A non-libelous error is still an error — fix it

I have several news alerts set up for various projects. Newspaper layoffs. Headlines that start with the word “man.” And the Tuskegee Airmen.

Last year, I worked on a comprehensive project to document Tuskegee Airmen who had been awarded a Purple Heart. The number was woefully under-reported at eight; so far we’ve found more than 50. In addition to research an multimedia projects related to the story, I took on the task of writing profiles on each of the Purple Heart recipients Post-Dispatch reporter Phil O’Connor and I found.

There are a lot of half-truths and myths reported as fact about the Tuskegee Airmen. It is often repeated, for example, that the group of black pilots and service members, which flew many bomber-escort missions, did not lose any bombers it was escorting. Military documents prove this is not true: At least 25 bombers were lost, which is still an amazing accomplishment. Members of Tuskegee Airmen Inc., a foundation that includes several Tuskegee Airmen, have tried to set the record straight on the bombers-lost issue, but the falsehood persists.

Alton (Ill.) Telegraph lifestyles editor/reporter Jill Moon recently wrote about a new Tuskegee Airmen exhibit coming to the Alton Museum of History and Art. The story, published on the Telegraph’s website on Feb. 11, includes many factual errors, and popped up in my Tuskegee Airmen alert.

Factual errors in stories have always bothered me, and after working on the Tuskegee Airmen project for so long, I’ve become a bit passionate about what’s right and what isn’t. So I wrote a short e-mail to Moon yesterday to try to correct those errors, assuming she did not know there were errors.

She knew. In her response, Moon said Tuskegee Airmen Inc. former public relations officer Ron Brewington had already written to her about the errors. (Brewington also caught one that I’d missed. I’ve talked to Brewington before — he has helped me track down information and correct errors in my Tuskegee Airmen stories.) Moon said she had apologized to Brewington for the errors, but “most of the info was taken from previous articles written by others in our newspaper, which never had been refuted.”

It’s not easy being a newspaper reporter. It’s not easy working for a newspaper. So I understand Moon might have been rushed when researching this story. But her excuse of not correcting those errors because they were not libelous is unacceptable.

Factual errors in Moon’s story:
• The Tuskegee Airmen did lose at bombers it was escorting — at least 25. Investigations into World War II records at the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., document these loses. (I worked with the AFHRA for the Post-Dispatch’s Tuskegee Airmen series.)
• The Tuskegee Airmen escorted planes over many cities in Germany, Italy and France — not just Berlin.
• George and Arnold Cisco were not the only brothers in the group. Rupert and Wilbert Johnson also were brothers, and there very likely were others.
• There is no “Tuskegee Airman Institute.” The pilots trained at Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, in Alabama.
• Not all Tuskegee Airmen were college graduates. Although that was the policy when the black pilots began training and the first squadron was formed, by the end of the war, a college degree was not required. Many pilots left college to join the Air Corps.

I was willing to let the matter drop until I saw the story was distributed by the Associated Press yesterday. Now it is on newspaper, radio and television websites throughout Illinois. I have contacted AP and asked that they kill the story, and have contact every media organization I can to kill the story. This is a disservice to all news organizations. It taints the reputation of the Alton Telegraph, Associated Press and any organization that picked up the story.