According to Poynter, North Adams Transcript reporter Isaac Avilucea was fired for his October 18th story, where he included an interview from a girl who said she had transfered to her new school because her old one was like "the movie 'Mean Girls.' " She also commented how she made the move even though her new school has "somewhat inferior academics and athletics"(Poynter). The paper received a lot of backlash from the schools. See story
Avilucea responded to his termination by writing an article titled, "I Got Fired For Being A Journalist."
The case involves a few major questions:
1) Do you think Avilucea was wrong in reporting the high schooler's opinions of the schools and should he have been fired? Was he practicing fair reporting?
2) Should the sister paper have hired him?
I don't think Avilucea was wrong in reporting the girl's opinion of the school's social environment. What seems to be the problem is of missing attribution, which, you would think, is an editorial error and not a reporting/writing error. Personally, the firing feels like a simple way to appease the schools and residents complaining about their school being slighted.
ReplyDeleteI think the sister paper hiring him is a fantastic move as long as they stand by him if another similar situation like this plays out. Since he is still covering schools in his new position, the same or different high school might try to apply pressure like they did before on the paper if they don't like what's being reported. The paper has to draw a line between how they would attack the situation as compared to Avilucea's old paper.
I remember reading about this incident earlier in the year and laughing about how ridiculous it sounded. I agree with Nicholas that it isn't wrong to report a person's opinion, and that the attribution error should have been caught by the editor. I think it's crazy that the reporter was fired and agreed with the decision by the sister paper to hire him. I know as a journalist I will be way more careful, thinking of incidents like this one, but I also hope that I never work at a paper that will fire me to make a slighted school/community happy again.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nicholas and Megan in that it's acceptable for a journalist to report someone's opinion as long as it's attributed. I think it's both the reporter's and the editor's mistake in not catching that. Journalists are always fired just so companies can avoid further backlash, but kudos to the reporter for being hired by the sister paper. I feel like there must've been some sort of behind-the-doors agreement between the two papers to let the reporter work for the sister paper because the paper that fired the reporter may have felt somewhat sympathetic or at fault (because the editor didn't catch the attribution error). As long as the schools don't have any more complaints to make, I don't see why the sister paper shouldn't hire him.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the newspaper was wrong to fire Avilucea, particularly because he was quoting a source. On anything that controversial, reporters and editors have the responsibility to ensure that proper attribution is included, but the failure to include attribution on a quote should not lead to a reporter being fired.
ReplyDeleteThe sister paper was right to hire the reporter. Avilucea was not fired for a serious ethical issue, but for a minor issue that caused public backlash. His firing was a way for the paper to save face, and it is perfectly reasonable for the sister paper to hire him.
I agree with what has been said so far, that publishing the girl’s opinion should not have gotten Avilucea fired but there should have been attribution. In terms of fair reporting it would have been good to get another opinion on the social environment at Mount Greylock, but that would have been sort of distracting from the point of the story. It is interesting that the percentages of proficiency in math and English in the apology by The Transcript compared McCann to state averages rather than the performance of Mount Greylock, which I think misses the point of the “somewhat inferior” paraphrasing which was probably more of a comparison of the two schools.
ReplyDeleteSince missing an attribution to an opinion is not some massive journalistic problem like fabrication or plagiarizing, I don’t see an issue with him being hired by the sister publication.
With all the issues surrounding bullying in America, it's pretty disappointing to see a journalist fired for essentially telling the sad story of a young girl who actually had to switch high schools because of how poorly she was being treated. Yes, Avilucea should have used attribution, but that error should fall on the editor as well and based on what I have read of his track record, the decision to fire Avilucea was incredibly harsh in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see that the sister paper picked him up and is giving him a "second chance", though like I have said, I disagree with why he was fired in the first place. On a positive note, this incident may result in an increase in readership for the paper Avilucea is currently at as more people may now be inclined to read his work since they are familiar with who he is and the controversy he was involved in. While I'm sure this isn't the way Avilucea wanted to get attention and notoriety; hopefully he can recover from this and move up in the journalism ranks,