Reply #3: Once again, the US press leads the way [View All]

[Rose Siding]

http://www.vermontguardian.com/local/052006/GraffLetter.shtml

MONTPELIER — In a rare move, the Associated Press agreed today to release the termination letter it handed to Vermont bureau chief Chris Graff in late March.
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In the letter, AP’s’ regional bureau chief, Larry Laughlin, who works from the Concord, NH bureau, said Graff was fired for running an op-ed column by U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy on March 8, and for allowing reporter Dave Gram to write a chapter in a book about Howard Dean. The book was released in late 2003, just as Dean was becoming the insurgent-turned-frontrunner candidate for president.

The Leahy column, which focused on secrecy in government, was pulled within hours of being sent to newspaper editors. The editorial ran in a package of material for Sunshine Week.
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Gram wasn’t the only active reporter in Vermont who contributed to the book. Also listed as co-authors are Darren Allen, the bureau chief of the statehouse bureau for the Rutland Herald and Times Argus, John Dillon, a reporter for Vermont Public Radio, and David Moats, the editorial page editor of the Rutland Herald.

David Gergen, a well-known presidential confidante and political commentator, said in a review of the Dean book, “The authors, respected journalists, have written exactly the book the country needs before votes are cast in 2004: an authoritative, up-close portrait of Howard Dean and his improbable rise to stardom.”