Letter by Mayor Vaugh Spencer:
….The subject of today’s email is biased reporting by our only local paper, the Reading Eagle. For the past 14 months since I took office, the Reading Eagle has engaged in a coordinated campaign of yellow journalism driven by a glaring conflict of interest.
Few in our community are aware of the fact that Councilwoman Donna Reed’s husband, Reading Eagle Assistant News Editor Tom Knause, is the direct supervisor for city hall reporter Don Spatz. As Spatz’s supervisor, Knause would have direct control over all major aspects of Spatz’s employment. This would normally include discipline, hours of work, salary, paid leave and more.
It should come as no surprise then, that when Reed goes on the attack, Spatz goes on the attack. Rumor and innuendo masquerade as fact, bold headlines are generated, newspaper circulation and sales increase, and Reed’s political agenda and reelection campaign are bolstered. And to top things off, Knause is also coordinates the Reading Eagle’s coverage of elections.
The Society of Professional Journalists is the watchdog organization whose aim is to promote and maintain professional standards of conduct for journalists across America. For this purpose, the SPJ maintains a Code of Ethics. The SPJ Ethics Code is recognized around the world as the premier code in journalism and is translated into 15 languages and has been adopted by hundreds of newsrooms. Don Spatz is not a member of SPJ and I question whether the Reading Eagle recognizes the professional standards established in the Code.
We contacted Kevin Smith, Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Society for Professional Journalism. We presented Mr. Smith with the exact context of the relationship among Spatz, Councilwoman Reed and Reed’s husband. The question posed to Mr. Smith was whether or not the SPJ Code would require full disclosure by Spatz and the Reading Eagle.
Here is Mr. Smith’s reply:
“Ideally the paper should publically acknowledge this potential conflict with every story it prints about city council … a simple sentence or editor’s note at the beginning or end of the story that says city councilwoman Donna Reed is married to Reading Eagle’s editor Tom Knause.
“The reason I say this is because one cannot assume that announcing it one time or periodically will be caught or read by many readers … [s]uggesting that this can be announced and forgotten by the paper is short sighted on its part. Every time that the conflict potentially exists it should be acknowledged.”
Spatz has been publicly challenged regarding this conflict of interest but he has never reported on those public challenges nor has he or the Eagle ever publicly disclosed this breach of public trust.
Councilwoman Reed and the Reading Eagle are equally obligated to not only disclose but to rectify this situation. The City of Reading Code of Ethics prohibits conflicts of interest, defined as follows at Section 3. G.:
”Situation(s) or potential situation(s) in which a public official or employee uses or may use his/her office or employment for the private gain of himself/herself, a member of his/her immediate family or a business of any type with which he/she or a member of his/her immediate family has a material interest.”
It’s time for top management at the Reading Eagle to sit down with their legal counsel, Councilwoman Reed, Knause, and Spatz to sort out exactly how they will resolve this clear conflict of interest. One thing is certain, the resolution must start with public acknowledgement that they have deceived their readers.
Please help make the community aware of this situation by forwarding this message to your network.
