Earlier this week I ran into a couple of enterprising reporters responsible for a recent stream of articles about workers’ compensation; actually I sat next to them in an Atlanta airport bar. Evidently they’d been stuck there for some time as they were pretty… chatty…
PhoPublica’s reporters were having a grand old time, reading passages of their work out loud to each other, toasting their skill at turning a phrase, saluting their editors’ genius in assigning them to this story, and planning where they’d display the Pulitzer Prizes certain to come. While there were a couple concerns voiced by industry pundits about a lack of balance or perspective, this didn’t dampen their spirits for long, as one reminded the other they needn’t bother with facts or perspectives contrary to their central theme: Workers are getting screwed by Insurers and Employers. In fact, they had a term for those contradictory views – “whatevers”, as in, this is about as important to us as parental views on fashion are to teenagers.
They were thumbing through a stack of emails, reports, documents, and studies sent in by work comp researchers; a couple elicited hoots of derision but a few caused some consternation. One in particular from a highly-regarded California research organization had them flummoxed. Evidently their latest article completely misquoted the research organization’s findings; the real data totally refuted PP’s assertion that lots of treatment requests are rejected.
After ordering another round of White Zinfandel, the reporters went back and forth for some time on the right response. I couldn’t make out some of what they were saying, but there appeared to be a debate about the right “strategy” – ignore the real data entirely, bury a correction in a footnote, pretend they never got the message, or send an automated email response along the lines of “We are on vacation in the jungles of Myanmar and will respond when we return.”
This was a tough one, requiring additional sustenance. Appetizers were ordered (escargot and nachos with brie cheese) and the chatter went on for some time.
In the end, a lightbulb went off; one had the brilliant idea to “correct” the data point but do so AND preserve their central theme – Work comp reform screws employees.
Pen was put to cocktail napkin and after much effort, the intrepid journalists came up with wording implying the treatment requests were only approved because the employers and insurers had bought-and-paid-for the entire review process and all the reviewers.
Genius indeed!
Journalistic integrity preserved, but not at the cost of a) admitting a mistake was made, or b) diminishing their case that Workers are getting screwed by the all-powerful Insurers and Employers.
Their timing was impeccable as well; just as their flight was called, they drained the last few drops of White Zin, scarfed down the few remaining brie-on-toasts, and emailed the revisions to their waiting editor.
Me, I sat stunned, rendered speechless (a rare accomplishment indeed) by the ability of these professionals to get the facts to say what they want them to say, regardless of what the facts actually are.
What does this mean for you?
I thought Fox News was skilled at distortion…they could learn some lessons from PhoPublica!
and btw, check your calendar…
Knew it was a gag, when you wrote that you were speechless!
Always love your articles on this day Joe!! This one was really good!
Reporters eating Brie and Escargot (in an airport restaurant no less) Just appalling.
My jaw was hanging open as I was reading it… but I was like, “who drinks white zin…maybe one of them, but both?” Happy April Fool’s Joe!
Hilarious! Thanks for the April Fool’s laugh!
As a 40+ year reporter it is obvious to me why this stuff is happening. Three generations of leftist indoctrination by colleges have created a perspective in our young that is reflected in these reporters. They don’t know any better.
Those reporters not only failed to discuss the huge costs of fraud perpetrated by doctors and lawyers and others who suckle at the teat of injuries, one made fat by assessments on employers, but too by their victims – injured workers – who are lead to believe things that are simply not true. And who in the end give up working so that an industry of miserable bloodsuckers can profit.
Until we remove the friction of adversity and instill some common sense about medical the system will continue to fail injured workers and employers alike. The real world views the media as “leftist” or “liberal” and while you took a nasty shot at FOX, (whose reporting is more balanced than most but whose commentators are rightist), in the end we see the real lesson: The left is worse than the right when it comes to distortion of reality. Two bastions of the “liberal” media NPR and ProPublica have shown their true colors to you and I’m delighted you reported on it.
Dale, re your comment about Fox being more balanced then most, that’s a GREAT April Fool’s joke!
And yes I know what day it is — The best line was Appetizers were ordered (escargot and nachos with brie cheese)”
But my message still stands about those guys…
Joe, why don’t you shoot all this to the people who run Pro Pub…, and offer to sit down with them — challenge them — to a line-by-line fact check with those biased reporters present? As a onetime journalist and (later) a corporate PR type, I know that responsible editors welcome such invitations. (And if they turn you down, go public with their refusal.) Meanwhile, slinging labels around (brainwashed liberals vs. Fox News wackos) gets nobody no place.
Carl – why, what made you think I was referring to Pro Pub?
Certainly this post had NOTHING to do with that august group.
That said, I can tell you I’ve contacted ProPub several times, provided extensive information, background, and citations to them, pointed out errors of fact and emphasis, spoken with reporters for an hour-and-a-half, all to no avail. I also know of others who have contacted their editors to no avail.
Much as I’d like to believe they want to be accurate and truthful, it has been made abundantly clear to me that they could not care less what the facts are. Therefore, someone – certainly not me – should lampoon them.
After all, they are lampooning “journalism” with each piece in their series.