new feature at the SEJ conference and one building on the popularity of the “network lunch” format.
• A Saturday 9:30- 10:45 a.m. session on “The Computer: Using GIS to Cover Natural Disasters and Environmental Stories.” EHC is cosponsoring this session with the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF). In addition to USGS Director Groat, the panel for this session will include reporter Bruno Tedeschi of the State House Bureau of The Bergen Record; Max Crandall of ESRI, Inc.; and Assistant News Director Debora Halpern of WFLA-TV in Tampa, Florida, as moderator.
• A Saturday 3:45-5:00 p.m. focus on innovative GIS technologies as part of Concurrent Sessions #5 on “The Computer: CD-ROM Demo Session.” Both the U.S. Geological Survey and ESRI, Inc., will demo CD-ROMs they use on natural resources issues.

(Editor’s Note: See Reporter’s GIS Survey published in this issue concerning an upcoming EHC-sponsored GIS training project for reporters.)

Note: Formerly published by the National Safety Council. Reprinted with permission.