MEDIA
Rampage makes for a difficult self-examination at the
Journal
BY IAN DONNIS
Management at the Providence Journal seemingly did
all the right things after Carlos Pacheco's workplace rampage claimed three
lives, including his own, on Saturday June 8. Citing the loss, publisher Howard
G. Sutton offered comforting words to distraught workers and relatives at the
Journal's production site on Kinsley Avenue, a short drive from the
downtown headquarters, where the attack began. Stress counseling was made
available to anyone who wanted it. Divided in recent years by a newsroom
dispute between management and the Providence Newspaper Guild, the
Journal, it appeared, was united in grief.
But even with a lengthy next-day report in the Providence Sunday
Journal, some familiar hallmarks of management were obvious; particularly
the growing aversion to self-scrutiny that developed after the Dallas-based
Belo Corporation bought the Journal in 1997. The Associated Press and
Boston Globe, for example, reported that Robert Benetti, the first man
shot and killed by Pacheco, was Pacheco's supervisor. The Journal,
though, merely noted that Benetti was "a supervisor," and human resource
officials wouldn't clarify the matter for the paper's own reporters, says one
insider.
By the morning of Monday, June 10, a memo circulated by city editor Sue Areson
instructed employees not to answer media questions and instead to refer comment
to Scott Baradell, Belo's vice president for corporate communications, who
quickly flew in to Providence to handle the situation. A call to executive
editor Joel B. Rawson was referred to Baradell, who didn't return a call
seeking comment as the Phoenix was going to press.
Part of the newspaper's internal stance, such as the unwillingness to make
Pacheco's personnel file available to Journal reporters, might be
understood in the bureaucratic context of concerns about privacy and legal
liability. But other actions -- one source says Journal reporters were
told not to contact the family of Charles Johnson, a production employee
injured in the attack -- are clearly at odds with the newspaper's mission. "I
think it's just hard for a newspaper to cover itself," says one reporter,
adding that it would be more honest, of course, for the paper to cite a lack of
comment from managers in relevant departments rather than leaving holes in the
story.
The motive for the attack by Pacheco, 38, a 20-year employee who worked as an
inserter, remained unclear. Several reports indicate that the gunman had
complained of being teased at work and pushed to join Local 64 of the
Teamsters, which represents some of the workers at the production plant. But as
Tim Schick, administrator of the Providence Newspaper Guild, asked, "If that's
the case, why did he shoot a supervisor?" It seems more like a personality
conflict and that Pacheco had other demons as well.
Still, the question of strife and a union-related motive lingered in the
background. In a sidebar on Sunday, the Journal quoted Patricia Bogacz,
Pacheco's sister-in-law, as saying, "He loved it up until, I guess, three years
ago, when there was a big dispute that started going on." It remained unclear,
however, whether the dispute was specific to the production facility, related
to the ongoing feud between Belo-backed managers and the Providence Newspaper
Guild, or something else entirely.
Under the old regime, the Journal was inconsistent when it came to
reporting news involving the paper, but that practice has grown worse under
Belo. Although the paper reports on technical problems involving companies like
Cox Communications, a serious snafu with the circulation system went unreported
a few years ago. Belo's dubious $40 million investment in the failed :CueCat
computer peripheral got almost non-existent coverage. And although papers like
the Washington Post report on their own internal conflicts, the
Guild-management dispute has gone virtually unmentioned in the Journal.
It may well be that Carlos Pacheco's lethal rampage was completely unrelated
to union issues at the newspaper. Even with the Journal's lackluster
record on news involving the paper, it could get up to speed in telling the
full story. The disturbing thing is that if some shibboleth -- union issues or
something else -- was a factor, we might never read about it in the paper that
ought to own the story.
Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis[a]phx.com.
Issue Date: June 7 - 13, 2002
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