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Larry L. Rose

September 19, 1999

Journalism Under Fire

The story behind three big stories

   The reporter on the phone Friday asked: Would you call the subject of a story I'm working? This person doesn't want the story to run in the paper.
   Our business, of course, is to get stories "into" the newspaper, but you'd be surprised how many people want us to keep stories "out of" the newspaper. Then again, maybe you wouldn't be surprised.
   Getting information and the cooperation needed to tell a story well isn't what it may seem.
   A few recent examples:

The Crossley student scholarship story last Sunday started out as an uplifting update of the 1989 program that encouraged at-risk first graders to graduate from high school. The encouragement was to come from civic leaders' mentoring and scholarships.
   What reporter Jonathan Osborne found was not what we expected.
   With more than 40 community leaders and varying recollections of commitment, the scholarship and mentoring fell short of expectations; financially the program fell about $60,000 short. There were phone calls of concern.
   The story ran, however, along with names of the original participants, who years earlier were listed in the newspaper for their sponsorships of the children.
   Not everyone appreciated our stories, but overwhelmingly the response has been favorable. In the end, the stories should help the students be winners, and isn't that what's important?

Another story that hasn't reached its conclusion is the failure to open four lanes of Interstate 37 to allow coastal residents to flee Hurricane Bret.
We still haven't heard from two of the three members of the panel that oversees the Department of Public Safety, the organization responsible for the lane-use decision. Only one has agreed to talk with us; the other two have refused requests for interviews. And the governor also has not yet responded directly.
We selected as a front-page photo Wednesday a shot of all lanes streaming west as Georgia opened four lanes of Interstate16 to evacuate its coastal population ahead of Hurricane Floyd. We sent reporter Jennifer Stump to Georgia to do a story on how Texas can make this potentially life-saving process work.

After nearly 30 years in journalism, I'm amazed by the creativity people use to block information from the public.
   We ran articles on potential academic problems with members of the Texas A&M-Kingsville Javelinas football team.
   After the stories ran May 2 and 3, cooperation with reporters and Sports Editor Bart Wright to help explain the unfolding situation was made difficult. President Marc Cisneros deflected calls to the university's Office of Public Affairs and has since declined opportunities to talk with anyone from the Caller-Times.
   Unfortunately, the public affairs office doesn't have many specifics, facts and explanations, but offers press releases that sometimes raise more questions than they answer. More than 20 calls from reporters and editors have received no response from Cisneros. He also canceled a scheduled meeting and, even though a date for reschedule was kept open, he's chosen not to get together.
   Rather than face-to-face or telephone communication, Cisneros has acted as if the Caller-Times were the enemy and fired salvos to area newspapers as letters to the editor, attempting to discredit the Caller-Times rather than addressing the athletics issue. After four months, he sent a letter to the editor of this newspaper, printed today on the Opinions Page.
   I'd thought my relationship with the university was pretty good, after serving as adjunct instructor of journalism for eight years; after delivering the commencement address in May, 1992; after receiving the university President's Citation for "strong leadership ... and consistent and unflagging support of higher education in South Texas."
   The Caller-Times has published hundreds of stories about the university, its professors and students and they have continued unabated, although with some difficulty.
   Coverage of the leadership and running of this public institution will continue despite the president's attempts to deflect attention from athletics and academics by attempting to demean the newspaper.
By the same measure, coverage of news important to South Texas will continue despite the efforts by some, whatever their motives, to keep news out of the newspaper. Larry L. Rose can be reached by phone at 361-886-3749 or by e-mail at rosel@caller.com.

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