By Father Bill Pomerleau
Catholic Observer
October 22, 2004

http://www.iobserve.org/rn1022a.html

SPRINGFIELD – Warren Mason, an East Longmeadow activist who has been cited as a source by several local and national news media outlets in their coverage of the clergy misconduct scandal, posed as a reporter earlier this month to obtain information from two North Carolina dioceses.

And he told a spokesman for one of the dioceses that he is collaborating on a book with reporter Bill Zajac of The Republican newspaper.

Mason contacted the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., on Sept. 9 with several questions about Father Andre Corbin, an inactive priest of the Diocese of Charlotte, N.C., now living in Palmer.

“He indicated he was a freelance reporter working on a book about the Springfield Diocese’s handling of the abuse crisis. He told me he was working with Bill Zajac,” said Frank Morock, spokesman for the Raleigh Diocese.

Morock told The Catholic Observer that he assumed Mason was who he said he was, as he recalled an earlier call from Zajac about a lawsuit filed against Father Corbin in December.

“I assumed this was a follow-up to our earlier interview,” Morock explained.

Mason then telephoned David Hains, spokesperson for the Charlotte Diocese, on Sept. 13, and e-mailed Hains the same series of questions about Father Corbin.

“He represented himself as a freelance reporter working with the Springfield Republican (working) with Bill Zajac. He said they were going to win a Pulitzer Prize,” Hains told the Observer.

At first, Hains prepared answers to Mason’s questions. But the Charlotte spokesperson, a former reporter himself, grew suspicious, and decided to investigate Mason’s background.

He called his counterpart in the Springfield Diocese, Mark E. Dupont, who told him that Mason is not a reporter. Dupont suggested that Hains call Republican Managing Editor Marie P. Grady to inform her that a news source was posing as the paper’s employee. Grady later told both Hains and Dupont that Mason has no relationship with the newspaper, both spokesmen stated to the Observer last week.

Zajac told the Observer this week that Mason “has only been a source” for his reporting, and he was upset that Mason had misrepresented himself as a reporter.
He confirmed that Mason, a businessman involved in marketing, had worked on a book proposal with him over the summer.

Zajac said the origin of his Oct.11 story on a lawsuit filed by Joseph Dougherty against the diocese and Father Corbin can be traced to Sept. 1, when Dougherty called him.

Zajac said he interviewed the former Springfield personnel director a few days later. He said that he had mentioned the interview to Mason, which may have given him the idea to call North Carolina.

But he insisted that his reporting was based on interviews he personally conducted prior to and after his Sept. 13-17 vacation. Zajac called Dupont Sept. 20 seeking diocesan comment on the Dougherty case.

In an interview with the Observer, Mason at first said, “I haven’t been involved” with Zajac or The Republican’s coverage of Dougherty.

But when confronted with written evidence that he had called the North Carolina dioceses, he said, “I simply wanted to find out how this guy (Father Corbin) can be in Palmer, and nobody knew about it.”

The East Longmeadow businessman confirmed that, aside from two op-ed opinion pieces in the Providence Journal and Boston Herald, he has not written about the sexual abuse crisis for any news outlet.

“His deception is clearly unethical, and a violation of his obligation to present himself as who he is,” said Bob Steele, the Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values at the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Poynter Institute.

Steele told the Observer that he could not comment on Zajac’s professional conduct unless he knew for certain that he had been collaborating with Mason. But he said reporters in general should always maintain a professional distance from the subjects they cover.

“The principle of independence is important for journalists. You shouldn’t be in a position where you create relationships with family members, employers, or subjects that have competing interests with yours,” he said.

Steele said that most news organizations are well-advised to establish firm guidelines about how and when active reporters can develop books about topics they are actively covering.

He said that while some news organizations allow reporters to work on such books, others do not. He added that most journalists typically take a leave of absence from their reporting job while they are writing a book.

“There can be conflict. For example, suppose I get an interesting piece of information. Can I withhold it from the paper to put in my book?” he asked.

Zajac said that Grady raised a similar concern when he discussed his writing a magazine article about the diocese. “Our paper has a policy to prevent us from withholding information for a publication that could be our competitor,” he said.

Zajac, a union representative at The Republican, added that Grady raised no objections when he mentioned the book project to her. He said that The Republican has no specific policy on book writing by its reporters.

He added that in view of recent developments, “the book idea is now dead.”

An e-mail record of correspondence between Mason and the North Carolina diocese shows that the East Longmeadow businessman was sending copies of his messages, and the responses to them, to both Zajac’s work and home e-mail addresses.

Raipher Pellegrino, Dougherty’s attorney, said he was not the instigator of the recent Republican story. “I don’t dodge reporters, but I’m not one to call them. I even debated taking your call,” he told the Observer Oct. 15.

Pellegrino added that he has not been collaborating with Mason.

He said that some weeks ago, Dougherty told him that he wanted to talk to the media. He told his client to talk to a reporter if he wanted to.