To the Editor:
You gave the Boston Globe a free ride in your coverage of its retraction of the "adulterous affair" story it concocted last week about the murders of Half and Susanne Zantop. Did you not read yesterday's column by Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz? The Globe retracted, not out of any sense of journalistic ethics, but because they knew that Kurtz was about to publish a nationally syndicated column slamming the Globe for its vile and inept coverage -- and for its unfathomable refusal to back off the story when it was shown, immediately, to be false.
By simply repeating the Globe's spin on the story, you did their damage control for them. Let me set the matter straight. Several of us tried for days to convince Globe editor Matthew Storin to retract the story. He refused to even return phone calls. I then contacted Howard Kurtz, who jumped on the story immediately, and was set to publish his expos yesterday. Read it. Kurtz is modest, but the chronology is clear. When he first called Storin in the morning, Storin trotted out his now familiar defense of his "three sources." But by deadline time, Storin called Kurtz back, glibly assuring him that the paper was retracting the story. As any editor knows, a call from Howard Kurtz -- a nationally syndicated media critic and host of a highly respected media-watch television show -- is a wake-up call. Draw your own conclusions: Was the Globe acting soberly after a careful review of its sourcing? Or was it running scared and trying to beat Kurtz to the 5 p.m. deadline? The timing stinks, as does the Globe's reporting. Don't do their spin control for them. They have a lot to answer for.
