Tag: Perry Morgan

Goodbye Charlotte, Part 3 of 3

Wednesday afternoon, May 12, 1971

The Charlotte News should not have retracted, corrected and apologized for a story I had written about the wrongful arrest of a doctor for a minor boating violation, and I was determined to prove it. 

The retraction said my story had implied that the clerk of court was concealing information and may have left the impression that the clerk of court was responsible for issuance of the warrant.

“Neither implication was correct,” the retraction said.

R. Max Blackburn, the clerk of Superior Court, wasn’t talking but I had covered his office for several years and I had friends in the courthouse. I called in every green stamp I owned and, by late that afternoon, I knew what had happened — and I went to see the clerk.

Thursday afternoon, May 13

The headline on my follow-up story, published in The Charlotte News the day after the retraction, said: “Superior Court Clerk Takes Responsibility For Doctor Arrest”

The first two graphs of a story that explain exactly what had happened.
The first two graphs of a story that explained exactly what had happened.

“Clerk of Superior Court R. Max Blackburn said yesterday that his office is responsible for a clerical error that led to the arrest of a Charlotte doctor.”

The story also said:

“I plan to visit the doctor personally and make my personal apology to him,” Blackburn said.

The Charlotte News did not retract the retraction of my original story, of course, and Editor Perry Morgan, who had ordered the retraction, did not apologize to me.  It wouldn’t have mattered.  I was done with The Charlotte News.

I called The News & Observer that Thursday afternoon and was invited to Raleigh the next day for an interview.

Friday, May 14: I drove to Raleigh, talked with the managing editor, Woodrow Price, and the executive editor, Claude Sitton, and left with a job offer.

Monday, May 17: I resigned from The Charlotte News, ending a relationship dating back more than a decade.

Postscript: Perry Morgan, editor of The News, had recruited me, mentored me, and promoted me — he liked me. He had no personal or professional reason to retract my story. But he did. And if he hadn’t I would have stayed in Charlotte and missed out on a boatload of blessings. I believe the retraction was God’s doing: If He couldn’t lead me out of Charlotte to a better life  — The N&O had tried twice to recruit me — He would drive me out of Charlotte.

Consider this:

**The state government complex, a target-rich environment for an investigative reporter, was a five-minute walk from my new office.  And, unlike The Charlotte News, if I could find it and prove it, The N&O would publish it.

**The N&O had three times the circulation of The Charlotte News – and paid much better.  To support my family I never had to work a second job again.

**I won a Pulitzer Prize at The N&O.

**The Charlotte News went out of business.

Coming Friday: Run Off The Mountain

Goodbye Charlotte, Part 2 of 3

Wednesday morning, May 12, 1971

Perry Morgan,  editor of The Charlotte News, called me into his office to questioned me about the lede I had written on a story The News had published the previous afternoon.

My lede said the Mecklenburg County Clerk of Superior Court had  refused to explain why an arrest warrant had been issued for a doctor after he had waived his right to trial on a minor boating violation and paid the $15 fine.

Charlotte police subsequently arrested the doctor in the middle of the night for failure to appear in court, took him to jail, fingerprinted him, and released him on a $50 bond.

Perry asked me to tell him how the clerk of court’s office was responsible.  I didn’t know how the mistake had been made –the clerk  wasn’t talking– but I had covered that beat and I knew how the system worked.    The clerk’s office collected fines, the clerk’s office scheduled the trials of those who did not pay their fine, and the clerk’s office issued arrest warrants for defendants who did not appear for trial.

That didn’t satisfied Perry.  He wanted to know exactly what the clerk’s office had done in this case. I didn’t know exactly.  Finally Perry told me he was going to retract my  story — retract, correct, and apologize.

Wednesday afternoon

RetractionAt Morgan’s direction The News published a retraction that afternoon.  I think he wrote it himself.

“A story published in The News Tuesday left several false impressions reflecting on Clerk of Superior Court R. Max Blackburn,” the retraction began.   It said my story “implied that Blackburn was concealing information known to him, and, may have left the impression that the clerk of court was responsible for issuance of the warrant. Neither implication was correct.”

“The News regrets that this false impression was created and apologizes for it.”

I was floored.

I couldn’t prove it yet, but I knew the clerk of court’s office was responsible and the clerk’s “No comment” had conceal information.

What had I done wrong?  The story was correct.   If it implied that the clerk’s office was responsible for the issuance of the arrest warrant, so what? His office was responsible.

I was beyond angry — I was done with The Charlotte News.

But I wasn’t done with that story.

Continued tomorrow.