Shelledy candidly chronicles his saga in Salt Lake

James Shelledy speaks candidly about his experience at the Salt Lake Tribune. Photo by Mark Regan

With remarkable candor, James Shelledy began the tale of how he became the former editor of The Salt Lake Tribune: He had just arrived at his getaway cabin in Idaho after a drive of some 800 miles. The telephone rang.

As with so many stories that begin with an unexpectedly ringing phone, things went downhill from there.

Shelledy's saga, which he delivered on Monday to 31 top editors at a "Newsroom Reporting and Editing Standards " forum conducted by API and ASNE, involves lies, money, threatened lawsuits, newsroom treachery, the Elizabeth Smart abduction case, and lessons learned the hard way.

Shelledy said he predicted to his wife a few days after the grim phone call that "I don't think I'll survive this. " He talked about what, in hindsight, he might have done to salvage his job. Shelledy resigned May 1, a week after it was revealed that two of his top reporters had accepted $10,000 each from the National Enquirer for information about the highly publicized case. Mainly, though, Shelledy talked about trust – and trust betrayed.

Later, as ethicist Michael Josephson reviewed his list entitled "Ten Truths for the Boss, " Shelledy smiled but winced a little at the first truth: "In any organization of size there are bound to be some people who are weak, crooked or unstable. "

Earlier Shelledy had detailed how reporters Michael Vigh and Kevin Cantera had sworn to him that they hadn't sold information. Shelledy wrote a column saying it was "baloney " that they had done so. Only later, after a tape of their conversation with the Enquirer surfaced, did the pair admit that they had lied to their editor.

Shelledy also conceded that he had underestimated how much the "increasing baggage " he had accumulated among staff members over the years would work against him in the crisis.

Shelledy said later that it was the first time he had publicly told the story of events that led to his resignation. "I've answered questions about it, " he said, "but I've never done something like this, " he said.

Acting as moderator, API President William L. Winter coaxed details from Shelledy and two other editors, Michael Oreskes of The New York Times and Walter V. Robinson of The Boston Globe, who joined them in the well of the conference room. Winter said the editors' stories and analyses of events at their newspapers would help to heal "a pretty good hit " on the credibility of newspapers.

Winter was referring chiefly, but not solely, to the recent revelations of deceit by reporters Jayson Blair and Rick Bragg at The New York Times, The Salt Lake Tribune affair, and fabrications by columnists Patricia Smith and Mike Barnicle at The Boston Globe in 1998.

Robinson, now an investigative editor but metro editor at the time of the Barnicle/Smith incidents, spoke of the long circulating rumors Barnicle was fabricating columns. He noted that Smith had been warned and given a second chance after allegations were lodged against her. Oreskes, an assistant managing editor, conceded that arrogance and poor management at The New York Times led to the Blair fiasco.

All three editors noted that it was not one thing that went wrong in each case. Instead, errors of judgment and inattention piled up, leading to mighty collapses.

During a break after the panel discussion, participants were somber.

"Oh, wasn't that painful? " Rexanna K. Lester, executive editor of the Savannah Morning News said. She spoke of the "there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I " feeling she had as Shelledy, Oreskes and Robinson told their stories.

"You don't see the individual mistakes (you are making), then all of a sudden. . . . " she said, her voice trailing off.