After decades of digging into the Church of Scientology, reporters and editors at the St. Petersburg Times are accustomed to being denounced by its leaders.
But they find it unsettling that three veteran journalists — a Pulitzer Prize winner, a former “60 Minutes” producer and the former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors — are taking the church's money to examine the paper's conduct.
Although the journalists have promised an independent review, the Times has refused to cooperate, saying their work will be used to fuel the church's ongoing campaign against the Florida paper.
“I ultimately couldn't take this request very seriously because it's a study bought and paid for by the Church of Scientology,” says Executive Editor Neil Brown. “Candidly,” he adds, “I was surprised and disappointed that journalists who I understand to have an extensive background in investigative reporting would think it's appropriate to ask me or our news organization to talk about that reporting while a) it's ongoing, and b) while they're being paid to ask these questions by the very subjects of our reporting.”
Steve Weinberg, the former IRE executive who has taught at the University of Missouri's journalism school for a quarter-century, says he was paid $5,000 to edit the study and “tried to make sure it's a good piece of journalism criticism, just like I've written a gazillion times. . . .For me it's kind of like editing a Columbia Journalism Review piece.”
via Howard Kurtz – Journalists for hire – washingtonpost.com.