In the 6/2/2004 article, below, the anonymous author wrote:
"The day before our former editor lost her job, Vermont Yankee spokespeople had a talk with the new editor at the Reformer."
This is fascinating. Just days after Casa's firing Entergy admitted to having lost enough nuclear waste from Vermont Yankee to make a bomb that could kill thousands of people. This news made CNN, The NY Times, USA Today, etc.
The Reformer's coverage of the lost nuke waste was weak. There would have been far more follow-up investigation and editorials had Casa still been at the paper.
Top Vermont Yankee official Brian Cosgrove and Reformer CEO Dean Singleton are both Republican party activists. Casa was a liberal.
Columbia Journalism Review published an article about an earlier effort by Entergy to intervene in Reformer coverage of VY. That article "Power Play" is at:
http://archives.cjr.org/year/02/6/dartsandlaurels.asp
POWER PLAY
Thankfully, not every conscientious journalist is abandoned by management for perceived offenses against powerful newsmakers. At the Brattleboro Reformer in Vermont, where Eesha Williams covers the nuclear industry, outside pressure came in mid-August with a call for a meeting from Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. Only days before, on July 31, the multibillion-dollar national energy company had acquired Vermont Yankee, a nuclear power station in nearby Vernon (and whose imposing image, in the form of two poster-size photographs, provides the only art in the room in which the town board meets). Representing Entergy was a company spokesman, Rob Williams (no relation to Eesha), and the director of public affairs, Brian Cosgrove, formerly head of the Republican party in Vermont. Present for the paper were managing editor Kate Casa, reporter Williams, and publisher David Emmons. The purpose of the meeting was crystal clear: Entergy wanted Williams taken off the beat. As evidence of his “anti-corporate, anti-nuclear agenda,” the company presented his bosses with a long list of selections from his 2001 book, Grass Roots Journalism. (Their evidence did not, however, include cjr’s review of that book, in which founding editor James Boylan wrote that the author “insists that journalism devoted to forwarding a cause . . . must be fair to both sides, accurate, and cleanly written.”) Could Entergy point to any inaccuracies in Eesha Williams’s coverage? the managing editor wanted to know. Entergy could not. That was enough for the Reformer’s publisher. “While I hold conservative views,” Emmons explained to the Entergy delegation, “this isn’t my paper. It’s the people’s paper. We’re not here to make Vermont Yankee happy. We’re not here to make anyone happy but our readers.” The meeting was over.