Premature Publication; Media Rush Sex Story to Bed

[Guest guest]

The Washington Post

October 8, 1994

Premature Publication; Media Rush Sex Story to Bed

Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer

The lure of sex proved to be simply too great.

In recent weeks, the University of Chicago and Little, Brown publishers sent

news organizations copies of a major academic study and companion book on

Americans' sexual practices -- with an agreement that no one could publish

until Sunday.

But the arrangement melted in the heat of journalistic passion. The Chicago

Tribune ( " Sex Study Shatters Kinky Assumptions " ), Boston Herald ( " U.S. Is

Home of the Prudes " ) and New York Daily News ( " Marrieds Do It More " )

shattered the embargo by rushing into print Thursday. The rest of the media

world, including The Washington Post, caught up yesterday.

" Everyone knows you can break an embargo and get a quick, cheap scoop on

your competition, but ultimately that hurts everyone, " said Larry Arbeiter,

the university's news director. " Everyone who plays by the rules feels

cheated. "

Editors at the offending papers say they were not merely seduced into

premature publication. They say they felt liberated after ABC's " 20/20 " and

the New York Times decided to go with the story earlier.

The arrangement was designed to give reporters time to digest the 700-page

study. But it fell apart after " 20/20 " executive producer Victor Neufeld,

who had been promised a television exclusive, got Little, Brown's permission

to move up his broadcast from next Friday to last night. " We realized that

all of the news would be out there early in the week and it would

significantly deflate the news value of our story, " said " 20/20 " spokeswoman

Lucy Kraus.

Then the Times -- whose science reporter Kolata is coauthor of the book

" Sex in America " -- decided it would not be scooped by " 20/20. " Assistant

National Editor said the paper insisted on publishing

earlier but won approval from the publicists to change the embargo date to

Friday. " We played by the new rules, " she said.

But Esposito, the News's Sunday editor, said he was unsure when his

cross-town rival would publish. " They're deciding to change the rules and

breaking an embargo at the last minute, " he said. " We're a competitive news

organization. We're not going to wait for the Times to come out with this

book. "

" The Chicago Tribune's position was we're not going to let '20/20' tell us

when to publish, " said Ann Marie Lipinski, deputy managing editor. And

Herald Editor Costello said that " as far as we were concerned, the

embargo definitely was broken. All bets were off. "

Angry Little, Brown officials say the papers knew full well that the embargo

had been changed to Friday. " I don't remember when the definition of Friday

became Thursday, " said publicity chief Beth Davey. " Everyone else in the

country understood. "

Hip-Hopping Mad 2

he Source seems to be coming apart at the seams.

More than half the editorial staff of the New York hip-hop magazine walked

out yesterday as a dispute escalated over an article on the publisher's

favorite rap group. The revolt began last week when Co-Editor in Chief

Bernard denounced Publisher Mays for coauthoring a glowing article on

the group Almighty RSO, with which Mays has a seven-year friendship.

Mays said yesterday that Bernard had been suspended indefinitely and that

two of the seven top editors involved in the work stoppage had already been

fired for their role in the insurrection. Mays, who has helped Almighty RSO

obtain record contracts, said he had done nothing improper and has no

financial interest in the group.

In an open letter calling for Mays's resignation, the seven staffers said

Mays " deceived " them by quietly inserting his article, which " read like a

press release, " was " an insult to our readers " and " an insult to every

hip-hop artist who has put in hard and honest work to get a small piece of

recognition in our editorial pages. "

The staffers, several of whom are black, said Mays's actions " smack of

plantation-style management (i.e. white bossman, black worker slaves) " and

were " intolerable " in " a black art form which promotes black empowerment...

.. We fully understand that publicly denouncing our publisher endangers our

jobs and our paychecks. "

A Source spokesman called the allegations a " rehash, " saying: " We will not

allow these open attacks on the Source to affect the publication. " He said

the monthly has " taken on a few temporary employees " and is " looking at

other alternatives. Under no circumstances is this publication in any

trouble. "

Artistic License

The New York Times made a big front-page splash Tuesday by reporting that a

Russian museum will exhibit many long-lost paintings taken from Germany by

Soviet troops at the end of World War II.

Art critic wrote that the St. sburg museum " has announced "

that it is holding a major trove of artwork that had been " a strictly

guarded state secret until after the [soviet] regime fell in 1991. Even

after that, their existence was known to only a very few people until a

brief news item about the exhibition appeared last week in the St.

sburg News. "

Au contraire. The magazine ARTnews reported in March 1991 that the Soviets

were holding the works by Ce'zanne, Monet, Degas, Renoir and others and were

considering displaying them to the public. The award-winning report was

picked up by hundreds of news organizations -- including two articles in the

Times.

" What a joke, " said ARTnews Publisher Milton Esterow, who has sent a letter

of complaint to the Times. " I was amazed that they would print a

three-year-old story on the front page. Where has been? He should

have checked the Times morgue. "

In an editor's note yesterday, the Times said that while there had been new

developments, the paper had " inadvertently overlooked the ARTnews article

and the coverage of it at the time. " Said Assistant Managing Editor Warren

Hoge: " If there's something to be learned from this, it's always pull the

clips. "

Mutually Exclusive?

The Wall Street Journal reports that opposition to the Disney's America

theme park came from " a multitude of intellectuals and Virginia residents. "