I asked two questions yesterday morning about the DMN‘s epic Kern Wildenthal story. Yesterday afternoon, Jim Schutze answered them. Schutze was actually answering a third question: why did it take the paper seven months to publish its story, once it was finished? The answer he came up with: Robert Decherd, chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer of A.H. Belo Corporation. He is why the story overlooks an important detail about Wildenthal. He is why, the day after the story published, it didn’t appear on the paper’s homepage. He is why it took seven months to get the thing into print.
Robert Decherd and Kern Wildenthal are bosom buddies. Decherd did everything he could to protect to his friend. The News editors and reporters went above and beyond to get the story into print. The reason that story is 6,300 words long? I think it’s a middle finger to Decherd.
“Oh, you want more detail about the trip to New Zealand? We’ll give you more detail. And you want us to make sure we square away our facts on that trip to Nice? We’ll give you facts.”
Like that. Pow!
