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Cohen by TKO
BY ALEX IRVINE
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The Portland Press Herald has cut former reporter Ted Cohen a check for $54,000 to settle Cohen’s grievance over his termination from the paper. The agreement ends the dispute, with all parties agreeing not to disparage each other and to get on with their lives. Phoenix readers and media junkies will recall that Cohen, a reporter at the Press Herald since 1975, unearthed the story of George W. Bush’s 1976 DWI arrest in the summer before the 2000 election — only to have it spiked by nervous editors. The story got out right before the election when it was leaked to the local FOX affiliate, and not too long after that it was common knowledge that Maine’s largest newspaper had killed one of the stories of the election season. Cohen’s story has popped up in the Columbia Journalism Review, Editor & Publisher, and elsewhere; more recently, the publisher of an upcoming journalism textbook found the whole saga worth chewing over in the classroom. But at the time, Press Herald management asked Cohen not to speak publicly about their action; when he did, the Press Herald took a beating and Cohen’s work atmosphere turned poisonous. He left the paper in 2004 and filed a successful claim with the Maine labor-relations board, which found that Cohen had left for good reason. At that point, the Portland Newspaper Guild filed a grievance on Cohen’s behalf, which the Press Herald rolled over and settled last week. Documents that appeared on the Phoenix’s doorstep over the holiday weekend (really) include the settlement agreement, a copy of a letter to arbitrator Mark L. Irvings withdrawing Cohen’s grievance, and a letter of reference for Cohen in which Press Herald editor Jeannine Guttman characterizes him as a "prolific news reporter" who "was recognized for his reporting endeavors." This marks quite a change from last April, when Guttman and managing editor Eric Conrad called Cohen as a "disgruntled former employee" who left the paper spouting "so many false and misleading statements that we are not going to respond point by point." Neither Cohen nor his lawyer, John Campbell of Campbell and Associates, would confirm the existence of the agreement. Guttman did not return a call on Tuesday.
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