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Colleagues,
Good Wednesday morning on this Nov. 30, 2022,
We’re sorry to bring news of the death of our colleague Doug Kranz, longtime AP technician in Washington, D.C., and California. He died Sunday at the age of 78. Connecting is working with his family to gather further information on Doug and his career that we will bring you in Thursday’s edition.
If you have a favorite memory of working with him, please send it along.
Today’s issue brings you more on the recent AP firing of James LaPorta, as well as a better definition of the Slack channel that was prominently mentioned in stories involving the action.
And finally, this personal aside: When I see the word Slack, I cannot forget the mostly tongue-in-cheek comment that my newspaper-editor dad made to me when I took an early retirement package from AP and retired at age 62 with 36 AP years under my belt. When I let Walter B. Stevens, he who worked into his 80s, know of the decision, he said, "You're a slacker!" (Maybe, to prove him wrong, that's why I took up a daily newsletter and monthly newspaper column...)
Have a great day – be safe, stay healthy!
Paul
Kurt Rossi – an AP legend
(Kurt Rossi, AP vice president for Global Technology Operations, was among the 65 AP employees who recently retired under the Special Retirement Operation program.)
Nick Evansky - Vice President, Technology & Operations, NBC & Telemundo, Comcast Technology Center - I first met Kurt Rossi when Jim Williams sent him to APTV(N) in London to run Technical Operations. There were some disconnects and missed synergy opportunities between the other AP businesses. APTN was new and headquartered in London.
Kurt arrived in London in 1998 with his girlfriend, now wife, Phaedra.
There was some trepidation about “this American”. However, Kurt’s arrival was the best thing that could have happened. He took the operations to a new level. He saved millions of dollars by re-negotiating contracts; he got the AP and APTN teams working together, especially on events. APTN was able to leverage resources and expertise that we outsourced prior to Kurt’s arrival.
Kurt was a people person; he was firm but always fair and got things done. He was focused on doing the right thing for the company and his team.
Much of my own leadership style can be attributed to Kurt. He had a big impact on my career and style of Leadership.
He is an AP legend. He has been through massive technology shifts yet remained engaged and embraced every change and challenge thrown his way.
Enjoy your retirement “Wild Man”. No idea where he got that name from…
Sharing concerns about AP handling of missile strike story and firing of reporter
Kevin Walsh - I thought Sheila Norman-Culp did a fine job outlining the concerns many are feeling over the AP's handling of the erroneous Russian missile strike story and subsequent firing of reporter James LaPorta.
My wife and I have spent time traveling across Ukraine and getting to know its history, culture and people. We now follow on a daily basis news of the incomprehensible death and destruction being caused there by Russia.
We were shocked to learn of the missile strike in Poland and even more alarmed by the anonymously sourced AP report that Russian missiles were the cause of the attack.
As we watched the story unfold that evening, it became increasingly clear the cause of the deaths was errant missiles from Ukraine. And, yet, it wasn't until the following day that AP issued a correction on such a grievous error?
I don't know James LaPorta or have any of Sheila Norman-Culp's expertise in this area, but AP's handling of the aftermath does look more like scapegoating and battening down the hatches than thoughtful and transparent introspection.
Although the circumstances of this story are different than AP's May 2021 firing of newly hired Emily Wilder over her Twitter comments on Palestinian-Israeli issues, both share similarities in the clumsy way AP reacted.
As many Connecting readers will remember, David Bauder's story -- "AP says it is reviewing social media policies after firing" -- followed the Wilder episode and the concerns expressed by staff and many others across the industry about how her situation was handled.
Have those guidelines been revised and made public? If so, let's share them.
Similarly, this story raises legitimate questions about whether AP standards on anonymous sources are being rigorously and consistently applied, particularly when reporting stories of this global magnitude.
From AP's corporate site:
"The AP routinely seeks and requires more than one source when sourcing is anonymous. Stories should be held while attempts are made to reach additional sources for confirmation or elaboration. In rare cases, one source will be sufficient – when material comes from an authoritative figure who provides information so detailed that there is no question of its accuracy."
I was struck by the irony that the most meaningful information in David Bauder's reporting on AP's handling of the missiles story came from anonymous internal sources. "They asked for anonymity to talk about personnel matters and internal operations."
I'll close with Sheila Norman-Culp's final paragraph, which I think is smart, eloquent and worth repeating:
"None of us wants our reporting to damage the AP’s reputation. But if that happens, it behooves us and AP to bravely look at why it did and fix the structure that allowed it to happen. Blaming this on one reporter is not the way to move confidently into the future."
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Ed McCullough - Great comment by Sheila yesterday. Informative, fact-based and reasonable. AP indeed should "bravely look at ... and fix the structure that allowed it to happen."
To which I add as a former foreign correspondent (in Latin America and Europe during 1986 - 2005) and business manager:
Are some stories so gigantic in their obvious stakes or consequences - as this one certainly was - that single, anonymous sources should not be acceptable, at all; or only a very senior editor or manager could make the call regarding whether to publish? In the 1980s and 90s that would have been Nate Polowetzky, Tom Kent, Frank Crepeau - if not the executive editor.
Looking backward with only the same information and timeframes then available, would top editors have approved publication had they been given that opportunity? If yes, why yes. If no, why not?
As Sheila points out, if the problem is not correctly identified and addressed, the lesson is not learned and the error may happen again.
What is Slack?
In today’s mailbox, colleagues Michael Rubin and Marty Thompson asked for a definition of the Slack channel. Said Michael, “For those of us from a different era (somewhere between the Iron Age and Industrial Revolution it seems now) what is Slack and what is a Slack channel? It seems to be common knowledge among anyone relatively current but the rest of us are befuddled, at least I am.”
AP describes it as “a communication tool used by the global newsroom.”
Our colleague Sheila Norman-Culp - until her recent retirement, senior editor for Europe-Africa desk in London - elaborates:
Slack is how AP communicates in groups or in direct messages.
It’s a texting app that allows you to talk directly to another AP or give your thoughts in a channel devoted to a certain story, like US elections or Russia-Ukraine.
Best thing is you don’t have to be on your computer, you can slack a note to others on your phone in a remote war zone.
Slack just has the most stable software. We used to use Skype but chats would crash after getting about 10; there are 550 folks in the Ukraine war chat.
Whenever there is a new story Xxx-shooting, you make a new channel just to talk about that story. Writers, editors, photographers, videographers, managers, everyone can be in the chat about what to do on XXX story.
Plus each desk has their own chat, to talk about their own stories.
There is a global photo chat to ask for photos etc.
Chats can be open or locked. Most are open. Locked ones are usually for management, but anyone can start a locked chat.
Yes, it connects you to anyone in AP. It’s crucial for international.
To be honest, folks overseas have been using some kind of group chat since I started the Europe Desk doing it in 2008. That is how we have had remote editors for a decade. AP as a whole started using Slack before the pandemic and that was the only way AP could work with everyone being remote for years.
An AP sighting
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