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ONPRESS - September 1998 Also... Comings & Goings National press reax to Enquirer-Chiquita fiasco Selections from various articles around the country
"Chiquita Wins in the End" July 6, 1998 ...Skeptics are watching whether the Enquirer management will continue its Chiquita expose "in an ethical and lawful manner," as it pledged (Gallagher told COHA that he had at least 100 more Chiquita stories "in the can"). Or will it, like so many other newspapers, now turn to homogenized articles bought from some wire or newspaper service. The Enquirer initially surprised national affairs specialists when it decided against continuing to be a mediocre provincial newspaper, and took on one of America's most powerful multinationals, infamous throughout Latin America for its unprincipled behavior. By capitulating to Lindner and Chiquita, the paper's feckless management demonstrated a lack of spunk for refusing to stay in the game, and that an apology, along with $10 million, apparently was easier to come up with than an act of sustained journalistic integrity. http://www.coha.org/ (Site has copies of Enquirer Chiquita stories from May 3-May 28, 1998) Fred Brown, SPJ National president July 2, 1998 ...Journalism's critics understandably may think that the hotly competitive and steadily expanding news-media environment has driven journalists to abandon their most basic standards, their devotion to the truth. ...We deal in truth. If we become sloppy or lazy in verifying that truth, if we get to advocating that some greater "truth" is more important than the facts, we ought to be called to account for it.And, because we are the ones who hold everyone else accountable, we ought to guard journalism's integrity by holding ourselves accountable. In journalism, our accustomed tool to attack wrongdoing is disclosure. There is, in this barrage of bad examples, some reason for optimism: The watchdog is watching its own performance, too. Wall Street Journal Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. July 8, 1998 ...Mr. Beaupre has pleaded ignorance of Mr. Gallagher's larceny. That may satisfy the law but not his readers. In several instances, his reporter poses questions to on-the-record sources, then gives us voice-mail quotes of those same sources conferring back with company officials. Such cuteness should have set off alarm bells in the editor's office, but perhaps by then the paper was so hot for the idea of Chiquita's culpability that it overlooked its own. Sent by Gannett to take over the paper in 1992, Mr. Beaupre vowed to step on "big toes," and Carl Lindner has been a target before. The aging tycoon is the city's richest man and biggest corporate donor, a devout Baptist and a curious bird. There is nothing wrong with aggressive local reporting, but the paper was over its head on this story. It seized upon every shopworn cliche as a flotation device. And by confusing evidence obtained by unusual and nefarious means with evidence of something unusual and nefarious, it set a trap for itself and promptly fell in... N.Y. Times Douglas Frantz July 17, 1998 Overlooked in the furor that followed when The Cincinnati Enquirer last month renounced a stinging series accusing Chiquita Brands International Inc. of wrongdoing were the extraordinary allegations at the heart of the series -- the questionable business practices of a major corporation with broad influence in the United States and across Latin America. (...) The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating allegations in the articles that the company covered up a bribery scheme by employees in Colombia. Chiquita could face penalties under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act if it engaged in or failed to disclose bribery. A lawyer briefed on the commission's inquiries to the company said the investigation was not slowed by the disclosure that the voice mail was stolen. "I'll just draw your attention to the fact that the information that was reported was extremely detailed," said the lawyer, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used. "This isn't going away." (...) The executives acknowledged that the voice mail and internal documents were authentic. However, they said the brief portions of the voice-mail messages in the articles were taken out of context and provided an unfair and inaccurate portrait of Chiquita. "We all know that voice-mail messages are often thoughts in process or, in my vernacular, blah, blah, blah," Mr. Warshaw, whose own voice mail was invaded, said. (...) But the articles were based on more than voice-mail messages. Indeed, the article charging that the company used foreign trusts to evade restrictions on land ownership in Honduras, a major growing location, relied on Chiquita documents. (...) Company documents cited by The Enquirer described elaborate efforts by Chiquita to evade those restrictions in the early 1990's, when demand for bananas was jumping. The documents described efforts to use layers of trusts set up in the British Channel Islands and elsewhere to buy thousands of acres of farmland in the names of Honduran citizens with ties to Chiquita. But the documents made clear that the company controlled the trusts, which were administered through local banks. (...) A memorandum from an outside lawyer for the company about efforts to acquire land near the border pointed out that Honduran law did not address the issue of a foreign company being the beneficial owner of a Honduran company. The law's silence on the issue indicated that the government would look no further than the local bank on the ownership issue, concluded the memorandum. The article accused the company of using similar trusts to create an illusion of diverse ownership to make it harder for labor unions to organize on its farms elsewhere in Latin America. (...) The articles also claimed that Chiquita's use of pesticides endangers workers and residents near its farms, despite an agreement with an independent environmental group to follow strict standards. In addition to voice-mail messages and internal documents, those articles relied on many interviews in Central America and additional records, including a coroner's report on the death of one worker from exposure to toxic chemicals and reports of hundreds of people in Costa Rica who were exposed to toxic chemicals from the factory of a Chiquita subsidiary. Mr. Warshaw disputed the claims, saying the company is a model in its attempts to reduce the use of pesticides and that government agencies in Central America have approved its practices. Chiquita executives said they were particularly angered that the newspaper implied that toxic pesticides were sprayed on workers from airplanes. They said Chiquita does not engage in aerial spraying of pesticides, although it does so with herbicides, which are far less dangerous. (Dayton) Business News Doug Bolton, Publisher July 6, 1998 ...The reporter in this instance went to telephone booths and used a secret code he had obtained to listen to and record Chiquita voice mail. Chiquita officials got suspicious about the reporter's work on such a volatile story, had the reporter followed and watched him make the illegal recordings. The lessons in this chapter of American journalism history are still being written. But we're sure they'll reach a similar conclusion: Publications that insist on honesty and integrity from their reporters and other associates will survive the natural skepticism toward media that stories like this evoke. Comings & Goings
If you have Comings & Goings to report, e-mail 'em to Newsletter Editor Jeff Tindall at info@cincyspj.org. Faxes can be sent to 513.564.6391, voice mail to 513.768.8065, or snail-mail 'em to Jeff at The Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, OH 45202.
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