Stop the presses

Crusading Reporter exposes evil in Big Business. Large Media Conglomerate, under thumb of Big Business, buys out her tiny weekly, muzzles her, squashes story. Truth and Justice rides to rescue, honors Crusading Reporter, shames Large Media Conglomerate. Roll credits.

If the saga of former Bucksport Free Press reporter Terrilyn Simpson, Champion International, Courier Publications and the PEN American Center sounds rather like the screenplay for a major motion picture starring, say, Paul Newman, there’s good reason. The tale by which Simpson gets PEN’s First Amendment Award — and $25,000 of Newman’s money — plays a lot better on the big screen than it does in real life.

In its initial press release touting Simpson’s award, PEN made a huge deal out of Courier’s purchase of the Free Press, flat out stating that Courier bought the Bucksport paper for the sole purpose of shielding Champion, that Courier then harassed Simpson out of her new job and that it blacklisted her from other work in journalism.

PEN dutifully checked Simpson’s references, references she provided, but it overlooked one tiny detail — getting the other side of the story. The part about Courier pushing hard, hiring an additional, highly experienced reporter, to help get Simpson’s in-depth story on alleged health and safety problems at Champion in print as soon as possible. The part about Courier wanting Simpson to check facts and fill holes. The part about Simpson suddenly quitting.

So the other day, PEN admits it should have looked deeper than Simpson’s three letters of reference and apologizes to Courier. Sort of. The first press release, PEN says, “generated a response which skewed the focus of the story.” Balderdash. The response — Courier’s strong objection to being lied about — skewed nothing. PEN got suckered, it took the bait. It skewed the truth to provide compelling drama and a happy ending.

Yes, Courier is owned by the same family that owns the Bangor Daily News. The same family that does not own the Portland Newspapers, the Ellsworth American, Maine Times or any of the many other independent-minded, highly competitive and downright fiesty newspapers in this state. If there was anything more here than a story about a pretty good reporter who did a pretty good job exploring the issue of workplace safety, it would have been published. To suggest, as PEN did, that the Maine media is some kind of lock-stepping monolith only demonstrates how little PEN knows about the Maine media. Or, for that matter, about Maine people.

PEN will holds its award ceremony May 11 in New York City. Others to be honored are a Nigerian poet critical of a government with a record of eliminating its critics and an imprisoned Tiananmen Square protestor. Simpson will get her $25,000 and probably a nice plaque. Buttered popcorn will be provided.