Here's an unusual admission. The Boston Globe acknowledges that it erred in sending part-time reporter Michael Corcoran to cover ambassador Michael Oren's commencement speech at Brandeis University.
A May 24 story about a protest against an Israeli ambassador’s commencement speech at Brandeis University was written by a part-time correspondent who failed to disclose that he had previously editorialized in personal Internet posts against Israeli policy toward Palestinians. Globe editors learned of those posts while conducting an internal review of the Brandeis coverage. The correspondent’s failure to disclose a conflict violated Globe policy, and he should not have been assigned to cover the event. The story failed to include coverage of the substance of the remarks made by Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, and made no mention of an electronic petition supporting his appearance.
You can see Corcoran's original coverage of the commencement.
But looking into the personal blog posts that concerned the Globe isn't as simple. Corcoran's blog is now invitation only. And Solomonia points out that Corcoran purged his Twitter feed too.
Now why would Corcoran go to all that trouble?
Aside from Corcoran's failure to disclose his own conflict of interest, I have to wonder about the Globe.
How could a story about a commencement address that included no quotes from the speech itself get a green light from news editors, copy editors and proof readers?
