Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Our sad small town newspaper the Arizona Daily Star today fessed up to its mediocrity and apologized to its few remaining readers. Rather than have a political reporter cover a County Supervisor race, the Star had a sports reporter cover the race who turned in a puff piece for one of the candidates who just happens to have played football for the University of Arizona. I don't think an apology suffices. Someone needs to lose their job. Poor judgment, failure to follow protocol were behind candidate story:
The Star was unfair last Thursday in publishing a column on former UA football player Tanner Bell, now a Republican candidate for the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
There was nothing factually wrong with the story, which was written by a sportswriter and published on the cover of the sports section.
The column was unfair because it profiled one candidate in a two-person race. It made only passing mention of Sharon Bronson, the Democratic incumbent in District 3.
The writer interviewed one source - Bell - and described him in flattering detail.
One-sided reporting doesn't meet the Star's standards. Several readers asked how the column made it into print. The short answer: failure to follow protocol and poor judgment by several editors.
* * *
Human error led to publication of a column by a writer who knows Bell from football but was assigned to write about him at a time when Bell is newsworthy for another reason: his candidacy.
On behalf of the Star, I apologize to our readers.
Bobbie Jo Buel is the Star's editor.
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