Times Story on D.C. Mayor Sets Off a Political Storm

WASHINGTON — A Los Angeles Times profile of District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry has created a political squall in the nation’s capital and enmeshed the embattled mayor in another controversy in advance of what is expected to be a tough reelection campaign.

In a letter to the editor of The Times, Barry denied some of the remarks attributed to him by staff writer Bella Stumbo, whose account he characterized as racist.

Most of the local furor--and Barry’s strongest denials--involved derogatory comments Barry was quoted as making about the Rev. Jesse Jackson, whose political intentions have been the focus of intense speculation since he moved to Washington last year.

In The Times story, Barry was quoted as saying that Jackson “don’t wanna run nothing but his mouth” and that he would be “the laughingstock of America” if he challenged Barry by running for mayor of the district.

Denying he made such remarks, Barry said that “while I am admittedly not the best enunciator in the world, I do not use the ‘black dialect’ she chose to attribute to me. . . . I do not speak that way, nor would I have said such a thing at all.”

Barry also complained that the story was “filled with factual inaccuracies.”

The Times, saying it had taped many of the conversations with Barry, stood by the story.

“The aim of the story was to profile the mayor of the nation’s capital who has been under intense scrutiny. Mayor Barry was given ample room to defend his Administration and rebut his critics,” Shelby Coffey III, editor and executive vice president of the newspaper, said in a statement.

“What emerged was a balanced and perceptive portrait of the mayor as he revealed himself in 18 hours of interviews,” Coffey said. “After reviewing notes and tapes, it’s clear that the mayor’s comments were fairly portrayed.”

Jackson, evidently trying to distance himself from the controversy, declined to comment.

Barry is preparing to launch a fourth-term reelection bid under a cloud of controversy over allegations of drug use and other personal misconduct.

“It’s another chapter in the saga. It solidifies my constituents’ negative feelings about the mayor,” said James Nathanson, a D.C. councilman and former Barry supporter.

One reflection of the community’s interest is the extensive media coverage Barry’s dispute with The Times has received in the local media.

“The real impact of this story locally is not the fact that it was published in the Los Angeles Times but the fact that the Washington Post has taken it over in a rather grand fashion, with a front page story, sidebars and whatnot,” said Stephen Hess, an expert on politics and the media at the Brookings Institution.

As an example of the alleged inaccuracies, Barry cited a reference in the article to his childhood days in Mississippi, adding “it was Tennessee.” Barry was born in Mississippi and moved to Tennessee at age 5.

He also took issue with a reference to political corruption that said “people close to Barry keep going to jail for pilfering public coffers.”

Barry said that, “during my 11 years as mayor, there have been only three people ‘close to the mayor’ who have been convicted of taking public funds.”

That assertion was disputed by the Washington Post, which said in its article on the mayor’s denial that “at least 12 top-ranking and mid-level District government officials have been convicted of crimes related to their official conduct” since Barry assumed office in 1979.