Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Take Me Out to the Ballgame (Or Somewhere Else)

As shown in my earlier post about Pioneer Press writer Gordon Wittenmeyer, he’s not exactly the most insightful observer of the Twins. But at least he does attend the games (I think). Which is not the case with sportswriters out in Sacramento. This from today’s Sacramento Bee (via James Phillips):

An apology to our readers

On Aug. 7, a story on the cover of the Sports section about the Giants game at Pacific Bell Park was filed by a Bee reporter who was not at the game. The reporter watched the game on television at a location away from the stadium. He filed his story without telling editors at The Bee his true location, leaving the impression he covered the game from the ballpark.

In addition, it was discovered later that the story included quotes from other media outlets that were unattributed and old, made to reporters on a previous occasion before the day of the game. The story violated basic journalistic values and ethics as practiced by The Bee.

The reporter involved, Jim Van Vliet, no longer works at the newspaper. The Bee regrets the situation and apologizes to its readers.

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