Starfleet's Shame

Starfleet's Shame was a Federation News Network exposé written and presented by investigative reporter Victoria Nuzé in 2381, after visiting the USS Cerritos. It was highly critical of the Cerritos crew and particularly Captain Carol Freeman due to her mishandling of Nuzé's presence, painting Freeman as the "cruel taskmaster" of a highly unprofessional and dysfunctional crew.

As Freeman had only been made aware of Nuzé's arrival on short notice and was not satisfied that the Cerritos would be presentable, the prospect of a reporter on board caused her to panic. This resulted in her cancelling leisure activities, enforcing bedtimes, and forbidding certain crewmembers from talking to Nuzé, which only served to give Nuzé a negative impression of Freeman. Among the blacklisted crewmembers was Ensign Beckett Mariner, her own daughter, as in spite of her recent improved conduct, she had historically been rambunctious. However, Mariner realized that Freeman was behaving irrationally and gave an unsanctioned interview in an attempt to salvage the Cerritos' image.

Worse, when Nuzé interviewed the whitelisted crewmembers, they unwittingly disclosed bizarre misadventures and indicated a rivalry between divisions and failed to realize how ridiculous their anecdotes sounded, giving Nuzé the impression that the Cerritos was "chaotic", "irresponsible", and "silly". The sole crewmember who gave an entirely positive interview was Mariner; however, as she only discovered Mariner had been interviewed as a result of Nuzé's attitude souring, Freeman simply assumed that Mariner had intentionally badmouthed the Cerritos to Nuzé, and responded to this by ordering the crew to shun her and having her transferred to Starbase 80. This only served to worsen Nuzé's impression of both Freeman and the crew of the Cerritos.

The crew only learned that Mariner had not been responsible for Nuzé's negative impression when the exposé aired, by which time she had resigned from Starfleet, preventing Freeman from apologizing to her. (LD: "Trusted Sources")