Categories: OLD Media Moves

Fishing industry organization slams USA Today coverage

The National Fisheries Institute said Monday that recent coverage of the industry in USA Today included distortions and factual errors.

The complaints stem from an Oct. 29 article in the paper.

In a release, the industry organization stated, “The National Fisheries Institute identified a dozen specific factual errors and other breaches in journalism standards and brought those problems to the attention of supervising Gannett News Service editors. Despite this substantiated information, both USA TODAY and Gannett News Service have refused to provide correction or even explanation of their erroneous reporting.

“Those specifics are provided below and we are accordingly advising reporters, consumers and the American public to regard USA TODAYâ€™s reporting with caution and skepticism.

“‘When public health issues of this magnitude are being reported, journalism standards ought to be at their highest,’ said John Connelly, president of NFI. ‘Instead, Gannett News Service apparently violated their own policies on accuracy, sourcing and objectivity and it highly irresponsible that they refuse to set the record straight.'”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.