I could have been sitting across from a writer of US Weekly or OK Magazine, but I wasn't. I was sharing an hour of my morning with a journalist from Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), one of the oldest and most respected newspapers in Switzerland. Granted, my interview was for their "softer" weekend edition, NZZ am Sonntag, but even that paper carries the weight of its weekday counterpart's esteemed name. That's why I was shocked to read a spuriously devised, albeit glamorous, story of my life when the article appeared.
Let's get one thing straight: The "journalist" did not slander my name. It was quite the opposite: He had me sharing a photo shoot with Mayor Bloomberg; saving sharks in Miami; buttering up old-school Sierra Club veterans; and convincing motorheads to shut off their cars in exchange for bikini-clad pictures. Ooh, how naughty of me!
He even quoted me in conversations -- on topics ranging from recycling batteries to rainforest preservation -- that never took place, built off of scenarios that never happened. Even the water I was drinking during the interview wasn't "glamorous" enough for him. He had me sucking back a Starbucks coffee after a whirlwind tour around the country. Note to future interviewers: I've never drunk coffee in my life.
There were so many places in the article that were fabricated, it made my head spin. Out of the 18 paragraphs, I found inconsistencies, mistakes, misrepresentations, or complete trumped-up stories in eight. I probably should have seen it coming. Halfway into our conversation, I called him out for not taking any notes or recording the interview. He smugly responded that he had "a good memory."
It wasn't until the article came out that I figured he might as well have the memory of a fish, since much of it was made up anyway. It prompted me to write to the editors at NZZ. I'm all for a little literary flair -- when it is based on true events. But self-advertising theater based on occasions that never took place? I don't care if it is for the sake of making green more glamorous. It's outright unethical.
Let me say for the record that I was doubly shocked by the Editor-in-Chief's rather patronizing letter back to me (available for all to read on my News Blog). Even though he said he had "admonished" the writer, he dismissed his series of fallacious storytelling as "mistakes."
Mistakes?! Oh, I'm sorry. Last time I checked the canons of journalism, "bullshit" wasn't one of the principles. May I present to you my bitch-slap-happy response to the editor:
Letter to Editor-in-Chief of NZZ dated June 21, 2007
I appreciate your timely response to my letter regarding Mr. Zuercher's article, "Summer in the City." I do stand by my word in my original letter to you. I also agree with you on one point: you should not publish made up articles.
Would you agree with me that journalism is about getting the facts right -- or at least minimizing error? Is it not appropriate for journalists to fact check an article (something Mr. Zuercher could have easily done)? My question to you is: At what levels do a series of "mistakes" rise to false reporting? And when does a newspaper transcend into tabloid? Is there a formula for that?
Unfortunately for this article, fact-checking would have not addressed the completely fabricated scenarios that Mr. Zuercher has crafted around my career. I find it quite curious that just about every error I find in this article is one that seemingly provides more self-advertising, literary flair. Saying half the article is made up may be an exaggeration on my part. However, the article is only 18 paragraphs long and I have found inconsistencies, misrepresentations, or complete fabrications in at least eight of those paragraphs. I didn't even bother including some of the small ones in the last letter, but your letter to me prompted me to point out all of them on the following page.
Thanks for taking initiative in regard to the note-taking, but how can you assure me that they were not crafted after the interview? I would also like to think that Mr. Zuercher was taking notes during our interview, but he was not. This is something I not only brought up to him, to which he responded that he has "a good memory," but something I brought up to my management following the interview.
Thanks again for addressing this concern and making a stand for more ethical journalism. (And yes, I do apologize for the misspelling in your name.)
Thanks kindly,
Summer Rayne Oakes
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Comments
View as Flat
Biodiversivist Posted 10:06 am
26 Jun 2007
I've told this story before, but I was once intercepted by a reporter outside Boeing headquarters and asked a few questions.
The next morning I started getting calls from people I knew saying I was on the front page of the Seattle Times. Very little in the article actually came from my mouth, including the following Ted Bundy joke (Boeing was having some wiring issues with its thrust reversers at the time and Ted Bundy had just been executed):
"Well, Ted, I've got some good news and some bad news. What do you want first?"
"The bad news."
"You are going to the electric chair tomorrow."
"What's the good news?"
"Boeing did the wiring."
A company wide memo was issued warning employees not to talk to reporters. Nobody said a word to me personally, other than to blow me shit and slap me on the back.
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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caniscandida Posted 8:52 pm
26 Jun 2007
As for what happened to you, BioD, that would seem to be an example of the journalistic practice of creating an image of a complex situation, by using bits and pieces of the words of various sources. The reporter is not centrally interested in conveying the thoughts and feelings of you, the individual source. He or she wants to get across the situation in its complexity, and builds up the image by using words of yours which you may not have felt were very important, or even by quoting you out of context. It is nevertheless crucial for the reporter to be able to point to you as a real, verifiable source.
I would say that journalism does us a service with that kind of reporting, so long as the reporter does not get overly creative. And so, I continue to read newspapers, and do not quite understand the mistrust of them that so many Americans feel. If you, BioD, choose not to read newspapers, well, you are not alone.
Presumably your reason for not reading newspapers is not the same as George W. Bush's reason for not reading newspapers. : )
Summer Rayne, what I would find most annoying about this article (which I skimmed, my Langenscheidt in hand), if I were you, is the voyeuristic interest in your image as a tool which you very self-consciously wield. Such a sentence as, "Noergler (faultfinders, carpers) say that she is the 'green Paris Hilton,' but that does not bother her a bit," a sentence which apparently was used as a bold-face out-of-text eye-grabber, does not compliment you at all. On top of the rest of the portrait, it suggests that you are both manipulative in a vampish way, and light-weight.
I like the bit about your putting up your feet, dirty sneakers and all, onto the "gold-framed" table in the lawyers' office that you are currently using, and your commenting that it is probably tropical wood, and that the lawyers should be punished for having such furniture. But did that actually happen?
Also, I like the closing image of your walking your very large insects from Madagascar in the lawn at Bryant Park. But again, did that happen?
How about your parentage? Your mother is a ballerina, your father is a truckdriver, some ancestors were of the Cheyenne tribe, you all lived in rural PA, and your mother, who loves Walt Whitman's nature poetry, gave you your name in memory of the rainy summer day on which you were born: Is that at least true?
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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Summer Rayne Oakes Posted 5:54 am
28 Jun 2007
As for your other comments, my mgmt office is actually housed in a lawfirm. The table is actually marble, but I did casually put my feet up on the table and made a passing comment on the furniture choices. He made a comment on my dirty running sneakers attached to my bag, which I usually carry around with me so that I can go running later.
And yes, I often take my exotic arthropods/insects for a "walk in the park."
My mother was a ballerina for close to 20 years (she is now a paralegal). My father is a truck driver. He mispoke on the tribe (Cherokee); I am from rural Pennsylvania. I like Walt Whitman, I'm not sure if my mother knows who he is. The story behind my name is definitely a little of a long one, but semi-accurate.
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caniscandida Posted 2:00 am
29 Jun 2007
Different, but in a way similarly dismissive of you, was the comparison of you to Knut, the little polar bear cub in Berlin, the "Umweltsmaskot," who was indeed adorable before he grew up, but he has never really had all that much to say. (He has not yet eaten the zoo-keeper who was sleeping with him, has he?)
One cannot help wondering how you walk your arthropods in Bryant Park. Are they on leashes? Nice names, Hercules and Achilles. Though those belong to different Greek mythological traditions (it is rather anomalous that Odysseus sees both of them in the Land of the Dead, Odyssey Book 11, but they got there in different ways, and anyway Heracles/Hercules is not really there), their names are a good bit more vivid than those of the stone lions on the other side of the New York Public Library. Not especially memorable: Patience and Intransigence? Mystery and Obfuscation? Sleep and Death?
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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Summer Rayne Oakes Posted 11:13 am
02 Jul 2007
Actually, their names are Hercules and
Antilla the Hun.
Antilla is unfortunately stuck in my flower pot at home and he won't come out, so I haven't walked him in months.
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RemyC Posted 12:29 pm
24 Jul 2007
RemyC.
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GreenNuclearButterfly Posted 12:57 pm
24 Jul 2007
Thou doth protest too much...be honest here, you love the glam life, and having people with money, power and fame fawn all over you. Speaking of honesty, don't you feel you owe your fans some honesty and integrity when it comes to the nuclear issue here in America?
For instance, where do you stand on the issue of Indian Point, which is leaking strontium 90 and tritium into the Hudson River, and Entergy's attempt to relicense it for another 20 years? Much like the TEPCO owned site in Japan, this aging twin set of nuclear relics sits on and earthquake fault.
You know this information, as I have emailed it too you. So, where do you stand on this issue, and with all the time you spend in the New York area, how come you, self proclaimed queen of the Green Super Models have not taken a stand on the it, worked to get citizens involved? Too busy eating green tofu and slurping back sparkling water?
Could it be, that you have not taken a position on the issue because of your ties to the http://www.etsenergy.com/shop/ which is associated with an engineering firm that has done extensive work for Indian Point? Do your supposed GREEN BUSINESS ETHICS only count if they do not interfere with potential profits and/or opportunities?
Just a thought...maybe the writer of that article sexed it up a bit to hide what he found to be a basically boring personage in you?
Royce Penstinger
Green Nuclear Butterfly
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Summer Rayne Oakes Posted 3:35 am
29 Jul 2007
The way you interrogate and insinuate is rather foul. You create chasms as opposed to building bridges. You really know nothing of my work and assume what you want to push your own agenda.
Fyi Remy, the event that I held at PGH was not for Riverkeeper. I'm not sure where you got that info. It was to benefit PowerShift, which is the first national youth climate conference run entirely by young people. There will be a series of recruitment and training conferences to help more young people engage in their schools, universities, and government - and continue to push stringent carbon policies ...something that us young people are doing the best we can - and doing it together.
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RemyC Posted 10:05 am
01 Aug 2007
RemyC.
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