Better Pray This Reporter Will Turn the Other Cheek

From GetReligion via Romenesko, an interesting take on Palm Beach Post reporter Jane Musgrave’s coverage of the “trouble financial past” of the Rev. Steven Flockhart. Excerpt:

Musgrave had some of the most important building blocks a reporter can have on this kind of story — like court documents, an anonymous tip that checked out and, then, on-the-record interviews with members of a church that Flockhart left in debt eight years ago…

Want to see how not to handle a journalist’s request to hear your side of an important story? Check this out…

Flockhart, 40, who lives in a 4,500-square-foot house in Royal Palm Beach with his wife and six children, declined requests for interviews. It is church policy for [executive pastor Rev. Kevin] Mahoney alone to respond to press inquiries, the executive pastor said.

Say what? It is the congregation’s policy that the man in the pulpit — its superstar voice to the community — cannot talk to the press? Does this include television news interviews about, oh, spectacular Christmas events?…

You just know that the newspaper now believes there are holes in this minister’s background — educational, personal, whatever — and will dig with renewed vigor … Like I said, this is not how to handle a simple request for an interview, especially when the reporter is holding documents in her hand.

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