Shelby Coffey III
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Shelby Coffey III is a journalist and business executive who is now a senior fellow of the Freedom Forum and a trustee of the Newseum in Washington, D.C. He was editor and executive vice president of the Los Angeles Times from 1989 to 1997. He has also been executive vice president of ABC News and was president of CNN Business News and CNNfn.[1]
Earlier, Coffey was a reporter and editor at the Washington Post, where he spent 17 years, and then editor of U.S. News & World Report. He was also senior vice president and editor of the Dallas Times-Herald.[1]
Awards
In 1995 The National Press Foundation named Coffey as its Editor of the Year in recognition of coverage by the Los Angeles Times of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the 1994 Northridge earthquake and the 1994 O.J. Simpson Trial.[1]
He received the Ida B. Wells Award in 1995 "for exemplary achievement in the hiring and advancement of minorities in the news media."[1]
Memberships
Coffey is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Press Institute. He was on the board of the Pacific Council on International Policy.[1]
Controversies
In response to journalist Gary Webb's three-part "Dark Alliance" series for the San Jose Mercury News, linking the CIA and Nicaraguan contras to the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles, Coffey assigned 17 reporters to review and exploit any error in Webb's reporting. The L.A. Times' rebuttals to Webb's reporting were longer than "Dark Alliance."[2] The L.A. Times' coverage was subsequently criticized for helping to ruin Webb's reputation by trying to discredit his work, which included misdirection and attacking a claim that Webb never made.[3]
Publications
- The Art of Leadership in News Organizations[1]
