AFS Cinema
Article Biased; Reporter Lacks Professionalism
RECEIVED Mon., Aug. 11, 2008
Dear Editor,
I am writing in regard to a reporter named Patricia J. Ruland and her article "Does Austin Need Fixing? Ask Reno." [News] which appeared in your August 8 edition. Ruland took potshots at a nonprofit, the No Kill Advocacy Center, and me especially, its director. In her story about a report released by FixAustin relating to Austin's poor performance in its animal sheltering system, Ruland allowed local officials to take what she herself calls in the story “a swipe at Winograd.” Not once did she call me for my perspective or allow me an opportunity to respond. Throughout the article is an undercurrent of anger and attacks against me that betray an agenda, a lack of professionalism, and a bias and lack of balance - all the core values of the American press.
I called Bonney Brown, the director of the Nevada Humane Society, who described her interview with Ruland as “hostile” and “unprofessional” from the moment Ruland called. “She clearly had an agenda, and she was very hostile,” she said. She also said she was misquoted in terms of my involvement with the success in Reno.
I spoke to Ryan Clinton, the director of FixAustin, and he said Ruland interviewed him but that she “didn't include any of it,” and she appeared to be “looking for ways” to attack me or detract from the work that I have done.
As for me, I did not even get the courtesy, professionalism, or opportunity to offer my perspective, because she did not call me or the No Kill Advocacy Center for a comment. It seems that another perspective did not fit in with her tabloid agenda, and so she simply chose to forgo it. Using The Austin Chronicle to attack me, to allow others to take “a swipe” at me, without giving me the opportunity to respond is tabloid journalism at its worst.
I ask for you to investigate this matter. But more than that, I ask to be given the opportunity to respond in a guest editorial to clear my good name and the name of the national nonprofit I am the director of – an organization, I might add, which does not have the nefarious intent that Ruland appears to ascribe to it.
I am writing in regard to a reporter named Patricia J. Ruland and her article "Does Austin Need Fixing? Ask Reno." [News] which appeared in your August 8 edition. Ruland took potshots at a nonprofit, the No Kill Advocacy Center, and me especially, its director. In her story about a report released by FixAustin relating to Austin's poor performance in its animal sheltering system, Ruland allowed local officials to take what she herself calls in the story “a swipe at Winograd.” Not once did she call me for my perspective or allow me an opportunity to respond. Throughout the article is an undercurrent of anger and attacks against me that betray an agenda, a lack of professionalism, and a bias and lack of balance - all the core values of the American press.
I called Bonney Brown, the director of the Nevada Humane Society, who described her interview with Ruland as “hostile” and “unprofessional” from the moment Ruland called. “She clearly had an agenda, and she was very hostile,” she said. She also said she was misquoted in terms of my involvement with the success in Reno.
I spoke to Ryan Clinton, the director of FixAustin, and he said Ruland interviewed him but that she “didn't include any of it,” and she appeared to be “looking for ways” to attack me or detract from the work that I have done.
As for me, I did not even get the courtesy, professionalism, or opportunity to offer my perspective, because she did not call me or the No Kill Advocacy Center for a comment. It seems that another perspective did not fit in with her tabloid agenda, and so she simply chose to forgo it. Using The Austin Chronicle to attack me, to allow others to take “a swipe” at me, without giving me the opportunity to respond is tabloid journalism at its worst.
I ask for you to investigate this matter. But more than that, I ask to be given the opportunity to respond in a guest editorial to clear my good name and the name of the national nonprofit I am the director of – an organization, I might add, which does not have the nefarious intent that Ruland appears to ascribe to it.
Nathan J. Winograd
[News Editor Michael King responds: While it's curious that Nathan Winograd would report others' supposedly negative responses to a Chronicle article early on Thursday morning – before the issue had even hit the streets – it's even more curious that neither Bonney Brown nor Ryan Clinton expressed any discomfort with Patricia Ruland's reporting in several communications, as the story was being prepared, nor afterward. If Brown believes she was misquoted in some unspecified way, and wishes to notify us directly, we would be glad to consider her complaint. However, Winograd's well-publicized perspective on Austin animal welfare efforts, and their practitioners, is amply represented in the story. We stand by our reporting.]