The Curious Case of Rosenberg v Gordon

When good media relations go bad.

I tried to stay out of it. I did.  But then the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz called me, and the legal beagle Jonathan Turley weighed in on his blog saying I was defending my colleague from the Miami Herald, and now that the whole semi-controversy seems to have subsided, let me just offer a few backward reflections.

First of all I was there, but I wasn’t.  I was in Guantanamo when some of the alleged insults occurred, but I don’t recall witnessing anything.  But my name did come up in the complaint filed by Cmdr. J.D. Gordon with Miami Herald alleging one of its reporters had gone too far in berating him.

Apparently one of the allegations leveled against reporter Carol Rosenberg was that she accused Cmdr. Gordon of “loving” me, and was alleged to have said to me directly, in front of roughly 15 journalists in the Guantanamo Commission’s press center,  “Aren’t you in the BOQ (Bachelor Officers Quarters)? I didn’t think you were in tent city because these people (military public affairs escorts) are so far up your ass that I figured you must be in the BOQ.”

Now, here’s the thing.  I don’t remember ever hearing that.  I don’t.  I remember hearing ABOUT it, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t there.   It was a year ago.   In any event I didn’t think it was any big deal.

But it’s fair to say there was some bad blood between Rosenberg and Gordon.   And while I understand that sometime tempers can flair, (I know mine did a few times) I also believe there is no excuse for continued abusive and unprofessional behavior.

My quote to Howard Kurtz was not intended as a defense of Carol Rosenberg, it was just a statement of fact.  I didn’t see the alleged bad behavior, and to me it sounded like an overreaction on both parts.

Here is  the email I sent Howard after I talked with him by phone, just before leaving for three weeks in Europe:

From: Jamie McIntyre
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:34:57
To: Howard Kurtz
Subject: Just to be clear…

I want to be clear, and you can quote any of this email.

While is sounds to me like an overreaction on both sides, I was NOT there, and did not hear the exchange in question.  So, like President Obama, I do not have all the facts to render an impartial judgment on who is more at fault.

During the time I was covering events at Guantanamo my dealings with BOTH Carol Rosenberg and Cmdr. J.D. Gordon were at all times friendly and professional.
I did become aware that Ms. Rosenberg had voiced some complaints about her treatment compared to that accorded CNN, but she never raised the issue with me, and she was always professional in her demeanor when I was around her.

As CNN’s Senior Pentagon Correspondent at the time, I had a good relationship with Cmdr. Gordon, as I did with most Pentagon Public Affairs officers, but I don’t believe CNN got any special treatment during the days I was there to cover the trial of Salim Hamdan.  We abided by the same ground rules as all the other reporters there.

I think that reporters are well within their rights to argue aggressively for the access and assistance they need to adequately cover a story, especially if they feel the implementation of policy puts them at a competitive disadvantage. But I also believe that military officers who serve as Public Affairs Officers deserve to be treated respectfully.

I just want to underscore that I was not a witness to the events in dispute, and that I only heard about them after the fact from others.

The end of the story is that the Miami Herald stood by Rosenberg, while acknowledging she was guilty of “unnecessary profanity” and promised “as she continues this assignment, she will place an emphasis on professionalism.”  The newspaper asked Gordon’s boss to make sure he did the same.

Cased closed, I think.

I know many people in the Pentagon thought it was a mistake for Cmdr. Gordon to file a compliant.  But in my time there, I always told people that if they had a gripe with the news media, if they felt ill-treated, they ought to complain.  The good reporters take it into consideration even if they never admit they might have been wrong.

Tags: CNN, Guantanamo, Miami Herald, Military Media