Former Spokesman-Review editor Steve Smith accused of paying girls to provide him sexually explicit videos | The Spokesman-Review

The long time, and former editor of a large newspaper in Washington State has been charged with child pornography crimes. After leaving the paper, he taught journalism ethics. He was also a managing editor and columnist for FāVS News (spokanefavs.com) “a faith and values news” non-profit.  The problem is not FaVS but Steve Smith wrapping himself in a sanctimonious cover by working there.

As a newspaper editor, he previously used a private investigator to discover the city’s former mayor had been soliciting sexual encounters using his office computer at work. At the time, he said the mayor’s behavior was wrong. The mayor later resigned.

This is sad, not just for those affected by this alleged criminal behavior, but the paper’s reputation, the reputation of all journalism, and harm to FaVS via association. The newspaper Smith edited was itself censoring past news stories about a city parking garage owned by the newspaper publisher (the Cowles, mentioned in this legal settlement).

In 2022, Rolling Stone reported the FBI raided a journalist’s home and implied it was the government interfering in reporting about national security and the first time the Biden Admin raided a journalist.  Rolling Stone left out that the raid was over allegations of child abuse and child pornography. The editor was said to be a personal friend of the target – and deleted references to child abuse yet the editor is still editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone.

The reporter whose home was raided, Gordon Meeks, plead guilty the day before this post. Business Insider invents that “right wing” commentators and conspiracy theorists falsely claimed he was arrested for investigating national security issues of the Biden Administration – even though this claim originated with Rolling Stone’s original report:

A former ABC News reporter who some conservative commenters have suggested was a target of a Biden administration war on journalism has pleaded guilty to possessing and transporting images of sexually abused children, the Department of Justice announced Friday.

Ex-ABC Reporter James Gordon Meek Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charges (insider.com)

Rolling Stone is a conservative publication? Who knew!

The conspiracy theory began when Rolling Stone’s editor deleted the reporter’s notes mentioning the child abuse allegations, per NPR.

Rolling Stone has a history of writing wrong stories – and settled a lawsuit with those they defamed after a Columbia University review of their 2014 story “A Rape on Campus” found Rolling Stone did not do “basic, even routine journalistic practice” in their reporting. In 2016 Rolling Stone retracted the entire report. The reporter, Sabrina Erdely, now works in corporate public relations and the managing editor of Rolling Stone resigned. He  now works as a freelance editor and says he inspired the Occupy Wall Street movement. Rolling Stone, after paying out millions in legal settlements, was sold in 2017.

What a mess.

Oh dear: And another reporter, this time in the UK, comes under fire.

This. Is. Journalism.