THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606190017
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: BY HOWARD KURTZ, THE WASHINGTON POST
LENGTH: 48 lines
ONE MONTH AFTER the suicide of Navy Adm. Jeremy Boorda, much of the public seems to have concluded that the media are most definitely to blame.
A spate of letters published last week by Newsweek, which had sent two reporters to interview Boorda on the day of his suicide, suggests a growing public disdain for what is seen as prosecutorial journalism, and a feeling that whether Boorda was entitled to wear two tiny combat pins wasn't worth pursuing.
``All the pompous rhetoric in the world can't disconnect you from his untimely demise,'' wrote Pat Foley of Warren, Ohio. ``He knew what was coming: the vicious, relentless pursuit of `the people's right to know' by smug reporters.''
``I feel extremely angry with Newsweek for going after the wrong story,'' wrote Barbara Fowle of Scituate, Mass. ``You had a chance for a good story - an uplifting story - about a remarkable man. . . . Why make a story out of the one thing he did that was clearly not quite right?''
``I am mad as blue blazes with the editorial decision to ferret out a story about the pins of valor worn for a time by the now-deceased Admiral Boorda,'' said J. Dixon Free of Charlotte.
The predominating view among journalists, of course, is far different. In their opinion, the Newsweek reporters were merely doing their jobs by asking questions. After all, the magazine had not published a story about the allegation that the Navy's top officer was improperly wearing the bronze ``V'' pins.
Evan Thomas, Newsweek's Washington bureau chief and one of the reporters who went to the Pentagon to interview Boorda, said the tragedy taps into a thriving public resentment toward the news business.
``A lot of people feel the press has been too tough and too mean and practices `gotcha' journalism,'' he said. ``The facts of the case really don't matter. The press was asking questions, and a good man killed himself. . . . It's a good chance to blow off justified steam that the press is too harsh on public officials.''
Thomas noted that even military people are divided on the seriousness of Boorda's alleged offense.
``One of the things that gets lost is that we hadn't printed a word,'' he said. ``People want us to check out stuff before we publish.''
KEYWORDS: U.S. NAVY SUICIDE U.S. CHIEF OF NAVAL
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