Jack and Sam

by Jeanne Ryan

On February 25, Hawaii Tribune-Herald readers were treated to a rare sight: an actual editorial expressing the paper's opinion. This wasn't the customary reprint from elsewhere-it addressed Wal-Mart's plan to close their existing Hilo store and build a new Superstore nearby.
"A decision best left to consumers," the Tribune-Herald declared. It went on to tongue-lash Hilo councilman Stacy Higa for proposing to limit future superstore development on Hawai'i Island.
"Higa's plan is a terrible idea," the editors charged. "It unfairly targets certain retailers-namely Wal-Mart.... In a word, it's discriminatory."
Two things were surprising: (a) the rare expression of an editorial opinion and (b) the idea that we should be worried about discrimination against Wal-Mart. Spurred by my experience as a reporter covering land-use stories for a New York newspaper, I had been following the issue.
As a Hilo resident, I had previously submitted testimony to the county council in favor of Higa's proposal and written a letter to the editor of the Tribune-Herald. The paper's stance-staunchly defending the rights of Wal-Mart-intrigued me. Higa's bill hadn't specified any particular company, so why was the paper concerned with only one?
Jack and Sam
I knew the Tribune-Herald was not locally owned, This set me on an investigative course that would have me snorkeling through the murky waters of today's corporate-owned media. Tracing the ownership of the Tribune-Herald took me from Hilo to Las Vegas (where Stephens Media is headquartered) and, finally, back to Arkansas, home of Stephens Media's parent, Stephens Inc., and stomping grounds of Sam Walton's Wal-Mart.
The words "Stephens Media" appear at the base of the masthead on the Tribune-Herald's Commentary page. Underneath, a caption states, "Jack Stephens, chairman of the board, 1923-2005." This understated memoriam would bring me to the intersection of Hilo's little newspaper and one of the largest investment companies in the United States. The connection between the two would generate interesting questions regarding media coverage today.
Jack Stephens had been a serious player in the Arkansas money-and-politics scene for decades. He and his brother Witt ran Stephens Inc., which grew into an investment house whose size was especially notable because it is based in Little Rock rather than New York. Tributes at the financier's death in 2005 ranged from emotional recollections on the floor of the Arkansas House of Representatives to lengthy obituaries in the national press. All noted Jack Stephens' impact in supporting client companies-particularly his role in the growth of Wal-Mart.
In a small state like Arkansas, two business powerhouses like Jack Stephens and Sam Walton did more than briefly rub elbows. Stephens Inc. had underwritten the retail giant's first public stock offering in 1972. Jack Stephens sat on Wal-Mart's board of directors from then until 1987 (although he took a year off in 1980).
The photo in Wal-Mart's 1982 Annual Report looks like a corporate version of a Biblical tableau (link below). The picture shows a group of 13 directors: 12 serious-looking late middle-aged Caucasian men in suits clustered around the formidable figure of Sam Walton. On the left stands Jack Stephens, wearing thick-rimmed glasses suggesting that the seventies have not yet been completely forgotten.
Conflict of interest?
The relationship between Stephens Inc. and Wal-Mart did not end when Jack Stephens left the board. Federal Security Exchange Commission filings show that the company's Wal-Mart ties continue today. This March, a routine company holdings form filed with the SEC listed the company's holdings in more than 300 firms. Alongside investments in Bank of America and Exxon Mobil, Stephens Inc. owns 125,474 shares of Wal-Mart stock, currently worth almost $6 million.
Stephens' relationship with Wal-Mart, and its parent ownership of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, brings up the troubling question of whether the paper's coverage of Wal-Mart has been com-promised. Related issues include the company's possible expansion on Department of Hawaiian Home Lands' property behind Wal-Mart's current Hilo store and the county council's delib-erations on whether to restrict superstore development.
Absolutely not, asserted David Bock, editor of the Tribune-Herald since 2000. "Never, ever, ever, has the parent company decided that," he said when I called him to ask about his editorial moves. "It's always 100 percent of the time decided here in Hilo."
Bock said that while he was aware that both Stephens and Wal-Mart hail from Arkansas, he hadn't known of any business connection.
He went on to describe a collaborative editorial approach that brought the newspaper publisher, himself and paper staff together to write editorials deemed appropriate. The February 25 editorial, defending the business rights of Wal-Mart, "was written with the best interest of the community in mind," Bock maintained. "We pointed out that we're no fans of Wal-Mart. Our issue is just that the ban is a bad idea."
The fact that this was one of only 16 in-house editorials published during the prior year reflects the paper's limitations, said Bock, not an outside agenda. "We'd love to have more editorials, stories, photos."
Moving from February into March, the Tribune-Herald's coverage of a potential Wal-Mart expansion continued, with three consecutive front page stories, all set above the paper's fold, the sweet spot of news placement. "Wal-Mart Leases Land," reads the big, bold letters of the March 8 headline; "Wal-Mart: It's a Supercenter," proclaims that of March 9; "Reaction to Retail Giant's Plan: Love-Hate Relationship," a more demure title font states on March 10. This last story was accompanied by a large photo showing the love: two smiling Wal-Mart shoppers, a mother and daughter and their shopping cart posing alongside the pink and green shrubbery that borders the parking lot; Wal-Mart stands in the background, with an American flag flying on the left.
"It's a huge story for this community and the island," explained Bock of the high-profile treatment. "To suggest that it's somehow an edict from on high is ridiculous. I think the coverage was absolutely outstanding. If we had buried it, it would have been held against us."
Bock spoke with conviction, and I believed him. Then, my eyes traveled down his column to the paper's masthead: "Stephens Media: Jack Stephens, chairman of the board." Bock scoffed at my concern and asked whether I was writing a conspiracy-theory piece. I told him no, but I was exploring how a reader might perceive the paper's coverage of Wal-Mart given the background relationship that existed.
Credibility
"Media groups are going to find themselves in more and more of these sticky situations," said noted journalist and Hilo resident Loren Mitchell. Mitchell, who holds a Master's degree in Journalism, worked for the Tazewell County Free Press in Richlands, Virginia, from 1984 to 1998. He started as a cub reporter and ended as the weekly paper's editor/publisher.
The far-flung corporate dealings of many of today's media owners require a different approach to reporting, Mitchell suggested, a departure from the journalistic norm of maintaining the appearance of invisibility.
"Now, you have to cover your own media company's holdings," he said.
I considered the case of the Tribune-Herald. I was a subscriber, grateful to have a source of daily news that focused on local happenings. Having worked as a weekly news reporter and editor myself, I was well aware of the mammoth effort involved in the business and the constant scramble for resources. I relied on the Tribune-Herald to keep me informed, but now I was concerned. On the one hand, I knew the paper's Commentary page offered a wide range of opinions, from Bob Herbert to Cal Thomas. But I couldn't help but wonder about other choices.
On October 21, 2006, the paper ran a newswire editorial entitled "Wal-Mart way with drug costs." The piece, written by a Cox Newspapers reporter, lead with the line, "Maybe Wal-Mart should take over health care in the United States," and ended with, "If the government can't control health costs, maybe Wal-Mart will." I had thought nothing of the Tribune-Herald's choice of this column back in the fall, but now I wondered.
"Credibility is the coin of the realm in this business of ours," Mitchell observed. "This does not turn on whether or not there actually is a nefarious relationship. In fact, wipe all that off the table. Say that everyone is lily-white righteous. My intentions as a journalist are suspect due to the fact that I'm covering my own cookie jar. A reader who later learns of a relationship will question my credibility."
Mitchell added that media outlets can't be expected to limit coverage on certain issues. "Corporate ownership is with us," he said, calling on the media to provide relevant background. "It's incumbent on practitioners to dig out our connections and provide full disclosure to the reader." Perhaps, he suggested, an ombudsman who could provide a truly objective voice is needed.
Mitchell stressed the importance of this issue. "Credibility is inexorably tied into ethics."
McAfee's murk
My interest in the question of industry ethics took me to the Society of Professional Journalists. The SPJ, founded in 1909, is a national organization with about 10,000 members and a polished Web site declaring they are "dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior." They publish a Code of Ethics and offer a hotline for journalists on deadline who want advice on how to do the right thing.
Certainly laudable, but my own interaction with the group further clouded the issue of what it means to be an independent journalist in a corporate media world.
I called the regional SPJ office looking for some live comment on the question of how newspapers can deal with potential conflicts of interest. I got regional director Paul McAfee, who dutifully repeated the web site's credo regarding the need for journalistic independence. "Journalists should avoid conflicts of interest," he said, "and be open about potential conflicts."
He made an interesting distinction, however: "We represent individual journalists, not large media companies."
Yet on the SPJ web site, McAfee is listed as "the interactive operations manager for The Press-Enterprise, the largest daily newspaper in inland Southern California." But McAfee's paper is owned by Belo Corp., a $1.6 billion media conglomerate out of Texas with a Web site that boasts a combined TV, newspaper, and Web audience of "30 million Americans."
What did this mean?
I had gone to the SPJ looking for clarity but instead found more murkiness. While the organization's web site made journalistic independence appear to be a straightforward endeavor, it clearly was far from the case.
Mitchell noted that readers must stay aware of hidden forces at play in the news.
"The readers' responsibility is to have our eyes wide open," he said.
On a beautiful Saturday morning, I sat on a bench outside the downtown Hilo post office, perched next to the newspaper boxes, hoping to gain some insight into readers' perceptions. Most of Stephens Media's Big Island conglomerate was represented: The Hawaii Tribune-Herald, West Hawaii Today and the new Big Island Weekly. (Absent were the company's North Hawaii News, Westside Weekly and Kama'aina Shopper).
My 30-minute stakeout provided uninterrupted contemplation of hypnotically swaying palm fronds against azure skies. Finally, a woman walked up to the Tribune-Herald box. Yes, she said, she was aware that the paper had out-of-state owners. No, she said, she hadn't known of any Wal-Mart connection. Yes, in terms of coverage, it did concern her. Perhaps letters to the editor were the answer, she suggested.
My neighbor Charles, a Tribune-Herald subscriber, offered a different view: "What do I care? As long as Wal-Mart can give me milk for 50 cents cheaper. That's the way it's been since the days of Hearst's newspaper empire."
Mitchell's words came back to me: "We need to be savvy consumers of the news, not sheep to be led astray or lemmings to be led over the mountain."
But what if we don't realize we're sheep? n
On the Web
Walmart annual reports
walmartwatch.com/research/documents/wal_mart_annual_reports/

Top of Page