Press Clips
by Cynthia Cotts
Village Voice
March 10 - 16, 2004
Times to Diagnose Its Doctor?
Times Metro editor Susan Edgerley opened a can of worms in February when she informed stringer Jay Blotcher that he was being let go "to protect against any appearance of conflict of interest." Last week, Times editors were pressured to investigate allegations that medical correspondent Lawrence K. Altman has conflicts, too.
Blotcher's offense, according to the Times: He has a rep as an advocate, on account of having worked for ACT UP in the 1980s, as a spokesperson, and for the American Foundation for AIDS Research in the 1990s. He'd only written a few Metro pieces, but still he had to go. The dismissal was reported by The Washington Post on February 23.
Now Blotcher's friends are crying foul. First, playwright and AIDS activist Larry Kramer sent a letter to Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. asking if the decision wasn't just a little homophobic. Absolutely not, came the answer from executive editor Bill Keller. After what Keller called the "misery" of last year, the Times has simply become more conscientious. Kramer didn't buy it. In a reply to Keller, he suggested that blacklisting Blotcher as an advocate was not only "amazingly petty" but also hypocritical, considering how many prominent Times reporters have conflicts, too.
Altman's most prominent offense, according to AIDS activist Michael Petrelis: uncritical coverage of the Centers for Disease Control, with which he has had longtime ties. On March 3, Petrelis posted a letter on a Times forum itemizing activities that allegedly give Altman the appearance of an advocate. The Times acknowledges that Altman worked for an agency now known as the CDC from 1963 to 1966, as chief of the epidemiology and immunization section of the division of foreign quarantine, and that he now serves an an adviser to a board that awards journalism fellowships at the CDC. On March 4, Petrelis was informed that his post to the Times' website had been removed and that the matter was to be investigated by standards editor Al Siegal.
Times spokesperson Mathis told the Voice that Altman's CDC work ended long ago, that he is unpaid as a CDC adviser, and that he has "never worked in public relations or in an advocacy position." She added, "AIDS activist organizations have long made a target of Dr. Altman . . . because they don't like some of the developments he reports on AIDS research and financing." Drawing him into the Blotcher matter is, she said, "diversionary and irrelevant."