All this sets the tone for the remainder of CBS broadcast correspondent Larry LeSueur’s narrative. The facts don’t quite seem to match the anecdotes as he reported them, which leads to doubts that he was even present. […]
|
|
It’s been my unhappy experience to discover that the majority of first-person D-Day stories are to some degree inaccurate. Often this is because the individual experienced such a narrow view of the massive operation that he misinterpreted what he saw. In other cases, it is a result of fading memory or unintentional exaggeration. And then there are the cases in which people alter the facts to enhance their reports or their reputations. […] Neumüller’s article falls way short of the ‘profound analysis’ proffered by his editors, or the ‘comprehensive analysis’ or ‘scientific context’ he himself reaches for. In many respects, Neumüller’s failure to deliver a coherent, documented, detailed, and, above all, believable narrative was inevitable from the start. He comes to the task with the wrong skill set. […] Moritz Neumüller’s active suppression, in his article, of the public complaints levied at Halliday … obscures the fact that a deep-seated and long-standing professional jealousy, and a concomitant battle over the psycho-geography of London, lay at the heart of Halliday’s entire campaign against Butturini. […] The Mercedes Baptiste Halliday narrative legitimised Gian Butturini’s detractors, and kept them respectable. On paper, it superficially resembled a clear, ideological position, fuelled by a defiance of racial injustice. In actuality, it was a subterfuge, a mere foil – albeit one cut from noble principles – to hide the pettiest and basest of motives: the green-eyed monster of professional jealousy. […] |
 SPJ Research Award 2014 |