Blumenthal Discusses Controversy

By Katie Krause

Ralph Blumenthal (bio), the Southwest Bureau Chief for the New York Times, spoke to Tony Pederson’s media ethics class on Tuesday, April 17. This was not Blumenthal’s first campus visit. He sparked controversy earlier this year when he filed a story containing quotes sourced from a January 9 private faculty meeting regarding the Bush Library.

Blumenthal, a Columbia University graduate and author of four books (Amazon list), spent most of his time in Pederson’s class defending his actions at the meeting and discussing his side of the story.

Blumenthal says he had been following the Bush Library story for months, and was notified by SMU faculty in December about the January meeting. His sources told him the meeting would be open to the public, so he planned a trip to Dallas. Upon his arrival, he was informed that the structure of the meeting had changed to allow only faculty members inside.

Although a university staff member was checking names at the door of the meeting venue, Blumenthal said he believed the issues surrounding the Bush library proposal was of public interest and felt he had a responsibility to tell the story.

“I merely walked in when security wasn’t as high as it could be,” he said.

Blumenthal said the location of the meeting wasn’t a concern.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a private university or a public university…. It’s still a public place,” he said.

As the meeting began, Blumenthal dismissed a request for media to leave and remained inside, determined to get the story. He claims he never misrepresented himself, as it would not have complied with the New York Times Code of Ethics (http://www.nytco.com/company-properties-times-coe.html). But he said he used regular paper as opposed to a reporter’s notebook in order to avoid undesired attention. In his story, filed 45 minutes after the meeting concluded, Blumenthal quoted faculty who spoke inside the meeting as well as faculty he spoke to afterward.

Blumenthal’s story did not include a disclosure stating that the meeting was closed. However, he said might have considered adding one if he had not been on such a tight deadline.

“I should have written more about the circumstances,” Blumenthal said.

Faculty Senate President Rhonda Blair sent an email to the faculty the following afternoon apologizing for what she perceived as a breach of trust.

Blumenthal said that if he had an opportunity to revisit the situation, he would take the same action again.

“You have to do it on your own terms, you have to write what you think is important … the job of a reporter is to keep asking questions even when they aren’t answering,” he said.