This Week in Gate Keeping

We begin with the ceremonial reading of the gospel of media according to U of MN professor Larry Jacobs:

Along with partisanship, credibility is another problem for blogs. There's nothing in the First Amendment about the need for an editor. Bloggers can write anything they want; they can spout fact or fiction. Jacobs advises readers to beware: "There's no gatekeeping here."

And now the latest demonstration in modern gate keeping techniques at the Star Tribune (from last week):

Star Tribune mistake prompts call for mistrial

Whoops-a-daisy!

No, this mistake wasn't in regard to the trial of Isaac Asimov for murdering the credibility of the Super Quiz. This was a far more serious situation. The trial of the alleged murderer of St. Paul police officer Jerry Vick has begun and the Star Tribune published on its Web site a report that the presiding judge was seen comforting the wife of the victim - a rather serious accusation of judicial misconduct.

But, it never happened. Despite layers of editorial review, this fiction was published by the Star Tribune. How can such a thing happen? According to the offending reporter:

Paul Gustafson told the Pioneer Press that during a break in the trial Wednesday, he dictated information to another Star Tribune employee for posting online. During that process, he said, his description of [Ramsey County District Attorney Susan Gaertner] approaching the widow mistakenly got reported as Ramsey County Judge Kathleen Gearin taking that action.

Gearin, Gaertner;
tomato, to-mah-to;
judicial misconduct, entirely appropriate consoling by the DA;
let's call the whole thing off!

Interestingly, the reporter Gustafson blames "another Star Tribune employee" for the error. But where were the editors in this process? According to the Star Tribune's internal investigation:

The error occurred as the online report was being dictated from a reporter to an editor and there was a misunderstanding involving the names Gaertner and Gearin.

Hey, thanks for that oversight, Ben Bradlee.

As you may recall, during a previous installment of Poor Gate Keeping Theater, the publishing of falsehoods on the front page of the Star Tribune were blamed on the editors not being woken up in time to work their magic. All things considered, I guess sometimes it still pays to let sleeping dogs lie.