When the harsh light hits the media

posted March 31, 2006

To say that the recent firing of Chris Graff, the long-time bureau chief of the Associated Press in Vermont, came as a shock is an understatement.

The jaws of fellow journalists and the politicians he befriended, and at times upset, in his nearly 30-year career collectively hit the floor at once. Neither Graff nor the AP will say much about the abrupt dismissal, even after the unusual step taken by Gov. Jim Douglas and Vermont’s entire congressional delegation. The quartet issued a letter on March 24 urging AP’s top dog, Tom Curley, to come clean on why Graff was dismissed.

Speculation, fueled by various media reports, centers around the politics of several recent news items that were distributed through the AP’s network. One has to do with Graff’s own reporting on Judge Ed Cashman’s sentence handed down to a convicted child molester, and how some of his words were taken out of context and used by Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and others to defame the judge.

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