Tom Frazier: Lessons learned from a movie director

Billy Wilder was the first to say, "Hindsight is always 20/20." He was right of course. It's terribly easy to make a decision when you know the outcome.

That's what editors struggle with with every story -- making the right decisions.

My first encounter with a journalist was in April 1972 -- in Vietnam. At the time, there was a major offensive in progress by the North Vietnamese army. They were moving south faster than anyone could imagine.

Our intelligence folks were caught totally off guard, briefing air crews with outdated, inaccurate data.

I worked in the Rescue Coordination Center at Monkey Mountain, about 12 kilometers east of Da Nang. Our job was to quarterback all necessary forces and materials to rescue downed crewmembers.

The first two weeks of April turned out to be our busiest time of the war. We had several pilots and one navigator down -- and they were all behind enemy lines, the advancing North Vietnamese lines.

We tried everything.

Nothing worked.

In the process, we lost a rescue helicopter, Jolly Green 67, with its crew of six.

After 11 fruitless days, and as a last resort, a ground team went in behind enemy lines in the middle of the night. This five-man team led by Navy Seal Lt. (j.g.) Tom Norris evaded the enemy, stole a sampan (a canoe-like boat) and managed to get the 53-year-old navigator out.

The news leaked out.

A reporter from the Stars and Stripes, a DOD newspaper, went to the field hospital, met with Norris and others asking loads of questions.

That's what reporters do.

Then the reporter talked with my boss, trying to confirm how the rescue plan came together.

We still had others down in the same area and were planning to use the same technique to extract them. Of course, it was either secret or top secret at the time.

We couldn't tell the reporter much of anything.

But we did ask him -- many times, in several different ways -- not to publish what he knew about the rescue. We asked him to relay our concerns to his editors.

We didn't want to compromise future operations.

It didn't work. The Stars and Stripes published the story.

The next team that went in to get another pilot was shot up badly -- the team leader lost an eye.

Did the publishing of the story lead to the aborted attempt and injuries?

Dunno.

Was this responsible journalism?

Using 20/20 hindsight, if you were the editor, would you have published it?

During 2009, the Sun-Star published several stories that received a lot of flak from its audience.

Let's play 20/20 hindsight again.

Would you have published the "Gary Frago" story? More than once?

Would you have fired a columnist using the front page?

Would you have published a special Sunday edition because the first lady came to town?

Would you have published the story about the salaries and perks of the Atwater City Council?

Would you have published the picture of a dying soldier in Afghanistan?

Would you have published the story about the "movers and shakers" of Merced County?

Would you have waited until the "follow-up" to the movers and shakers story was more complete before promising it? (The story ran on November 25, 2009 and, so far, there has been no follow-up.)

No, I'm not suggesting that any of these stories, except perhaps the Vietnam rescue mission, should not have been published.

I am saying I'd like other opinions -- your opinions. Someone once called me "spoon" because I sometimes try to stir things up.

That's a perk of being an ombudsman.

For those who may be interested in more information about the Vietnam rescue mission, try using Google with the search terms "Bat 21 Rescue" or "Navy Seal Tom Norris." There's also a movie about the mission "Bat 21," available on DVD, but it's not really factual.

Finally, for the Sun-Star editors, Billy Wilder also said, "Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else's."