SRO News | Updates: "Summer in the City" - Summer Rayne Oakes profile in NZZ Sonntag

"Summer in the City" - Summer Rayne Oakes profile in NZZ Sonntag

Published Monday, June 18, 2007 by SROmgmt | E-mail this post

A two-page feature on Summer Rayne Oakes and her work in Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) Sunday edition, the major Swiss daily newspaper based in Zürich.

The link to the article is here: "Summer in the City"

The translated version can be accessed here.

* Please note that we do not fully support this article. Though Summer Rayne was not portrayed poorly, the journalist wrote a sensational piece with fictitious, inaccurate accounts. Letters were sent and e-mailed to the Editors of NZZ personally from Summer Rayne addressing general journalistic ethics (See letters above. Click to enlarge).

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LETTER from Cassani Sandra on behalf of Müller Felix E. dated 6-20-2007

Dear Ms. Stoll

Thank you very much for forwarding me the letter of Summer Rayne Oakes. I appreciate your very detailed feedback on Christoph Zuerchers article.

May I first emphasise that a fair and accurate reporting is the standard at "NZZ am Sonntag" and we don't publish articles made up - as you put it - by the authors. All my journalists know this and follow these rules. Therefore I was surprised by your claim that Mr. Zuercher didn't even bother to take notes during the interview. Upon my request he has shown me his booklet with notes and words which definitely have been the basis of his article.

First paragraph: You claim the first paragraph is completly made up. But by carefully reading this paragraph it is obvious that Mr. Zuercher didn't claim this episode happend during his visit.

Fifth paragraph: That you talked about a fotoshooting during the interview is supported by the word "Bloomberg" and "shooting" in his booklet. Probabely this was a misunderstanding?

Sixth paragraph: If you have not heard the reference to Paris Hilton before it's not a proof that this refrence never happened since you can't know everything what has been said about you.

Seventh paragraph: "sexiness" is one of the first words popping up on your website.

Eigth paragraph: This definitely is a mistake Mr. Zuercher made. In his booklet he showed me the word "Cornell". He does apologize for this error.

Ninth paragraph: Mr. Zuercher can't recall where he got this information. It was probabely on the internet. In this case he should have put the source in his article as it is the rule for this paper.

Tenth paragraph: If it's marble then Mr. Zuercher made a mistake.

It is obvious that by claiming about half of the article is made up by Mr. Zuercher you are exaggerating quite a bit. Unfortunately Mr. Zuercher has made some mistakes for which I have admonished him and for which I apologize. But everybody does make mistakes as for example your letter shows: My name is Müller (or Mueller in English) but not Mulder as you have written. At least Mr. Zuercher did spell your name correctly which is a very basic thing in human interaction.

Yours, sincerely

Dr. Felix E. Mueller Editor-in-chief

Summer Rayne Oakes follow-up letter dated 6-21-2007