Editor Resigns Over Restaurant Review

[ronnie_suburban]

YOWZA!!!!

As a side note, pages B1-B12 (where this review should appear and where the restaurant reviews always do appear) are suspiciously absent from my copy of the September 4 Deerfield Review. I'll try to pick up another copy tomorrow...weird coincidence IMO. Maybe Ms. Gerst still has a few friends on the premesis...or a last minute decision was made at the PP.

Thanks for that juicy link Guajolote.

=R=

Edited September 5, 2003 by ronnie_suburban (log)

[fresco]

Interesting piece. One question it raises (in my mind, at any rate) and doesn't answer is whether the decision to review the restaurant was precipitated by the restaurant's cancellation of its advertising contract--ie, that someone in authority at the paper thought it was a good way to open negotiations for a renewal.

Once the review ran, the whole thing seems to be rather hamfisted. It does seem surprising, in retrospect, that the paper was willing to sacrifice a valued 27-year employee over a $30,000 contract that they seemed to have little prospect, in any case, of reviving.

[ronnie_suburban]

One more additional follow up....

I went to the news stand today and every copy of the Deerfield Review had the same pages missing. In all instances, they were replaced with a multi-page feature with non-corresponding page numbers. No restaurant or food features appeared at all.

Was this an intentional error by the folks who print the paper (silent support for Ms. Gerst)? Was a last minute decision made not to run the piece? Very interesting. One thing seems clear...the piece is not present in the paper and its absence seems intentional. Perhaps it's just a major coincidence...but I tend to doubt that.

=R=

[Sweet Willie]

The paper (or group of them) for which she writes is perceived to be only slightly above an ad paper in quality...yes there is some news within, but it's the soft stuff for the most part.

The best most interesting part of the various suburban papers like the Deerfield review have always been the crime reports.

"oh my, so and so did THAT?!!??"

"Mr. XYZ got a DUI!??" whoa!

[ronnie_suburban]

The paper (or group of them) for which she writes is perceived to be only slightly above an ad paper in quality...yes there is some news within, but it's the soft stuff for the most part.

The best most interesting part of the various suburban papers like the Deerfield review have always been the crime reports.

"oh my, so and so did THAT?!!??"

"Mr. XYZ got a DUI!??" whoa!

LOL! Yep, Police Beat is the thing!

=R=

[russ parsons]

one of my all-time favorite stories was when i was picking up some cops coverage for the lubbock avalanche journal (i was mainly a sportswriter, also their popular music critic). we ran a daily/weekly? police blotter item and there was a kind of informal competition for who could come up with the weirdest stuff. mine was when a woman working the drive-up window at a burger joint (food reference!), found that the next person in line was the woman who was cheating on her with her husband. they scratched for a bit, then the gal in the car grabbed the woman in the store by the hair and pulled her through the window! god i miss texas.

[ronnie_suburban]

Okay folks, time for my weekly update on this story.

Today's issue of The Deerfield Review does not contain the 2nd review of Flatlanders, which to my knowledge, never actually ran.

Ms. Gerst does appear to have 'left the building.'

The restaurant piece that does appear in this week's issue is a total 'blur job' between journalism and advertising. I wish I could upload a pic of it, but alas...

The entire piece, without even a byline, appears in a bordered box that connotes (and usually denotes) advertisment. The article is a completely positive (albeit semi-informative) stroke piece which gushes over the restaurant. At the bottom of the page appears the restaurant's addy and phone information in the exact same type face which the restaurant uses in on its own signs, menus and promotional materials. Do I even need to tell you that it is also in bold type and of a significantly larger point size than the rest of the article? It looks and sounds exactly like an ad.

I'm so impressed by Ms. Gerst...after 2 decades of dismissing her because of what she wrote, I've gained a completely new respect for her via her actions.

=R=

[Sweet Willie]

The restaurant piece that does appear in this week's issue is a total 'blur job' between journalism and advertising.  I wish I could upload a pic of it, but alas...

keep it for next time the Chicago Group meets. I'd like to see it.

[Fat Guy]

I'd really like to get in touch with Ms. Gerst. At the very least we could give her a platform for a detailed statement of her views, not to mention a standing ovation.

[ronnie_suburban]

np Willie, I can even mail you a copy if you like. It really was shameless and very depressing to see it.

=R=

[tanabutler]

Can someone e-mail a link of this discussion to the people who did the stroke job?

Ronnie, can you scan and e-mail the picture of the "review" (as in "Hm-m-m-m, let's review this advertisement and see if it's flattering enough").

[fresh_a]

Ronnie, why did you dismiss her over what she wrote?

[ronnie_suburban]

Ronnie, why did you dismiss her over what she wrote?

Nothing more than good old-fashioned differences of opinion. Over the years I found that I rarely agreed with her. She used to also review movies and I almost never agreed with her on that front either.

=R=

[ronnie_suburban]

Ronnie, can you scan and e-mail the picture of the "review" (as in "Hm-m-m-m, let's review this advertisement and see if it's flattering enough").

I think I can do this...but not until tonight. It's at my house and I am at work.

=R=

[Liz Johnson]

This made Romensko's round-up today.

Editor wins ethics awards.

[Daniel Rogov]

Many years ago, Dr. Johnson proposed that "most journalists have the ethics of monkeys". As his statement was correct then, it remains correct today. Thankfully, there are those jounalists and newspapers (and I am aware that we are talking here about the culinary and oenological side of life) with integrity.

Simply stated, there are newspapers and there are whores. Whores of any kind have to make a living so they are more to be pitied than censured but whatever our attitude, if we are discriminating readers, they are not to be read or otherwise supported.

From a very personal point of view, I am no saint because the fate of saints is not often very pleasant. I have no desire whatever to have my body pierced with arrows, to be burned at the stake or to suffer the tortures of an inquisition. On the other hand, the critic has only one thing to offer to his readers and that is his/her integrity. The moment you sell that you have nothing left of value. For that reason, I have never and will never write a word for any newspaper where advertising and editorial policy are not permanently and fully separated. But then again, I suppose that is one of the reasons some people consider me more of a curmudgeon than I actually am.

Best,

Rogov

Edited May 7, 2004 by Daniel Rogov (log)

[skchai]

Very interesting point, Mr. Rogov. One that's worth an entire thread. But is isn't the pressure for newspapers to "whore" themselves to advertisers in part a function of size? Large-circulation papers like Ha`aretz would not lose much financially if a single restaurant withdrew its advertising because of a negative review. A smaller, suburban or rural paper like Ms. Gerst's needs every advertising account it can get - this comes from ancient personal experience working for a small local paper in Hawai`i. Hence the tendency to sell out is that much greater . . . might that be just as important as the difference in the personal ethics of the publishers involved?

[Daniel Rogov]

Chai, Hello...

You raise a valid point. In some cases yielding to economic pressures can indeed be more tempting for smaller publications and that for purely economic reasons. Despite that, succumbing to that temptation is no less whoredom for the small publication than the large. In my eyes, however, that temptation offers no validity for yielding. Decisions as to integrity must be made at the highest editorial levels of any publication.

I suppose I have no problem understanding the decision to allow oneself a fall in ethical grace. On the other hand, that does not mean that I have to look at such publications with any sense at all of respect, for if such is the case with tainted restaurant or wine criticism presented as genuine, so may it well be with the next political candidate or social movement.

Believe me, I'm far from being a Puritan in life. I do, however, believe that nearly all important questions in life deal with morality and ethics. And, as I did say before, I am somewhat of a curmudgeon.

Best,

Rogov

Edited May 8, 2004 by Daniel Rogov (log)

[John Whiting]

Jeffrey Steingarten once told me that a manufacturer whose product he had denigrated in a column had pulled about $70,000 worth of advertising. His publisher ordered that he was not to be told and he only found out months later by accident. Not so much a Chinese Wall as a tectonic plate.

[markovitch]

on the flipside of Steingarten, in my hometown (to be kept anonymous) I observed the food columnist of the weekly paper extorting, no hyperbole, extorting advertising revenue from the owner of a resto i worked at. good ad buy = good review. From what i hear from my cronies, the system is still running the same way 5 years later.

i really think the wall between ad people and writers only exists in the worlds that can afford to build it.

[John Whiting]

...I observed the food columnist of the weekly paper extorting, no hyperbole, extorting advertising revenue from the owner of a resto i worked at.  good ad buy = good review. 

Did he get a free meal as well? And is there a waiting list for his job?

[skchai]

. . .

I suppose I have no problem understanding the decision to allow oneself a fall in ethical grace. On the other hand, that does not mean that I have to look at such publications with any sense at all of respect, for if such is the case with tainted restaurant or wine criticism presented as genuine, so may it well be with the next political candidate or social movement.

. . .

Best,

Rogov

I agree with you completely on this. While the tempatation may be stronger at small newspapers and selling out therefore easier to understand, it is still an ethical failure in any case. An there are people like Virginia Gerst who are willing to give up their jobs rather than succumb to this. . .

Thanks for your thoughtful comments!

[Daniel Rogov]

i really think the wall between ad people and writers only exists in the worlds that can afford to build it.

True. Thus the decision of every publisher and editor as well as of every writer to determine their ethical stand. And the decision of every reader as to which publications are which following.

I am reminded of the old (very old) joke about the man who approaches a woman at a cocktail party and says: "I find you very attractive. Would you spend the night in bed with me for one million dollars"? The woman hesitates for a moment and responds: "Well, for a million dollars, yes".

The man smiles and says, and what if I offered you twenty dollars. She slaps his face and demands "What do you think I am?" He responds:"We have already determined that. Now we are just bickering over price"

Edited May 8, 2004 by Daniel Rogov (log)

[challah-baker]

Wow. The same thing happened to me when I worked on my college paper. I ended up getting fired by the features editor for refusing to write a puff piece on a new restaurant near campus at the behest of the ad dept. I appealed to the publications board and they upheld my being fired! I thought something was wierd when I showed up at the restaurant and the owner, who apparently knew I was coming, asked to look at my notes.

As fate would have it, the next year another editor-in-chief came in and hired me to be managing editor. I got to fire both the features editor and the head of the ad dept.

Ahhhh, sweet revenge, errrr I mean upholding editorial integrity.....

[edsel]

This made Romensko's round-up today.

Editor wins ethics awards.

Has this gotten much press in the Chicago area? When an editor resigns in protest and receives awards for ethical behavior, that can't be welcome publicity for the papers involved....