Convey: we were wrong

Published Nov 30 2006, 07:05 PM by Adam Reilly

In today's Globe story on the fragile (or already broken) truce between Boston's Heath Street and H-Block gangs, reporters Brian Ballou and Suzanne Smalley engage in some indirect press criticism while describing yesterday's anti-violence press conference in JP. To wit:

Schenel Searcy, whose son Carl was slain last year, blasted the Boston Herald for identifying her other son and reporting that police wanted to question him about [Jahmol] Norfleet's death.

"He is 14 years old," Searcy said. "He is scared to walk alone, to be alone.... I know that my son doesn't have anything to do with retaliation for anybody's murder."

I asked Herald managing editor and editor-in-waiting Kevin Convey about Searcy's complaint. (The Herald identified the 14-year-old by name in a Nov. 29 article by O'Ryan Johnson and Michele McPhee.) Here's Convey's response:

I'm reluctant to get drawn into a discussion of how we gather news that’s prompted by something the Globe puts in its story, because I’m fairly sure its motives are something other than they might appear. At the same time...we take the identification of potential suspects on a case-by-case basis. In this case, I don’t think we made the right decision because of the age of the kid. And I'll be talking to our editors and reporters.

PS: I should also have noted that, in this week's Phoenix, I offer the following assessment of Convey's coming tenure as editor in chief:

[A]ny major retooling would require Convey — and Purcell — to rise above the us-against-the-world mentality that pervades Herald Square. At its best, this mindset motivates the Herald’s overburdened employees to do excellent work. At its worst, it dulls critical faculties and gives the Herald’s post-Murdochian status quo an air of inviolability. For Convey to turn the Herald around, he’ll need to steer clear of the Kool-Aid.

I'd say Convey's response here augurs well for the future.