Many Durham people who’ve watched Herald Sun editor Bob Ashley since he took over the paper two years ago say he has his eye out for a position with Duke University’s News Service or a public information office at one of Duke’s graduate schools or its medical center.
Under Ashley’s editorship advertising revenue and circulation have dropped significantly. H-S weekday and Sunday circulations are down by more than a third while Durham’s economy is strong and its population growing. And of course, the Duke Hoax story has played out these past nine months smack in the middle of the H-S’s circulation area.
The privately held Paxton Media Group, which owns the H-S, has announced no turn-around plan. In fact, the paper doesn’t discuss with readers its revenue and circulation problems. As people have left the H-S, their positions have often not been filled.
“It doesn’t make me happy to say this but the Herald Sun is in a death spiral,” a journalist friend told me. “Ashley’s got to be looking for a parachute. He knows he won’t get a gold one or maybe any kind from Paxton so a Duke Blue one is what he’s reaching for.”
A long-time H-S reader who’s recently taken up blog reading said this:
“Your ‘three suspects’ blog friends (“the three suspects” are what I sometimes call the three Duke Hoax blogs I read daily: Durham-in-Wonderland, Johnsville News and Liestoppers. – JinC) do some great work. But they’re missing something. For at least the last year Ashley’s edited that paper with a Duke job in mind.I’ve thought a lot about all of this, especially since I read KC Johnson's Durham-in-Wonderland post “Steel Trap” and then took a look at what the Winston-Salam Journal and the H-S did with the same story.
Think about it, John. Ashley’s been critical of the lacrosse players. He’s had nothing bad to say about how the Durham police treat Duke kids differently than other citizens. He boosts Nifong and says we need a trial. He slammed the 60 Minutes episode. All that’s ‘beautiful music’ at the Allen Building [President Brodhead and other top Duke administrators offices' are in the Allen Building. – JinC].
I'm not saying there's any spoken quid pro quo. I don't think there is. But Ashley knows everyone at Duke can read. I think he hopes they'll appreciate what he's doing.
First, KC’s post which he published on Dec. 1.[excerpts]
This morning’s Washington Post provides a troubling article on Steel’s new dual role—he is serving as undersecretary of the Treasury while remaining as Duke Board chairman. In fact, the paper reveals that Steel said that he would accept the Treasury job only if allowed to remain as BOT chairman. […]On Dec. 2 the Winston-Salam Journal published the Post story in full.
The Post story features a long line of quotes from specialists in government ethics denouncing Steel’s action. NYU professor Paul C. Light said that Steel should resign from the Duke board, as “the potential conflicts are significant. His positions violate the spirit of the law that separates public and private service.”
Three other ethics experts, from varying ideological viewpoints, were more direct:“It’s a conflict of interest,” said Thomas J. Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative government watchdog group. “In his role as the chairman of the Board of Trustees, there will be decisions he will make that will be in conflict with his role as a high-level government official.”The obvious conflict: how can Steel avoid choosing between his fiduciary responsibilities as chairman of the Duke trustees and his position at Treasury? [...]
Melanie Sloan, executive director of the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, agreed. “The concept of having a government job is that you work only on behalf of the American people, and being a trustee creates a divided loyalty,” she said.
Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America, added: “He’s creating the very real possibility that he will face situations where he has not just the appearance of a conflict but the reality of a conflict and then will have to decide how to behave. There will always be questions about whether he handled that kind of situation appropriately.”
Ashley’s Herald Sun told readers nothing about the Post story either on Dec. 1 or 2.
Then on Dec. 3 the H-S headlined: “Steel: Dual roles won't conflict” (subscription req’d)
[Excerpts]:
Duke University Board of Trustees Chairman Robert K. Steel says he will recuse himself from committees and issues that may be perceived as conflicting interests with the chairman's new job, undersecretary of the Treasury Department in charge of domestic finance.[...]There's more but none of it includes quotes from the experts the Post cited or anyone else questioning Steel's dual role.
After receiving the nomination for the position from President George W. Bush in September, Steel immediately checked to ensure he could keep both jobs, Duke President Richard Brodhead said. Steel made it clear to all involved he would not take the government job if it meant he had to step down from his role at Duke. [...]
Asked Saturday to respond to the criticisms of government watchdog groups who questioned the propriety of his new dual role, Steel promised he would no longer be involved with university fundraising or Duke's management company DUMAC, and would recuse himself from any other committees that might give the appearance of a conflict.
The university's upcoming capital campaign will likely be handled by the 34 other trustees Steel said would be able step in if needed.
Upon being offered the Treasury job, Steel alerted the Senate Finance Committee as well as the Office of Government Ethics of his position at Duke immediately after being offered the position "so there would be no secrets," he said.
Four separate government agencies went on to give the arrangement their approval, according to Duke Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations John Burness.
If there was a conflict of interest, one of those groups would have said so, Steel maintained.
"I don't know how to be more open or honest," Steel said.[...]
Ashley doesn't even specifically mention the Post story. We just get a reference to "criticisms of government watchdog groups" which the H-S story goes on to knock down.
The H-S story reads like a press release someone on Steel's staff would draft responding to the Post's story and being careful not to alert anyone to the actual story itself. It's a neat PR trick but disreputable journalism.
Ashley is a Duke alum who likes to tell community groups about his love for his alma mater and Durham.
What are your thoughts on Ashley's editorship? And what about a Duke Blue parachute?
14 comments:
I'd hate to see Ashley at Duke. His "work" at the H-S has been just plain incompetent. He complains he hasn't had the resources to cover the story, but any competent editor would have covered this story before any other.
Face it, he should have recognized this story as the opportunity of his lifetime. An internationally recognized story of crime, race, money, privilege, and sex. Any "real" editor would have immediately thought "Pulitzer!"
KC Johnson from NY and in his little free time has done more enterprising reporting on this story than Ashley and his entire staff.
And if he HAD sunk his teeth into this story and covered it like a good journalist would, the H-S circulation would have gone up, not down.
What a boob!
Hmm. That's definitely worth considering. I thought Ashley was kissing up to Nifong but now that you mention it he does hit on all the Duke University talking points - slam the lacrosse players and their due process rights, demand a trial and support Nifong, print only favorable stories on Brodhead and Duke U., ignore the "separate but equal" DPD policy regarding Duke students.
I guess it's just that the Duke U. talking points and the Nifong talking points are so similar that I never noticed.
This theory is ridiculous--if Ashley were trying for a position at Duke he would have blasted Nifong and supported the lax players from the beginning. It is legitimate to criticize the adminstration's handling of the lax affair. But to suggest that the administration WANTS the lacrosse players to go to trial is ludicrous. The HS coverage of the lacrosse affair has in no way been pro-Duke!
Frankly the best reporting of this whole issue has been done by the Duke Chronicle. Maybe the H-S should source their content ;-)
And the above poster is correct. If it had been handled correctly by the H-S there could have been "Pulitzer-like" work done here...
Would've, could've, should've
2:50 pm Anon:
Not if you want a job at Duke. The students don't make the hiring decisions.
"This theory is ridiculous--if Ashley were trying for a position at Duke he would have blasted Nifong and supported the lax players from the beginning."
2:50 pm again?? Anon:
Circulation might have increased, but advertising $$$ are in the hands of the Durham folks who have strong ties to Duke, or are AV supporters.
"If it had been handled correctly by the H-S there could have been "Pulitzer-like" work done here..."
2:50 - Where have you been? I think the Duke administration definitely wants the players to go on trial. No less than Brodhead himself has demanded that the players "prove their innocence at trial" - which is an inaccurate statement of the law, by the way.
If the Duke administration didn't want the players to go to trial they would have spoken out long ago about the procedural and prosecutorial misconduct in this case. Brodhead has done this in the past. He wrote a letter on behalf of a Duke student facing charges in another country and while at Yale he wrote a letter to a parole board encouraging the parole of a student's parent. His silence in this case is revealing.
3:30PM You can bet your bottom dollar that Brodhead/Steel want a trial. What's more, they want a conviction. If you or anyone else cannot see this, you need to visit your optomologist.
One above, I meant 2:50 not 3:30PM.
What is most disturbing and indeed has missed the radar of many of us, is how Ashley's highly selective reporting serves the intersts of both Nifong and the Duke administration. That there is such a high degee of correspondence in the interests of the two has to be disturbing to those who have the interests of both Duke and justice at heart.
If Ashley gets a parachute via Duke, I only hope that it does not have a ripcord.
Ashley went into a deep hole at Duke and among influential local Duke people the day that Paxton took over the H-S from its previous owners and treated H-S employees as dirt. His lacrosse reporting is locally seen as low quality and anti-Duke. I don't think he has much chance at any Duke position -- too much baggage.
Speaking for a family with two Duke degrees, and administrative experience there, I would be supremely disgusted to see a busted out loser such as Ashley licking boots and shining buttons over at the Duke ranch. Maybe he could get a job cleaning spitoons at the Platinum Club or at Gottlieb's mall office instead. However on second thought, how could he be more incompetent than John "Let's play it as it lays!" Mr. PR, Burness, who may have had the brilliant idea to hire a PR firm tell the pres. to try not to roll his eyes and mug like Buckwheat and Junior on Our Gang while on camera, rather than to merely tell him to stand up and speak clearly, truthfully about basic issues. Or would that have been Mind Like a Steel Trap "Executives always outsource to Experts" Bob taking executive action? Should I bill $40,000 for that presentation? What a pack of amateurs. . . with stupidity and cupidity to spare. sic semper tyrannis
John, this absolutely makes sense! Ashley knows the H-S is not long for this world and has curried favor with Broadhead/Steel to get a Duke job. As always, follow the money.
John, this absolutely makes sense! Ashley knows the H-S is not long for this world and has curried favor with Broadhead/Steel to get a Duke job. As always, follow the money.
Post a Comment