Fact Checking Mark Bowden's Curious Vanity Fair Article on Stephanie Lazarus, Part VIII

 Vanity Fair July 2012 cover  (Photo credit: Vanity Fair.com)

Complete Series on Fact Checking Mark Bowden's Article HERE.

Continued from Part VII...

All news organizations occasionally make mistakes. T&T is no exception. When readers notify me I’ve made a factual error, I apologize and correct it. I consider it my responsibility to report as accurately and transparently as possible. I believe this policy enhances my credibility as a journalist.

In September, Poynter called Mark Bowden “one of the best narrative non-fiction writers working today.”  Vanity Fair is a widely read media outlet with a reputation for publishing serious journalism.

It’s a mystery to me why Vanity Fair has not fully acknowledged the extent of the problems with Mark Bowden’s article on the Stephanie Lazarus case.  At this point, a year into this series, Vanity Fair cannot plead ignorance.

Since Cullen Murphy, Mr. Bowden’s editor, and Mr. Bowden were  both unwilling to answer my questions on the record, there was only one person left at Vanity Fair to contact.  On June 2nd,  I emailed Beth Kseniak, Vanity Fair’s Executive Director of Public Relations:

Dear Ms. Kseniak,

If you remember, we corresponded last October.  Thank you again for forwarding those questions to Cullen Murphy.  I now have some questions for Graydon Carter.  Could you please forward the following email to Mr. Carter.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Betsy A. Ross
Founder & Owner, Trials & Tribulations


Dear Mr. Carter,

I’m writing you in your capacity as Editor-in-Chief of Vanity Fair magazine. I’m a journalist with a small true crime website, Trials & Tribulations, that reports on homicide trials in Los Angeles.  I have some questions and hope you will answer them for my readers.

I am writing you about an article by Mark Bowden that was published in your magazine in July 2012. The article was about the murder of Sherri Rasmussen, a case that I covered extensively. Last year a former LAPD detective, Stephanie Lazarus, was convicted of Sherri’s murder.

When I first read Mr. Bowden’s article, numerous factual errors caught my attention. I asked some questions of Vanity Fair in what became a series of posts between June and August 2012. Vanity Fair never responded.  I did not learn the name of Mr. Bowden’s editor, Cullen Murphy, until I was contacted by Poynter for a story that ran on September 28th. Around that time, Vanity Fair corrected a few of the factual errors I had pointed out in June, but not all of them. The corrections appeared only on Vanity Fair’s website and not in the print magazine.  Some of the quotes attributed to Mr. Murphy in the Poynter story were puzzling to me.

I contacted Mr. Murphy three times via email in October. He did not answer my questions on the record. 

Later that month I obtained Mr. Bowden’s email address. Between late October and mid-November, I emailed Bowden three times. He never responded.

Shortly after, I was on the website of my favorite local bookstore, Vroman’s, in Pasadena. I read that Mr. Bowden was scheduled to appear there on his book tour for The Finish. 

I went to Vroman’s on November 17th. I purchased Mr. Bowden’s book and listened to his remarks.  Afterwards, I stood in line to get my book signed. I introduced myself to Mr. Bowden. Mr. Bowden acknowledged that he had received my emails, but he declined to answer questions about his Vanity Fair article. (He did however sign my book.)  I emailed Mr. Bowden one more time after the book signing. He never responded.

Mr. Bowden said at Vroman’s, “I found over and over again in my career, that the story -- if I told a story well enough -- that it is remembered. And that it enters our popular memory. It becomes a piece of history.”

Mr. Carter, here are my questions:

Why have Mark Bowden and Vanity Fair refused to answer questions on the record?   Who at Vanity Fair will answer questions about Mr. Bowden’s article? 

How did so many factual errors make it into print?  What fact checking did Vanity Fair do before publishing Mr. Bowden’s article on the Rasmussen murder?

Why has Vanity Fair not run a print correction?   When does it plan to do so?

Thank you very much for your time.  I will publish in full any response you send me. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Betsy A. Ross
Founder & Owner, Trials & Tribulations

Ms. Kseniak wrote back four days later, on June 6th:

Dear Betsy:

We feel that Cullen Murphy addressed your questions in his email to you.  We have also made the corresponding corrections to the online article (where people will be reading it), and appended a paragraph to the article, which details every correction.

All best,

Beth

I replied on June 10th:

Dear Ms. Kseniak,

Thank you for your response.

I believe you are referring to Mr. Murphy’s email to me from last October.  I honored his request to keep that email off the record.  Although you say it answered all my questions, I respectfully disagree. 

Some of the questions Mr. Murphy did not answer were about his initial statement to Poynter. This is the same statement Mr. Murphy later admitted to Poynter was an inadvertent “red herring.”  Mr. Murphy’s red herring remains the most detailed explanation that Vanity Fair has offered publicly about the accuracy of Mr. Bowden’s article.

Vanity Fair’s silence suggests the magazine is more concerned about protecting Mr. Bowden’s reputation than setting the record straight.  Given Mr. Bowden and Vanity Fair’s prominence, what the magazine publishes carries a great deal of weight.  It’s surprising to me that Mr. Carter, as editor in chief, wouldn’t be more concerned about the accuracy of Vanity Fair’s journalism.

It is true that Vanity Fair corrected a number of errors in the online edition, however, the correction was incomplete.  If Vanity’s Fair’s intent was to put the correction where people would read it, why not publish it in print?  Why is the online correction at the bottom of Mr. Bowden’s article, rather than the top?

I hope Mr. Carter will reconsider and respond to my questions. I hope to hear from him soon.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Betsy A. Ross
Founder & Owner, Trials & Tribulations

Ms. Kseniak responded on June 12th:

Dear Ms. Ross,

We feel that we have, to our satisfaction, set the record straight, and done so in such a way that will reach future readers of the story in the best fashion. We would note that the small errors that have been corrected had no bearing on the thrust of Mark Bowden's story. Further, one of our editors wrote to you privately, many months ago, to provide background on the reporting and fact-checking. We really don't have anything else to say on the matter.

All best,

Beth

I replied on June 17th:

Dear Ms. Kseniak,

Thank you for your response.

Twice, you have referred to Mr. Murphy’s private email to me, as if it sufficiently explained the mistakes in Mr. Bowden’s article. This puts me in a difficult position journalistically. Obviously, Mr. Bowden’s article for Vanity Fair was published on the record. Mr. Murphy’s comments to Poynter were also on the record, as were my questions to Mr. Murphy. Nevertheless, Mr. Murphy chose to respond privately. 

To be clear, Mr. Murphy’s email did not answer any of the questions I asked him about Mr. Bowden’s article. Mr. Murphy seemed more concerned about protecting Mr. Bowden’s reputation than the accuracy of Vanity Fair’s journalism.

I respectfully disagree with your claim that the errors were small and “had no bearing on the thrust of Mark Bowden’s story.”  Among the facts that Mr. Bowden got wrong were when Lazarus’s relationship with the victim’s husband ended, and whether Lazarus took her gun to the interview. This last error, which I pointed out almost a year ago, remains uncorrected online.

The online version of Mr. Bowden’s article still includes numerous inaccurate quotes by Lazarus and the detectives. The discrepancies are more extensive than Mr. Murphy acknowledged to Poynter, and Vanity Fair has admitted to its readers. Anyone who watches the video and compares it to Mr. Bowden’s article can see they don’t match.

Are Vanity Fair’s editorial standards this lax for all of its journalists, or just Mr. Bowden?

I realize I can’t force Mr. Carter to answer my questions. However, I hope he will reconsider.  As before, I promise to publish in full any response that Vanity Fair sends me.

Sincerely,
Betsy A. Ross
Founder & Owner, Trials & Tribulations

That was two weeks ago. Mr. Bowden, Mr. Murphy, Ms. Kseniak and Mr. Carter all have my email address. I will update T&T readers if I hear from anyone at Vanity Fair.

To be continued....