After reading the apology from editor in chief Matt Zapotosky in Monday's edition, I must say I'm absolutely appalled at the lack of judgment used by The Post in its libelous attempts to smear Mr. Gunasekera.
I think of all the issues raised in Mr. Zapotosky's apology, the one that troubles me most is this:
It was frustrating to hear from him (Gunasekera) only after we published the story (had he responded to our initial request for comment
we never would've printed the information about his book and Mehta's thesis) but he was right nonetheless.
Since when is the interviewee burdened with having to prove his innocence to the media? I don't know Gunasekera personally, but I imagine he probably did not feel as though he had to fan the flames of rumor and speculation by responding to The Post's request for an interview. Sometimes those in the media mistake those who reserve comment on a particular situation as admitting guilt or hiding the truth. The Post apparently made this very serious mistake.The damage done to this man's reputation over this story speaks for itself. I will say that I do think Mr. Zapotosky approached this situation admirably in that he placed the apology on the front page, above the fold of Monday's edition, and did not bury it in a small gray box on Page 3 where The Post's mistakes usually reside.
I also believe this incident should result in The Post having greater (or any) oversight by members of this university. Whether that comes from The Post's publishing board chair Patrick Washburn or another member of campus matters not. Members of this great university should not suffer because writers and editors aged 18-22 try so desperately to break that big story that they simply choose to ignore the simple rules of journalism in which this university prides itself. Interestingly enough, I noticed that the publishing board also named Rick Rouan as Zapotosky's successor Friday. An interesting point in that story stuck out to me:
A junior online journalism major Rouan said he plans to continue with the newspaper's mission to keep Ohio University and the city of Athens accountable.
'I don't foresee any changes
' he said. 'I want to do things like we've been doing them all year.'
I sincerely hope that Rouan understands that this type of journalism isn't acceptable in Athens or anywhere else. Holding people accountable and leaping to conclusions in an effort to sensationalize something that isn't even fact are two dramatically different things.
One final note to Mr. Zapotosky: I sincerely hope that you, personally, have learned a valuable lesson by this, because if this happens at The Washington Post, you're going to have a much larger problem on your hands than one man's soiled reputation and a few angry readers.
Jason Corriher is Ohio's Director of Athletic Media Relations.
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