All: This Is My Last Day - Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8
In 1990 a man named Berl Schwartz became Washington bureau manager. Not sure where he came from, but it was apparent he was in over his head at UPI. One of his gem actions caught the eye of The Washington Times, a newspaper owned by News World Communications Inc., founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon -- an organization that was to play a pivotal role with UPI a decade later.

Schwartz wanted to glamorize UPI by trying to get “exclusive” material from newsmakers. One day he took a story written by a congressional reporter and had it refiled, taking the reporter’s name off the story and making it look as though Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., had written it exclusively for UPI.
It was a budget story based on Hoyer’s testimony before a subcommittee of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee. The testimony was delivered in an open session and the text of Hoyer’s speech was available to all who came into the hearing room.

This is what Schwartz wanted at the top of the rewritten story:
Bc-budget-johnqpublic correct
(removing byline to hoyer writing for upi)
Average Americans will suffer from federal budget cuts
(What happens if thousands of federal employees are temporarily furloughed because Congress and the administration cannot agree on a budget plan? Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., paints a stark picture of the effect on the average American in his testimony presented Wednesday to a subcommittee of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee)
By STENY HOYER
Distributed by UPI

The Washington Times jumped all over this with the following:
Zip a Dee Doo Dah
The new UPI Washington bureau manager, Berl Schwartz, decided to put a little zip into a story filed by a UPI reporter about furloughing federal employees. So he took out all the extra stuff. Like just about everything the reporter filed except for some quotes from Democratic Caucus Chairman Steny Hoyer.
But the story still didn’t have quite the zip Mr. Schwartz was seeking. So he gutted the story down to nothing but quotes and put a byline on it – “By Steny Hoyer, Written for UPI.”
Much zippier, the story went out on the wire.
Well, just two hours later the wire sent a correction zipping along behind the “Hoyer” story. It said the piece “was not written expressly for UPI” by the Maryland Democrat and was actually testimony he’d given before a House subcommittee. But it had zip.

Schwartz came into the office, read the Washington Times piece, slammed around his office for a while, beating the desk with his fist, and filed this message on the internal message wire:
“The Washington Times reported today that I put out testimony by Steny Hoyer as having been written for UPI. I did it. It was a mistake, which I corrected on the wire.
The Times also said I “took out all the extra stuff. Like just about everything the reporter filed except for some quotes …” and that I “gutted the story down to nothing but quotes.”
Here’s the story as originally filed by Shep. Judge for yourself the accuracy of the Times report.

This inability to own up entirely to his stupid act prompted me to respond:
Schwartz
Since you asked for our judgment I’ll offer mine. I feel your “mistake” jeopardized the integrity of the reporter who filed a correct story, jeopardized the integrity of the editor who filed the story and jeopardized the integrity of UPI and the integrity of so many unipressers over the years who have worked damn hard to produce an honorable product. Rosso

At least he owned up to his incompetence. On Nov. 8, 1990, Schwartz wrote:
All-wa
Thank you for your hard work last night and today in making our election coverage something to be proud of. We’ve received some praise and no criticism, which in this cynical business is the same as praise. Even Tough Old Broad Victoria Wakefield was impressed. Thank you in particular for helping me fake my way through my first UPI election night.
Schwartz.

To which Janet Bass, who covered health, added:
Tough old broad?????

On Jan. 2, 1991, Schwartz sent a note to the Washington staff, that said, in part:
All-wa
I have just posted an announcement that UPI has granted me an unpaid leave of absence so that I can accept the McMahon visiting professorship of journalism at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma on the main campus in Norman.
This is the first year of the professorship, which means I will be making up the program as I go along — something for which UPI has given me excellent training.