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Topic: Letters Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 11/18/2009 1:29:41 PM
Title: Re CJR's piece on Pfizer
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
From TED MANN: I'm a staff writer at The Day in New London, Conn., which was recently in the news - and fodder for journalism critics - over coverage of Pfizer's decision to pull out of this city, years after it triggered the takings of private property that yielded the U.S. Supreme Court case in Kelo v. New London.

Coverage of the Pfizer story came in for a partially justified critique over at the Columbia Journalism Review, but that critique also badly misstated the way our paper, the local news source and the paper of record for the Kelo case and Pfizer's remaking of the Fort Trumbull peninsula, covered this as it happened. I sent the following email to CJR, but never heard back and have yet to see any sort of follow-up post correcting the record. So I thought I'd pass the issue on to your readers.

A lot of ink has been spilled on this case by media both local and national, some of that work great and some of it less so. There's plenty of room for criticism. But that criticism should reflect what actually got printed.

Ted Mann
Staff writter
The Day of New London
______________________________________________

From: Mann, Ted
Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 1:36 PM
To: 'rc2538@columbia.edu'
Cc: Collins, David; Robinson, Kenton
Subject: Your post on Kelo

Ryan,

As you can imagine, since I wrote one of The Day's follow up stories on Pfizer's pull-out and the Kelo case, I read your CJR post with interest. First, I wanted to send you a link to the story I wrote, since the one that you posted appears to be a busted link. I think our story stands with anything any other paper's written on the subject, and would like people to be able to see it.

Here's the story.

Second, while I realize you're talking more about the national press, I think it's unfair to say the Times was "first out of the gate" in its response to this news. Our story came out days before theirs did, and as you will see it also broke some news: namely, that Pfizer had far more interest in some of the land directly seized from property owners (as opposed to the land on which it actually built its headquarters) than the company has ever let on. Furthermore, that story linked to one that I wrote back in 2005 that more comprehensively disproved the company's denials that it had any involvement in the design of the Fort Trumbull redevelopment project. It has always confounded me that that story didn't ever merit a real mention by the national press who had covered the Supreme Court case and faithfully published the company's denials. That 2005 story is here. BIZpharma, the project map that ABC News flashed onscreen during its report last night came from this article, and from months of negotiating with the state to turn it over to us.)

Obviously, this is pretty typical frustration -- we're closer to the story, and don't get as much attention because of our size compared to the bigger outlets that parachute in for a moment. And I and others here have worked on these pieces for years, so it's a little galling when people who haven't actually read our paper over the course of this decade-long saga suggest we haven't been doing our job.

But there is one clear error in your post. Our paper did have a same-day piece that focused on Pfizer, the Fort Trumbull redevelopment project, and the remains of the neighborhood. It was written by our metro columnist, David Collins. I think the reason that the business stories on the effect of Pfizer's departure dealt with the Kelo issue in passing was specifically because David would be writing about Fort Trumbull in his column, and I'd be writing a separate story on the history of the case. Mine would have run the same day but for one other development - that's also the day the governor announced she wouldn't be seeking a second term.

David's column is here.

Anyway, thanks for calling attention to this story in the first place. As you can tell, I am in firm agreement that it remains a very, very big deal, however misunderstood -- or simply manipulated -- some of the facts of the case have become.

Sincerely,

Ted Mann

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