Herald's Response to Rosenberg Complaint Called "Misleading, Inaccurate, and Damaging"

Nearly as interesting as the harassment complaint filed against Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg by Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon is the newspaper's odd response to it.

The Herald's only response to date was a brief written by Senior Editor/Administration Dave Wilson that appeared in Saturday's newspaper on page B-3. The story wasn't posted on the internet at the time. Here's the full text:

A U.S. Navy public affairs officer assigned to the office of the Secretary of Defense has sent a letter of complaint to The Miami Herald about the conduct of reporter Carol Rosenberg, who covers the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

In a letter dated July 22 to Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal, Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon alleges that comments made over the past year by Rosenberg toward Gordon and other military personnel were unprofessional and constitute sexual harassment.

Gyllenhaal said Gordon's complaints are being looked into and that because this was a personnel matter, it would be inappropriate to comment further.

-- Dave Wilson

It certainly is an odd and grossly incomplete little piece of newspaper work. The Herald doesn't detail Gordon's complaint, and there is no response from Rosenberg. Some Miami Herald alums weren't real proud of their old workplace because of it. Here's what Jim Savage, an esteemed former investigations editor who worked at the newspaper during its best days, wrote on the Herald alum email chain:

I thought it was appalling that The Herald's brief story headlined "Reporter Accused of Sexual Harassment" did not even attempt to provide a response from Carol Rosenberg. And worse, it never described the accusations, which, in my opinion, involve language issues, not sexual harassment.

A number of women have been accused in the past of sexual harassment, using their positions to seek sexual favors from fellow workers, men and women. 

For both men and women, sexual harassment is a very serious allegation which can destroy careers.

I fear that Herald editors panicked when they learned that the Navy's letter of complaint against Carol had been released to other media.  The resulting Herald story, in my humble opinion, qualifies as the single most misleading, inaccurate and damaging story published in recent years.

The Herald didn't seem keen for anyone to read it, either. Savage had to scan the article from the printed newspaper because it wasn't even posted on the internet over the weekend. Strangely, the response wasn't posted until late Monday and doesn't come up on Nexis at all. Oh, and they changed that headline.