Hiawatha Bray

Hiawatha Bray is a technology reporter for the Boston Globe.

Ethical Violation

In the March 1, 2005, "Boston Globe reporter used blogs to attack Kerry, support Bush during '04 campaign," Media Matters for America "outs" another reporter's sidestep of journalistic ethics.

Apparently Hiawatha Bray, a technology reporter for the Boston Globe which is owned by The Times Company, "wrote posts for several weblogs in which he declared his support for President Bush, attacked Sen. John Kerry, and bolstered discredited allegations by the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (now Swift Vets and POWs for Truth)."

Bray is guilty, at the very least, of violating his company's "specific guidelines for the political behavior of its journalists, ...

"Journalists have no place on the playing fields of politics. Staff members are entitled to vote, but they must do nothing that might raise questions about their professional neutrality or that of The Times. In particular, they may not campaign for, demonstrate for, or endorse candidates, ballot causes or efforts to enact legislation." [emphasis added].

Bray's posts went beyond expressing his personal opinion on the blogs and slipped well into the realm of false "reporting":

"In fact, only one Swift Boat Vet member actually served on a boat that Kerry commanded; none were present for the incidents in which Kerry's earned any of his medals or his three Purple Hearts; Kerry did release his medical records; and Kerry did not accuse soldiers of committing atrocities. In his 1971 Senate testimony as a representative of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), Kerry related the stories of other Vietnam veterans who came home and participated in the 1971 Winter Soldier Investigation, in which they described incidents they had said they personally witnessed."

Whatever actions, if any, have or will be taken against Bray in this matter is not divulged. No allegations have been made as to Bray's motives or affiliations in Media Matter's article. Perhaps those will be forthcoming.

Other Questionable Bray Postings

• Dan Gillmor's Silicon Valley, March 25, 2004, Topic: "Clarke's Credibility and Bush's" regarding 9/11:

"First, the claim that 'the (Fox) news channel and the administration violated a reporter-source agreement' is false. The agreement was between the White House and the assembled reporters. Clarke had nothing to say about it. It was up to the White House to insist upon the restriction, or to rescind it. Fox contacted the White House, and got their eager permission to let it rip. No ethical violation here.

"But then we turn to the claim that Clarke easily handled the attack. Well, I didn't see the hearings, but I've read newspaper accounts. I've also read the Fox background briefing. Have you? Because it is utterly impossible to reconcile what Clarke said in 2002 with what he's saying now. In 2002, he makes some specific claims about specific acts undertaken by the Bushies. For example, he said that in the spring of 2001, the administration authorized a fivefold increase in anti-al Qaeda funding. That's impossible to square with his 60 Minutes assertion that the administration did 'nothing' about al Qaeda--a claim he backed away from yesterday, by the way.

"I've interviewed Clarke on a couple of occasions and have always considered him a serious, intelligent and trustworthy guy. But after reading the Fox transcript, we're stuck with two options. He was lying then, or he's lying now."

Contact details

• Weblog Monitortan.com: "The mental meanderings of Hiawatha Bray, technology reporter for the Boston Globe."

SourceWatch Resources

• manufactured journalism

External Links

• Boston Globe Technology Page: Bray.
• Blogger User Profile: Hiawatha Bray. Blogname: Newblog. Recent posts: 72; Total posts: 1402. Accessed March 3, 2005.
• Henry Copeland, "Where are they now?," blogads, June 3, 2004: "What news from Hiawatha Bray, who wrote in a March 2002 article for the Boston Globe that 'blogging is an ephemeral fad, destined to burn itself out in a year or two.' The original article has disappeared into the Globe's archives, ... Isn't it time to revisit that prediction Hiawatha?"
• Hiawatha Bray, "Weeping Madonna," BelieversWeb.org, May 2, 2003.
• "Boston Globe reporter used blogs to attack Kerry, support Bush during '04 campaign," Media Matters for America, March 1, 2005.