Last Updated: March 18. 2011 1:00AM
Resignation of Detroit News auto critic Burgess explained
The Detroit News
Scott Burgess, who resigned Wednesday as the auto critic for The Detroit News, said Thursday that he quit the paper because of an editing dispute involving his sharply critical review of the Chrysler 200 sedan.
"I quit because of the motivation behind the editing," Burgess said during an appearance on Autoline After Hours, a live webcast devoted to the auto industry.
Burgess said editors told him March 11 that an advertiser had complained about the review, which had been published in the paper March 10, and told him what to cut from the online version. Burgess made the changes but later regretted doing so.
Detroit News Editor and Publisher Jonathan Wolman said Thursday that the paper acted with good intention, but had made a mistake.
He acknowledged the review had drawn a complaint from an advertiser, but said the changes to the online version were made when his editors went over the review and felt that the wording of several phrases was especially grating. The thrust of the review was not changed, not even remotely, he said.
"The paper's intent was to make an editing improvement, but we obviously handled it poorly," Wolman said. "We should have let the online version of his review stand as written, as we did the print version."
The original language has since been restored to the online review.
From The Detroit News:
http://detnews.com/article/20110318/AUTO01/103180382/Resignation-of-Detroit-News-auto-critic-Burgess-explained#ixzz1H6mpt4FG
