Requests to alter online news archives seldom granted

SALT LAKE CITY — George Park says his career as a school administrator was obliterated the day police met him outside the Carbon School District offices and escorted him to jail one year ago.

Even though all charges related to his former position as Garfield County School District superintendent were dropped, Google and other search engines have kept news stories about that episode from fading into obscurity. Year-old stories about the charges are an easy find on news websites operated by both Salt Lake newspapers and all four of Salt Lake's network TV stations. Some online stories about the charges still feature the stereotypical jail photo where he's holding numbers in front of his chest.

Park said job interview after job interview has gone nowhere, something he blames on the ease with which potential employers find detailed stories about the original charges and that "terrible jail photo" online.

"It doesn't make for a good first impression," he said.

The era of the electronic archive has made historical information much more readily available than it is has ever been. And while newspapers cannot go back and reprint earlier print editions, they and other news outlets can change electronic archives and Web content.

The nagging questions revolve around whether they should, and under what circumstances.

Park took his case to editors at the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune with a direct request: Since the charges were dropped, would they pull the stories from their online archives?

Professional organizations like the Poynter Institute, which provides training resources for journalists, say requests like Park's are common, according to a column written for Poynter by Mallary Jean Tenore. What isn't common is a set policy on how to handle such requests.

The reasons people give for wanting a story pulled from Google's view also include claims that a source was unfair or inaccurate, or that a source later regretted something they said. Writers even ask that stories they wrote for publication be taken offline if they regret something they had written or think it will adversely affect a change in professional pursuits.

The Deseret News pulled the incriminating photo of Park from its deseretnews.com archive and added an editor's note to stories about criminal charges that says "Charges against Mr. Park were subsequently dropped in November 2010."

But the original news stories remain.