September 7, 2006 – 8:00 am
A Tallahassee Democrat story spotted by Romenesko:
Don Spille said he lost almost everything in Hurricane Katrina, including his home in Kenner, La., and his father, who lived in coastal
Mississippi.
The Tallahassee Democrat even ran a front-page story about Spille and his family Tuesday to coincide with the one-year anniversary of Katrina. But there was at least one big problem with Spille’s story – his father, Ed Spille Sr., isn’t dead. He’s alive and well and living in Central Florida.
“Well, I’m talking to you,” Ed Spille Sr. said Thursday when contacted by a reporter. “I’m a hell of a ghost, my friend. Believe me, I’m not dead.”
Don Spille had said his father had been killed when storm surge wiped out his home in Pass Christian, Miss. His dad, however, said that while his home and several others he owned were destroyed, he waited out the hurricane with relatives in Baton Rouge, La. He later moved to Florida.
Ed Spille Sr., who will be 80 later this month, said he doesn’t know why his son would have made up the story.
When contacted Thursday, Don Spille initially claimed that although his biological father was alive, another man whom he considered to be his father had died in Katrina. He later admitted that he had lied, and he apologized.
He said that in the days after Katrina, he couldn’t contact his dad.
After the storm, he was talking about Katrina to someone who got the mistaken impression that Ed Spille Sr. died. Don Spille never cleared up the confusion, and he continued to lie about his dad…
Project H.O.P.E., which helps Katrina victims, put Don Spille in touch with the newspaper for the anniversary article. Julie Chahboune of Project H.O.P.E. said she was shocked to hear that Spille’s father is alive. She said Don Spille had told her the story about his father.
“And he cried while telling it,” she said.
The Tallahassee Democrat learned about the fabrication after receiving an anonymous phone call Thursday…
Ed Spille Sr. displayed a sense of humor about the situation.
“I might be dead to him,” he said. “At 80 years old, I’m dead to a lot of people.”
Original story here.
Perhaps inspired by the remarkable 2004 apology from the Lexington Herald-Leader on the 40th anniversary of the passing of the Civil Rights Act, another newspaper had offered up a belated apology 50 years after the fact. The Tallahassee Democrat recently ran a special section about the 1956 Tallahassee bus boycott. Included in the package was an article headlined,”Fifty years in coming: Our apology.” Editor & Publisher has a good story on the paper’s decision. An excerpt from the article:
…the bus boycott was a singular and defining event around which the journey toward equality could be embodied. Thus, it should be viewed as among the most significant moments in the history of Florida and the nation, not only as a civil rights action, but also an important – and among the earliest – student-led civil protests in this country.
Leaders in that journey toward equality should have been able to expect support in ending segregation from the local daily newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat. They could not. We not only did not lend a hand, we openly opposed integration, siding firmly with the segregationists.
It is inconceivable that a newspaper, an institution that exists freely only because of the Bill of Rights, could be so wrong on civil rights.
But we were.
While the Democrat today is a far different organization from what it was 50 years ago, we have never formally apologized for our actions. Nothing will change history, certainly not a few words. But words are a powerful tool and can have a lasting and healing impact.
Recently, the Democrat apologized privately to Henry and Derek Steele for how this institution treated their father and other civil-rights leaders. We told them we intended to apologize publicly, not only for how we treated the Rev. Steele and others as individuals, but also for how we behaved throughout that era. We now do apologize.
A public apology on behalf of the institution does not undo what was done, but it is a symbol – and simply the right thing to do. Sometimes words need to be said, and written, for the healing to begin. Painful emotions bottled up inside for all these years – feelings of hurt, betrayal and anger – need to be addressed.
This is the time for that to occur…
