'S.E. Missourian' Disciplines Reporter For Ethics Lapse

By: E&P Staff In a front-page article Thursday, the Southeast Missourian said it is disciplining a reporter who kept a good political story going by quietly getting prosecutors involved in it.

Editor R. Joe Sullivan wrote that reporter Mark Bliss received unspecified discipline for "serious lapses in journalistic ethics."

The story that led to Bliss' discipline began back in June, when the reporter received an anonymous letter asking whether Eric Kesler, a member of the Scott County Central School Board, actually resided in the school district. Bliss reported on the questions in a June 19 story.

Kesler's residency was already a hot topic locally, according to Sullivan's account. Other school board members apparently brought up the issue when Kesler first ran for office. Nothing happened at the time because school officials "determined that they had no responsibility to confirm a candidate's residency," as Sullivan wrote.

The newspaper followed up with a story that said the Scott County's prosecuting attorney or the state attorney general's office could investigate the residency issue -- if someone made a written complaint.

A Missourian editorial the same day urged resolution of the residency issue.

As it happened, a written complaint was made -- by reporter Bliss, Editor Sullivan wrote.

Bliss, though, never told editors he was making the complaint, and on Aug. 17, the paper published a story about a faxed press release from the Scott County prosecuting attorney, saying there was evidence Kesler did not meet the residency requirement, and that he would step down.

"After the Aug. 17 story was published, managing editor Sam Blackwell received information from a Scott County Central administrator that action by the attorney general's office and the Scott County prosecutor's office had been initiated by a complaint sent to the attorney general's office by reporter Bliss," Sullivan wrote.

After thoroughly reviewing the events, Sullivan wrote, management determined that Bliss' decision to file a complaint "violated the journalistic standards that the newspaper strives to uphold."

Sullivan quoted Missourian Publisher Jon K. Rust as saying, "To have a reporter inject himself into a story like this is unacceptable."

Sullivan's account quotes Bliss as saying he made the complaint "with the best of intentions."

"It wasn't an issue about Mr. Kesler to me, but about state law," Bliss said. "I regret how this whole situation has developed."

Sullivan concluded the first-page account by saying he paper "makes every effort to uphold the highest journalistic standards and regrets the actions of one of its reporters."