STANDING UP FOR COHEN

As a former editor and supervisor of Ted Cohen, I must protest the punishment meted out to him for refusing to brave a severe snowstorm to report on a spate of accidents along the Maine Turnpike (“The Press Herald’s Bush OUI reporter is suspended,” February 8, 2001). It was unfair and outrageous to send the hard-working and loyal veteran reporter home without pay for five days because he deemed road conditions to be too dangerous.

At best, the excessive discipline is an innocent mistake that can be blamed on a well-intentioned management team in transition. At worst, the paper is making him the scapegoat for speaking out in the national media last year about the newspaper’s botching of the Bush OUI story. By suspending Cohen, the newspaper continues to heap national embarrassment upon itself for a mistake that was not Cohen’s alone. The ultimate failure to break the Bush story does not rest with him or his immediate supervisor; rather, it is a systemic problem that the paper should try to address in more productive ways.

I am rising to Cohen’s defense as a matter of conscience; the Press Herald’s treatment of him is wrong, plain and simple. His bosses should give him a written apology, remove the suspension notice from his record and pay him for the week he was ordered to stay home.

Now, more than ever, it is crucial for leaders of the Press Herald to foster a work environment that inspires good journalism, and restores trust and understanding among its talented ranks of reporters, photographers, and editors; it is not a time to resort to intimidation, or rule by provoking fear and resentment. In the long run, the degree of magnanimity and wisdom they show in redressing their wrongs against Cohen will influence how well the entire staff recovers from its deep wounds. Sticking with a wrong, bull-headed decision not only will harm Cohen, but diminish the Press Herald for all.

Alan Mittelstaedt
Los Angeles

Mittelstaedt joined the Press Herald in 1995 as regional editor and later was city editor before leaving the paper in 1999 to become news editor at the LA Weekly.

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