Christiern

I'm still looking...

Thanks for remembering. I'll look forward to a call from Joe.

In Chicago, seeing things more clearly than most here.

THE PUBLIC EDITOR November 20, 2005 Anonymity: Who Deserves It? By BYRON CALAME JOURNALISTIC integrity issues involving confidential sources have given The New York Times plenty of headaches in recent years. So it's not surprising that the paper's anonymous sourcing guidelines have been getting major attention from editors. Acting on recommendations from the independent committee created in the wake of the Jayson Blair fiasco, the paper announced a revamped policy for the use of confidential news sources in February 2004. One major change: Before a confidential source makes it into the paper, at least one editor has to know the source's name. After an internal committee on credibility came up with more recommendations early this year, Bill Keller, the executive editor, further tightened the guidelines for the use of anonymous sources in June. The most notable change, at least for me: Readers are to be told why The Times believes a source is entitled to anonymity - a switch from the previous practice of stating why the source asked for it. These two changes created the potential to profoundly alter the role of confidential sources in The Times's newsroom. Since Mr. Keller set some first-year goals in his latest changes - such as making the use of anonymous sources the "exception" rather than "routine" - and we're nearly halfway there, it seems like a good time to assess the state of confidential sourcing at the paper. There clearly is work to be done. A Page 1 article just three days ago, for instance, offered no explanation for attributing to "a senior administration official" the assurance that President Bush and two other White House officials hadn't told Bob Woodward about Valerie Plame Wilson. Mr. Woodward had disclosed earlier in the week that a current or former Bush administration official had told him Ms. Wilson worked at the C.I.A. The logic of explanations can be flawed. Take the Aug. 2 Times article about the Bush agenda at the United Nations, which was tied to the arrival of the newly appointed United States ambassador, John R. Bolton. Its second sentence reads: " 'Most of the reforms sought by the United States are well on their way to completion,' said a senior administration official, speaking anonymously to avoid undercutting the rationale for the Bolton appointment." An e-mail from David Hemmer of Toledo, Ohio, hit my computer at 8:32 a.m. on the day the article appeared. "How absurd that The Times considers this an acceptable reason to use an anonymous source," he wrote. "It is the quote itself which undercuts the rationale for the appointment, whether the official is willing to own up to it or not." While many sources have long sought anonymity to disparage an opponent or enemy, the current White House can be found praising the president's decision-making anonymously. In a July 6 Times article about the year's first Supreme Court vacancy, "a senior White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity because most staff members are not authorized to speak about the vacancy" said that "at the end of the day, the president is going to decide this based on those principles, not from any pressure from the groups." "What possible reason related to news can justify running this quote?" Jay Ackroyd of New York asked me in an e-mail message. "It's just spin." It also makes me feel uneasy. Puffery with the protection of anonymity can be used in pursuit of ends as devious as those sought through unattributed negative comments. But there are explanations for granting anonymity that serve readers by making a fairly candid case. An Oct. 29 article out of Washington, the mother church of confidential sourcing, delved into whether a letter from two Democratic senators that was seen as signaling opposition to certain possible nominees to the Supreme Court would also apply to Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. The article continued: "Three Democratic aides, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals from their bosses, said they believed the same would apply to Judge Alito." Or take a July 27 article about the relocation of 50,000 soldiers to United States bases from Germany and South Korea: "The relocation, to be completed by 2008, was described by two Pentagon officials who have worked on the project and were granted anonymity so they would describe the changes before an official announcement expected later this week." Straight shooting, I would say. I like the Pentagon article's use of "granted anonymity" - wording that makes clearer to the reader that The Times was indeed deciding the two officials were entitled to remain anonymous. Unfortunately, it is sparsely used. If Mr. Keller and Allan M. Siegal, the standards editor, were to make "granted anonymity because ..." the default language for explanations, I think it would quickly spur reporters to take greater care in negotiating deals with confidential sources. It's the same basic idea that Gregory Brock, Washington news editor, had raised with my predecessor earlier this year. With the reporter and the paper clearly responsible for explaining the reason for granting anonymity, there's a good chance that less central and more casual anonymous quotes will dry up faster. This would help limit confidential sourcing to the kinds of coverage where it's vital: national security, intelligence, investigative articles and classic whistle-blower projects. A fundamental part of the effort to tighten up the explanations for allowing anonymity was The Times's 2004 move to require that at least one editor be told the identity of any confidential source. That enabled Mr. Siegal to establish a compliance system that clearly has gotten the attention of reporters and editors throughout the news department, a half-dozen of them have told me. In general, Mr. Siegal randomly chooses at least three articles each day where anonymous sources are cited, and asks the relevant department head for the name of the editor who knew the identity of the source. Mr. Siegal doesn't ask for the identity, but he expects the editor to be prepared to answer his questions. He mentioned several in the Aug. 28 public editor column: Why was the material permitted to be used anonymously? What was the rationale behind granting anonymity? What attempts were made to get the source on the record? One result: "There's a daily conversation on sources," said Mr. Brock in the Washington bureau. Douglas Jehl, who covers national security and intelligence from the bureau, finds that the process "discourages casual use" of confidential sources and becomes "a barrier against source inflation," or describing an unnamed source in overly grandiose terms. "We sometimes see awkward and uncomfortable descriptions in the paper of why we allowed material to be anonymous," Mr. Siegal acknowledged in August. He called it a "healthy indication, really, that people are struggling with the issue." I agree, and I believe the sometimes-clunky explanations do make reporters and editors consider more carefully the value of the information provided. This process should also help the paper achieve two supremely important and more ambitious goals: getting more information on the record and fuller disclosure of the motivation of the confidential sources. I was encouraged by two comments Mr. Jehl made last week about the new requirements. "More reporters are going back to get more on the record," Mr. Jehl said. He also said they are "finding on-the-record quotes outside the government." Since I believe confidential sources should and will remain an essential tool in the best newsrooms, helping readers understand the motivation of those unnamed informants is a goal worth maximum effort at The Times. Explanations of why The Times is granting anonymity can also contribute insights into the motivation of sources. Here's an explanation in a Nov. 2 article from Washington about the debate over the treatment of detainees that probably does a better job of shedding light on motivation than on the need for anonymity. Noting that factions within the administration have clashed over the revision of rules for the treatment of detainees, the article offered this anonymous comment: " 'It goes back to the question of how you want to fight the war on terror,' said a senior administration official who has advocated changes but, like others, would discuss the internal deliberations only on the condition of anonymity. 'We think you do that most successfully by creating alliances.' " Anonymous sourcing can be both a blessing and a curse for journalism - and for readers. The system that Mr. Keller and Mr. Siegal have put in place has the potential to help The Times reap the blessings and minimize many of the curses. But their commitment to top-level oversight, and to providing sufficient editing attention to ignite those "daily conversations" about sources, has to be sustained long after the recent clamor over the paper's use of anonymous sourcing has faded away. The public editor serves as the readers' representative. His opinions and conclusions are his own. His column appears at least twice monthly in this section.

Thanks for the alert. Yesterday, I purchased a 100-disc spindle of DVD+Rs. Sure enough, they are made in India.

You mean with Bird, James P., Mingus, Louis, Krupa, Diz, and vocals by Bessie and Sarah?

I find this rather distasteful and would be interested in hearing what others here think.--CA How odd is this?? November 18, 2005 Exhibit Raises Questions Beyond Corpse Abuse By ANDREW JACOBS The jaunty fellow with the conductor's baton waving in one hand stands on a pedestal seemingly lost in the music. But there are a few startlingly odd things about this tall, lithe gentleman: He is dead, his skin has been methodically ripped away and there is a pinkish void where his viscera are supposed to be. Besides a few supporting segments of muscle, bone and ligament, the man has been rendered into a web of white spindly nerves. It is impossible to know what he did in life, but in death the man has become a ghoulish show-and-tell exemplar of the human nervous system, part of a new exhibit that opens tomorrow at the South Street Seaport. The show, called "Bodies . . . the Exhibition," features the preserved remains of 22 people and 260 other specimens, including a set of conjoined fetuses, a set of male genitalia, a pudgy woman who has been vertically sliced into four equal segments and a sprinter whose flayed muscles fly around him like slices of prosciutto. While the notion of displaying the dead for profit is bound to provoke controversy, some critics say this particular show, which relies entirely on cadavers from China, is more troubling than those sponsored by other companies that have gotten into the macabre business of anatomical exhibitions. Citing the Chinese government's poor human rights record and the medical establishment's practice of recycling the organs of executed prisoners, medical ethicists and human rights advocates are questioning whether the show's specimens were legally obtained. "Given the government's track record on the treatment of prisoners, I find this exhibit deeply problematic," said Sharon Hom, the executive director of the advocacy group Human Rights in China. Arnie Geller, the president of Premier Exhibitions Inc., the company that spent $25 million to obtain the specimens from a Chinese university, insists that the human remains, all but two of them male, are those of the poor, the unclaimed or the unidentified. Although he said he was not allowed to keep copies of documents, officials at Dalian University in northern China showed him papers attesting to their origin. The documents were kept confidential, Mr. Geller said, because international law forbids public disclosure of the identities of those who have donated their bodies to medical science. "I am certain that all these specimens were legally obtained," he said. But Harry Wu, the executive director of the LaoGai Research Foundation, an organization that documents abuses in China's penal system, said officials from Dalian University had been previously implicated in the use of executed prisoners for commercial purposes, having supplied bodies to Gunter von Hagens, the German entrepreneur who started the first traveling show of the dead, "World of Bodies." Dr. Sui Hongjin, who was previously Mr. Von Hagen's Chinese partner until a falling out three years ago, is now working with Premier Exhibitions, which has its headquarters in Atlanta. "Considering that China executes between 2,000 and 3,000 prisoners a year and their long history of freely using death row prisoners for medical purposes, you have to wonder," Mr. Wu said, adding that he would pursue legal steps in this country to ensure that the show was not using illegally obtained bodies. "In China, a piece of paper means nothing." If the past is any guide, such controversy coupled with public hand-wringing over the show's ghastliness is fully expected, even welcomed, by its sponsors. A publicly traded company that has prospered by exhibiting relics from the Titanic, Premier is clearly hoping news coverage will help draw enough people, at $24.50 for adults and $18.50 for children, to earn back its sizable investment. The show, which has taken over the second floor of a building once occupied by fishmongers, is scheduled to run for at least six months, although organizers are hoping public interest will lead to a 12-month extension. This is the first time such an exhibition has come to New York. A smaller show the company organized last summer in Tampa, Fla., provoked condemnation from religious leaders, a state medical board and the state attorney general (who could not find a reason to shut it down). That exhibition has been drawing huge crowds. Playing down the sensationalism, Premier executives use the word "specimen" to describe the exhibits and emphasize their value as educational tools that can teach children about human physiology and help adults learn how to lead healthier lives. Dr. Roy Glover, a retired anatomy professor who is the company's medical adviser, makes a point of showing off a set of lungs blackened by smoking and a brain damaged by a stroke. The exhibit's explanatory text, written by Dr. Glover, counsels against obesity, steroid use and inactivity. "This is not a freak show," Dr. Glover said, standing beside the musculature of a man who is holding hands with his own removed skeleton. "People go away fascinated by what they've seen, and they're better educated about their bodies."

Cats and I do not get along (I'm allergic), but I needed to have my monitor cleaned from within. The problem is that it now is almost impossible to use--cat hairs are sticking to the cat spit. It's a mess!

Unless there are more Birthday Pauls out there, I'll continue peeling. Hope there are fantastic years ahead for you!

Have a rrrealllly grrrrrreat one!

Happy Birthday--but who is GoodSpeak? Oops, just realized that GoodSpeak is Tim, a survivor from that other place. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TIM!

Chuck Mangione Henry Mancini Frank Mantooth ← Miff Mole Thomas Warton Anita Hill

That's bad news. Fortunately, I have not as yet made any notes, but I did opgrade. I hope you reported this disappearance. Other than that, I hope you are enjoying the set as much as I am.

Willie Dixon Captain Ahab T.E. Lawrence

Kenny Barron Kenny Boy Boy George ← George Lewis Clark Kent King George III

Please say "hello" from me.

Thanks for that input, Victor--it brought back pleasant memories of my old Copenhagen days, when I was known by my middle name, Gunnar. I had a beer with Stefan at the Algonquin the other day (his son is undergoing some kind od training at IBM)--he looks great for his age. Karl was indeed working for KTAS (the Copenhagen telephone company) and he was driven by his love of jazz to work just as hard in his off hours--the result is Storyville, for which we should all be grateful. Sure miss Knald. BTW Wilhelm Hansen's purchase of Storyville was contingent on Anders hanging in there and continuing his good work.

To GregK... ...better late than never? --Chris

I agree, it has little to do with the sound. Dyed-in-the-wool collectors are often not as much interested in the music and sound quality as they are in the matrix number and physical condition. In the case of LPs, a Prestige disc, for example, that has the company's New York Address on the label is of greater value, because it is older.

So that's where it came from...well, that'll teach you to close the windows.

Phil Hays's artwork enhanced the five Bessie Smith LP album series I produced for Columbia. He was a pleasure to work with and I am sad to see him leave us.

I hit the streets sniffin' today--all I caught was the usual urine. Guess that cloud passed me by.

Well, I was baking this cake for Brownie, so I thought I might as well bake up a batch for my Big "O" friends. This one's for you, Chris, and I hope your first birthday in new surroundings is a splendid one. It can get a bit cold around these parts in late October, so if there are more candles than the occasion calls for, think of it as a practical touch.

Hope you are celebrating in memorable fashion ...