What are reporters supposed to do when key actors on one side of a controversy in a major religious group keep refusing to respond to calls and other contacts seeking their input and information?
I ask this because of the challenges that reporter Liam Adams is facing as (welcome to the religion-news beat) he tries to cover the legal questions and accusations swirling around the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention — America’s largest non-Catholic flock.
I can imagine a scenario in which some readers read this recent Nashville Tennessean story — “Resignations follow Baptist vote on privilege” (text is behind a high paywall) — and asked themselves: Hey, where are the quotes from people on the more conservative (if that’s the right word in battles over sexual abuse) side of this story? And why are there so many quotes from someone like Ed Stetzer, a hero of the current SBC leadership?
This story is so complex that it’s hard to pull out individual chunks of material, but lets try this long passage::
After two failed attempts at meetings on Sept. 21 and 28, the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee met for a third time Oct. 5 and voted to waive privilege. The committee acts on behalf of the convention when it is not in session.
In response, at least 10 executive committee members resigned either just before vote or shortly after — including some who are supporters of the Conservative Baptist Network. …
Conservative Baptist Network’s supporters on the executive committee all voted against allowing third-party investigators access to privileged files.
“It’s hard to see the correlation between the CBN and the objection to the waiver of privilege,” said Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. 'But there is clearly a correlation.'
In a news release last week, the Conservative Baptist Network said the group desired '“ruth and integrity.”
“Many conservatives were hesitant to speak up for fear of being labeled and due to the confusion surrounding the situation,” Lewis Richerson, a CBN steering council member who is not on the SBC executive committee, said in a news release. … “We desire truth and integrity and believe both of those could be accomplished without waiving attorney-client privilege.”
One of the first things you note is that a key voice on one side is quoted from an interview and then the more conservative activist is quoted from a press release. This is often a sign that (1) the journalists involved in producing the report favor the views of the people that they deign to interview, (2) the people demoted to press-release status do not trust (for reasons valid or invalid) this particular source and reject interview requests or (3) both.
I want to focus on that second point. I think it would have helped readers if Adams or his editors had — very early in this report — made a clear statement of how many times they requested interviews with the CBN leaders and, perhaps, even offered proof of that.
Proof? Let me give you an example from an earlier age, in terms of technology.
Long ago, I was involved in covering — for The Charlotte News and then the Charlotte Observer — the financial affairs (and related topics) of the Rev. Jim Bakker and his then wife Tammy Faye. Members of this editorial team made request after request asking Bakker or members of his staff to respond to specific questions, after based on hard facts drawn from documents.
We knew Bakker would refuse. We also knew he would go on his TV network and say that horrible journalists were printing inaccurate rumors without giving him any chance to offer his views on these topics. Thus, we sent him registered mail containing the interview requests, requiring someone at Bakker’s office — with a signature — to sign that they were accepting or rejecting the receipt of this letter. This made it possible to tell, or even show, readers how many times Bakker had refused to be interviewed.
What kind of strategy could the Tennessean, and other news organizations, start using to document their attempts to talk to people on both sides of this heated dispute? How can journalists prevent the following:
The Conservative Baptist Network has not spoken against the investigation into the executive committee, but its news release was not supportive of the outcome the executive committee’s vote.
'This is grossly foolish and unjust: it is the ‘be warm and be filled’ motion. It is certainly not ‘caring well,’' Rod Martin, SBC executive committee member and CBN steering council member, said in the news release. Martin did not respond to a request for comment as of Friday.
Also this:
The two self-proclaimed CBN supporters who resigned from the executive committee, Tennessee pastors Ron Hale and Chuck Williams, declined to comment.
The other executive committee members who resigned are Melissa Golden of Alabama, Paul “Gene” McPherson of Arkansas, Stephen Swofford of Texas, and Paul Hicks of Alabama. They all declined to comment or did not respond to a request for comment.
You get the idea. It’s solid professionalism to make references to people declining interview requests or refusing to even respond to them.
In these days, people rarely use hang up when receiving telephone calls. They may simply trash emails, decline Zoom invitations or other forms of social-media communication. At some point, newsroom managers will have to spend a few bucks and allow their reporters to — in the words of one of my former editors — “present the face,” as in showing up in person to sit in office lobbies and wait for a chance to talk to people (or to be rejected by those people).
I would also advise the “conservatives” to start doing interviews, with their own recording devices running the whole time. If they wish, they can then post transcripts online showing what they said and the context, in terms of the way questions were worded.
But back to handling this “declined to talk” issue in the texts of news report. Once again, what is the best strategy for documenting these requests in our digital age?
Whatever it is, I believe that it is wise for journalists to mention — high in a news story — why leaders on one side are featured in interviews, while the others are speaking through press releases, alone. It helps, in terms of credibility with readers, to be able to show proof that multiple interview requests were declined.
Just saying.
FIRST IMAGE: With apologies to the late, great actress and entertainer Ann B. Davis, who was a friend of mine during my years in Colorado.
MAIN IMAGE: Publicity photo of the Nashville offices of the Southern Baptist Convention and its executive committee.