'Frontline' Program Is Critical Of Spokane Paper's Probe Of Mayor

By: Joe Strupp One newspaper's investigative tactics get a stiff public airing Tuesday night in the latest PBS 'Frontline' episode, "A Hidden Life," which cast a critical eye on the 2005 coverage of Mayor Jim West of Spokane by that city's Spokesman-Review.

The paper's editor told E&P today that he stands by his staff's work -- and was not sent a preview copy despite his requests. The New York Times' reviewer, Virginia Heffernan, wrote on Tuesday that she found West at the end of the program "an almost wholly sympathetic figure. So this is how a life gets destroyed."

The documentary revisited the paper's tactics in outing West and suggesting he abused his power. The probe included hiring a "consultant" to pose online as a gay teen. The consultant eventually traded e-mails with West, a known conservative with past anti-gay opinions who at one point offered the fake e-mailer, and another young man, a job or internship.

The Spokesman-Review's coverage received widespread attention at the time, and West was voted out of office in late 2005. He died just months ago after a bout with cancer.

Frontline, and producers Rachel Dretzin and Barak Goodman, focus heavily on the paper's efforts, noting that the ex-mayor was exonerated of the abuse of power charge in an FBI probe earlier this year. "But as bizarre as the revelations were, so were the newspaper's methods," states a promotion for the program on the Frontline Web site. "In the end, the Spokesman-Review ... was unable to turn up substantial support for the charge that West had molested boys in the 1970s, or courted underage men online." A full report on the program can be found at www.pbs.org.

The program also notes Spokesman-Review reporter Bill Morlin explained that he could not ethically pose online as a gay teen, but had no problem hiring someone else to do it -- a distinction that some feel borders on semantics.

Spokesman-Review Editor Steve Smith, who said earlier Tuesday he had not seen the program -- despite requests to the producers -- defended the paper's coverage. "We remain enormously proud of the work we did," he told E&P today. "We stand by it without hesitation. There is nothing I believe that Frontline can say or do at this point to change our minds."

The paper also released a statement in reaction to the program: "The Spokesman-Review stands by its reporting on the late Jim West without equivocation or qualification. The reports of Jim West's unethical and inappropriate conduct, and allegations of his past abuse of young boys were accurate when first reported in 2005 and they are accurate today," the statement reads.

"The newspaper's reporting has received recognition from respected industry organizations including the Payne Award for Media Ethics and, just last week, second place in the investigative reporting category of the 2006 Blethen Awards competition for 'distinguished reporting in the finest traditions of American journalism.' We are proud of our work."

Smith said Frontline producers would not give him or any other editors at the paper an advance copy of the program. He said only the paper's entertainment writer, Jim Kershner, was offered a preview, but with the restriction that he not share it with anyone else. "We would not agree to that," Smith said.

In a statement to E&P, Frontline defended its decision to withhold a copy of the program, stating, "According to long-standing policy, Frontline only provides preview copies of its films to PBS stations and to press for review purposes. Film participants and interested parties are expressly not included in this list. Since 'A Hidden Life' includes interviews with Smith and Bill Morlin about their paper's coverage of Jim West, Frontline was simply following its policy in not providing them a preview copy. However, as stated above, a TV reviewer at the paper was offered a copy, but turned it down. Frontline also volunteered to send a copy to an independent third party reviewer, but the paper did not respond to that offer."

Despite not having a tape of the program, the paper has written about it. Correspondent Jill Wagner, who covers the gay community, took Frontline to task in a Nov. 7 piece that claimed the program initially came to town under the premise of doing a story on the gay community. "The story line seems to have changed," she wrote. "A more rounded look at the community was trashed in favor of a sensational story."

Producer Dretzin is slated to appear on The Washington Post Web site, washingtonpost.com, for an online chat on Wednesday.

Smith said the paper cooperated with the production team in its making of the program, noting that producers spent time at the Spokesman-Review throughout its coverage in 2005 and 2006. "We gave them access, they were able to be in our newsroom," he said.

Almost as interesting as the subject of the story are the reviews in today's other newspapers of the program, nearly all of which offer at least some criticism of the newspaper.

TV columns on the Frontline episode are almost united in their objections to the Spokesman-Review's approach -- at least as portrayed on the program. The New York Times' Heffernan may be the most sharp-tongued, saying the Spokesman-Review launched its coverage with "a sensationalistic May 2005 newspaper article," and noting "the reporters seemed to be gunning for" West. "But on what grounds?" she adds. "Sure, it's compelling to think of elected officials having online sex, but online sex -- which is really just online conversation -- is not illegal."

Commenting on the newspaper's eventual confrontation meeting with West about the issue, Heffernan calls it "a gotcha talk to end all gotcha talks" and notes the paper "turned to bullying" the mayor in the meeting.

Watching the program, Florangela Davila of The Seattle Times stated, "it is not always easy to applaud the Spokesman-Review newspaper and its practices," while Ted Mahar of The Oregonian in Portland writes, "Can a newspaper ethically mount a systematic deception in a worthy cause? The short answer is no."

The Boston Globe, one of sveral reviewing papers to point out that the Spokesman-Review ran 189 articles on West, says of the hired consultant -- "Here, 'Frontline' asks the right question: Doesn't this ruse border on entrapment?" reviewer Sam Allis states, adding later that reporter Morlin "wraps himself self-righteously in the argument that he couldn't pose as a minor...but the consultant could."

The alternative Willamette Week of Portland also weighs in, describing the "shady tactic on the part of the newspaper." Writer James Walling goes on to note the paper's "questionable methods" and says the program is a "warning to both the public and the press against leaping to conclusions before all the facts are known."

E&P found only one reviewer who withheld a stinging rebuke of the newspaper. Melanie McFarland of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer focuses more on West's actions, saying "West could not reconcile being a closeted gay with serving as the mayor of Spokane, a town that never came to terms with a wave of child molestation dating back to the 70s." She also states, "producers do not depict West as the victim of a brutal outing, as he claimed at one point. Nor does it make any bones about West seeking to mask his homosexuality."