| The Huffington Post Investigative Fund's Danielle | | | | has exceeded federal safety limits. This is |
| Ivory was a finalist for the Investigative | | | | incorrect. The federal safety limit for atrazine is |
| Reporters and Editors investigative journalism | | | | three parts per billion based on an annual average. |
| award for an article she wrote on atrazine. Maybe | | | | This is specified in the Safe Drinking Water Act's |
| she didn't win because her story was inaccurate. | | | | standards for atrazine. While test results showed |
| Sure, I crossed over to the "dark side" leaving | | | | atrazine levels well above 3 parts per billion in |
| newspaper journalism for public relations, but I still | | | | some cases, those were found in individual weekly |
| remember my news roots. Those roots go back | | | | tests that were part of a program designed to |
| to ink-scented offices at my college newspaper, | | | | take a closer look at atrazine levels in certain |
| then at the historic Emporia Gazette in Emporia, | | | | areas. The EPA drinking water limits are based on |
| Kan. The pay wasn't great, but I gained a | | | | an "annual average" and not individual readings. If |
| fortune in news smarts from some amazing (and | | | | the writer was not aware of this, her editors |
| often grumpy) editors. A lazily written story | | | | should have been. The atrazine levels in water in |
| was always challenged with red ink. Notes to the | | | | these areas fall well within the EPA's drinking |
| side like "attribution?", "source?" or "prove it!" were | | | | water standards. In fact, there have been no |
| common even in the simplest of stories. Opinion | | | | violations of the drinking water standards |
| was to be left on page four, and you had better | | | | anywhere in the U.S. since 2005. |
| interview sources from each side of a story. Lots | | | | According to EPA: "Under the Safe Drinking |
| of red pens must be sitting unused in today's | | | | Water Act (SDWA), the atrazine Maximum |
| newsrooms | | | | Contaminant Level (MCL) is intended to prevent |
| An example is Danielle Ivory's almost | | | | longer-term, or chronic, health concerns from |
| award-winning reporting on atrazine. While I took | | | | occurring even after years of exposure and is |
| issue with many parts of the story, let's simply | | | | calculated against a running average from four |
| look at the lead: "One of the nation's most | | | | quarterly samples. An occasional peak |
| widely-used herbicides has been found to exceed | | | | concentration above 3 ppb is, therefore, not |
| federal safety limits in drinking water in four | | | | cause for concern. Rather, a long-term, consistent |
| states, but water customers have not been told | | | | value above a yearly average of 3 ppb would be |
| and the Environmental Protection Agency has not | | | | of concern. The MCL is designed to protect all |
| published the results." | | | | population subgroups." |
| The lead is a little long and, but it does portray | | | | An editor once told me, if the lead is wrong, the |
| the breathlessness with which the writer is | | | | entire story lacks credibility. He also told me that I |
| reporting the story. Breathlessness aside, let's look | | | | couldn't slant a story based on my personal |
| at the facts in the lead. Ivory states the herbicide | | | | agenda. Maybe these rules no longer stand. |