Another day, another Enterprise

This week officially begins the season of rushing around, long-distance driving or crowded airline flights, big meals with family and/or friends and serious overspending.

We at The Enterprise like to celebrate as much as any of you – and we do. We have staff members from across the country who, generally, sometime during these few weeks, try to grab a few days to reconnect with their home bases.

But their Thanksgiving might not be on Thursday, Nov. 23 as yours is. It is as likely to be on Friday Dec. 1, or Monday, Dec. 11 – and Christmas and New Year’s might be rolled into that three-or-four-day weekend as well.

As I tell school groups who some to tour The Enterprise, we are a DAILY newspaper. That means we come out every day – Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Easter Sunday, Mother’s Day – every day. In order to do that someone – actually more than one someone – has to work those days.

The newspaper is produced in a cycle that begins with newsgathering and writing, progresses through page design and production, into printing and then distribution. Then it begins all over again. It takes a team of people doing what they do best to make it happen. Producing a newspaper is a 24-hour cycle that happens every 24 hours. So we’re here, as we should be. That’s not whining, we all chose to do this job, knowing this is one of the minuses that goes with all the plusses.

We also recognize that there are many more people out there, from fast-food workers and convenience store clerks to fire fighters, police officers, nurses, doctors and others who are equally willing to work today. Many, if not most, of those are much more essential than those of us who simply report what they do.

So, from The Enterprise, Happy Thanksgiving. We’ll see you in the morning. We’ll be that overstuffed one in the plastic wrapper.

Happy Osturduckencorpheail Day!

There's a Thanksgiving controversy in the news today: A British researcher claims there were no turkeys at the first Thanksgiving in 1621 Plymouth. As you can imagine, that's sparked a major gobble squabble (and thankfully, the media can't be blamed.)

But here in the South, there will be a lot of Thanksgiving tables where the main meat will be merely ... turkey-like ... or turkey-inspired.

By now, most people have heard of "turducken" (short for turkey-duck-chicken). Since you might not believe me, here's the Wikipedia definition: "It is a de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The cavity of the chicken and the rest of the gaps are filled with, at the very least, a highly seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird. Some recipes call for the turkey to be stuffed with a chicken which is then stuffed with a duckling. It is also called a chuckey."

Apparently, turkey got to be too boring, so turduckens were invented. And now turduckens are too boring, so people have actually created other Thanksgiving birds, just to keep the tryptophan dreams alive. We work with words here at The Enterprise, so this is actually a fascinating cultural evolution.

For example, this season, you might want to cook a Gurducken, a goose stuffed with a duck and a chicken...

... or a Turduckencorpheail, a standard turducken that is then stuffed with a cornish game hen, which is then stuffed with a pheasant, and finally stuffed with a quail.

... or a Osturduckencorpheail, an ostrich stuffed with turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken.

... or a Turgoduckmaguikenantidgeonck (a turkey, goose, duck, mallard, guineafowl, chicken, pheasant, partridge, pigeon, woodcock.)

... or the world-record-holding Bustergophechideckneaealckideverwingailusharkolanine (bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an ortolan and a passerine. Since passerine is a generic term, it is not known exactly what kind of bird was used as the smallest in the actual roast ... maybe a hummingbird?)

Now that I've given you the bird six different ways .... Happy Thanksgiving, readers and friends!

Anne Frank's tree

The Enterprise doesn't run a lot of international news, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. We aren't the Houston Chronicle or the Dallas Morning News, and we shouldn't pretend we are. We emphasize news closer to home, and that's a worthy mission.

One consequence of that approach is that the international news which does make it into our paper is usually pretty interesting. Or in the case of today's article on page 14A, pretty sad.

If there's a more heartbreaking tale that came out of World War II than "The Diary of Anne Frank," I don't know what it is. The Orange Community Players recently staged that play, and it's a production that all of us should see at least once.

Today our readers learned that the chestnut tree which gave a bit of hope to that poor girl has to come down. It is beseiged by fungus and moths, and after more than a century and a half in Amsterdam, its alloted span has run out.

We are sad -- not for the tree, but for what it represents, a living link to Anne Frank, her tormented family and the millions of innocent people who perished in the Holocaust.

The tree may live on in the form of grafts, and that would be nice. What does live on, and it's far more important, are the poignant words of a simple teenage girl trapped in a nightmare:

"From my favorite spot on the floor (of the attic) I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind. ... As long as this exists, I thought, and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts I cannot be unhappy."

You wonder how men with guns and uniforms could have hunted children like Anne Frank. You wonder how "decent" people could stand by and watch. You ponder the fact that Anne Frank died in Belsen just two months before the war ended. And with all that's going on in the world today, you mourn the demise of a tree across the ocean.

This beauty is pretty rough

Among the many people who have been asked (and I haven’t been) for their comments on photographer Dave Anderson’s book "Rough Beauty," a photographic depiction of the town of Vidor, I think I might be among the most qualified to share an opinion.

I live in Vidor, and have for more than 25 years. I think the fact that I am not a native, but an outsider who has found a home in a warm and gracious community, gives me a great perspective. I recognize things that are unique about Vidor because I came here as an adult having lived elsewhere and having been exposed to many different circumstances.

The fact that I am at least moderately acquainted with the work of Keith Carter, the Beaumont photographer who was among author Dave Anderson’s teachers adds to my qualifications. I certainly see strong threads of Carter’s influence in the book – not the least of which is the choice of black and white photography.

But my objections to the book, and I do have some, are based on my background as a journalist. Though Anderson’s work, which is a commercial enterprise, makes no real promise of credibility or reality, it certainly is implied in his presentation and his interviews. In doing that, he does a great disservice to those of us who are journalists and those of us who live in Vidor.

I, unlike some who have been asked to comment after a brief glimpse of the contents – have looked at and READ the book. My biggest objection comes in the smallest word – most. Page 8 of the book, in the portion written by Ann Wilkes Tucker, refers to Anderson’s documentation of the “hard scrabble lives of most of the residents of Vidor, Texas.” That is far from true.

I also am offended as a journalist by another word, “predominantly.” The book notes, on the title page, that the photographs were made predominantly in Vidor. Yet nowhere in the book does it tell which ones were and were not made in Vidor, nor where else some of the photos might have been taken. I find that a huge error of omission.

The book uses random quotes throughout and they are artistically placed and worthy of pondering, but they are not attributed, nor, as the book’s title page says, are they, “necessarily from the same people as are featured in the photographs adjacent to the quotes.” Try that in a newspaper and it will get you sued.

So, is it a good book? Artistically, yes. I even would go so far as to say that it could represent much of the rural south and would serve as a meaningful representation of how many poor people might live, either by choice or circumstance.

Does it reflect the reality of Vidor? Not even close.

We're animal lovers too

Among the most affable members of our family is an easy-going 11-year-old named Rocky. He’s our so-ugly-he’s-cute mutt dog, rescued from a local animal shelter one spring when he was still an adorable puppy.

Our life would not be the same without him.

We are far from perfect pet owners, but we love him and we do our best to give him the attention he needs and take care of him. We have a fenced back yard, but Rocky has always been a digger and one day several years ago he dug enough to escape that yard and, on his adventure was struck by a car. Much personal trauma, multiple surgeries, a long recovery, a big vet bill and a concrete-filled trench along our fence-line later – Rocky is still with us, and my husband fondly refers to him as the multi-thousand dollar mutt.

So, given our history, I don’t know if the Humane Society of Southeast Texas, whom reporter Beth Gallaspy wrote about in Friday’s Enterprise, would let us adopt another animal or not, but I hope they would. Rocky has greatly enriched our lives and everyone deserves a second chance – even a mutt dog who likes to dig under the fence.

The point is that is their option.

Several readers wrote to comment on the Humane Society story, both positively and negatively. One reader wrote to say that when a cat adoption went bad because the cat’s temperament was not suited to the owner's environment, that owner was not allowed to adopt another pet.

Another, a shelter volunteer, wrote about all the positives of having the animals as part of her life and all the concerns that improper pet care could raise – from heartworms to fleas. She rightfully (and righteously) pointed out that parents who adopt children have to go through a very tedious screening process, so it seems only appropriate that adoptive parents for animals should have to go through at least a minimal screening process.

One reader seemed to object more to the headline, “Animal shelter rules might be pushing people away,” more than the story. That makes this a good place to remind people – or tell those who don’t know – that reporters don’t write the headlines on their stories, frequently much to their chagrin. But, though the headline might have been slanted toward one portion of the story, it was not incorrect.

It’s also a good place to remind readers that we don’t make the news; we report it, representing both sides of the story, as we did in this case. Sometimes that makes people unhappy – on both sides. We’ll continue to do it anyway. Please continue to let us know when you object. It reminds us somebody’s out there watching, makes is think about what we are doing and the impact it might have -- and keeps us on our toes. Thanks for sharing.

Veterans Day I and II

Who can complain about a holiday that gets celebrated twice?

Today is Veterans Day and tomorrow is Veterans Day. Well, sort of ...

The real Veterans Day is Nov. 11. That's Saturday this year. But the federal government -- which loves its holidays, big and small -- actually celebrates it today, Friday, Nov. 10.

Why? November 11, 2006, (the legal public holiday for Veteran's Day) falls on a Saturday. For most federal employees, today is treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes (There's even a law that says so. See 5 U.S.C. 6103(b).) As is often the case, other local governments follow suit ... Beaumont and Jefferson County offices are closed, but some other area government offices are open. It's potluck.

Your mail will be delivered today, but the U.S. Postal Service (a quasi-federal agency) won't be visiting your mailbox tomorrow.

As for The Enterprise, even hurricanes don't shut us down completely. On the real Veterans Day (Saturday) we'll feature several veteran-related pieces, including a story about how the known number of World War I veterans is now down to 12. That's not a typo. Only 12 American veterans of the Great War are known to be living today. Their average age? 108.

We'll also salute all veterans and current fighting men and women in a new installment of our "Those Who Serve" feature.

Semper fi.

Ah, Election Night

Pizza. Politics. Panic.

That pretty much sums up a typical newsroom election night.

An hour ago, peaceful described the newsroom. Only a couple of news reporters were here.
Now, they're starting to trickle in and get ready for the long night.

Days ago, we put together an election story list, which we call a budget. We have to decide which races warrant stories and which races warrant just numbers in a box. I came up with editor assignments as well as story lengths and deadlines. There are three deadlines, but I'll get to that later.

Normally, we don't share our story budgets with the public. We don't want the competition to know what we're up to.

But we're all covering the same stuff, so here's what our election budget looks like:

ELECTION 2006
REPORTERS ON DUTY: Jennifer Avilla, Sarah Moore, Bro Krift, Beth Gallaspy, Dee Dixon, Christine Rappleye, Ryan Myers, Colin McDonald WITH SCOTT AND ROLANDO AT THE VOTING BARN.
EDITORS ON DUTY: BRIAN PEARSON, ELAINE WIKSTROM, PETE CHURTON

DEADLINES FOR EDITORS PUSHING COPY TO DESK:
EARLY EDITION – 9 P.M.
SECOND EDITION – 10:30 P.M.
LAST EDITION – MIDNIGHT
NOTE: THESE DEADLINES ARE UNBREAKABLE AND NON-NEGOTIABLE.

EDITOR – BRIAN PEARSON
Gallaspy — JCJUDGE w/art — Job vs. Walker. Clerk. 20 inches. 8:45 p.m./10:15 p.m./11:45 p.m.
Myers – HOWWEVOTED — A look at how Southeast Texans voted in statewide races. Needs to include information about voter turnout. Also, were there any problems reported with the voting? 20 inches – 8:35 p.m./10:10 p.m./11:35 p.m.

EDITOR — PETE CHURTON
Krift — COUNTYJUDGES — Who won? Which party won? County judge races in Jefferson, Orange, Jasper, Liberty, Chambers, Tyler, Sabine and San Augustine counties. 15 inches. 8:35 p.m./10:10 p.m./11:35 p.m.
Dixon – STATEDISTRICT19 — Hamilton vs. Clayton. 12 inches. Include other state races with local interest. (McReynolds?) – 8:30 p.m./10 p.m./11:30 p.m.
Krift — BUNAINCORPORATE – 8 inches - 8:25 p.m./9:55 p.m./11:25 p.m.

EDITOR — ELAINE WIKSTROM
Avilla – LAMPSON — Is he back in office? Include other U.S. races with local interest. 15 inches. 8:45 p.m./10:15 p.m./11:45 p.m.
Moore — COURTRACES — 279th District Court Race. 8 inches. 8:30 p.m./10 p.m./11:30 p.m.
Rappleye — USHOUSE2 — Include any other U.S races with local interest. 15 inches. 8:25 p.m./9:55 p.m./11:25 p.m.

Eslinger — ONLINENUMBERS — Numbers posted online from election barn.

NUMBERS
Gallaspy — JCCOUNTY
Dixon — OCCOUNTY
Krift — JASPERCOUNTY — NUMBERS ONLY.
Avilla — CHAMBERSCOUNTY — NUMBERS ONLY.
Rappleye — LIBERTYCOUNTY — NUMBERS ONLY.
Krift — TYLERCOUNTY – NUMBERS ONLY.
Moore — SABINECOUNTY – NUMBERS ONLY.
Moore — SANAUGUSTINECOUNTY – NUMBERS ONLY.

Of course, things could change. There could be a huge upset, maybe even trouble. We stay flexible.

The pizzas arrive at 6:30 p.m. Associate Managing Editor Sheila Friedeck is in charge of that, and I don't envy the job. It's tough to estimate how many pizzas will be needed and what toppings to get. You can't go wrong with pepperoni and mushroom, but there needs to be some veggie pizzas, supreme pizzas, meat pizzas and plain-jane cheese pizzas in there to attempt to make everyone happy.

I once ate an entire large pizza on an election night and paid for it by being sleepy all evening. I won't do that again. In fact, I might not have a piece at all.

After the polls close, frenzy ensues. We rush to get updated results online. We rush to get updated stories on line. We rush to meet not one but THREE deadlines for the trio of editions during the evening. Numbers are being fed to an editor to enter into a grid for tomorrow's box.

One key to a smooth evening is having reporters write what some call "A Matter" (advance matter) and others call "B Matter" (background matter). Basically, they're partially written stories that have nothing but background and Xs where numbers will go later.

They way, they don't have to write a whole story on deadline - and editors don't have to read a whole story on deadline. The A or B matter is pre-edited, so the reporter only needs to top it with numbers, quotes and whatnot, and editors only need to read that before shipping it to the desk.

Of course, few election nights go smoothly. The 2000 presidential election was a disaster for newsrooms, with busted deadlines and incorrect headlines aplenty. I almost needed therapy after that one.

Tonight should be simple, though I'll likely do some barking. I'll bark if they're pushing deadline to the limit. I'll bark if their story names don't match the budget. I'll say, "I don't care. Turn in what you've got!"

Reporters like to be thorough and obsess over their work. That's great, but tonight we need a M*A*S*H-unit mentality. Patch 'em up and move 'em along. We're not trying to be fancy. Get the facts. Turn in the story. Save the cosmetic surgery for the follow-ups.

Hopefully, I'll be out of here by midnight. But with these new electronic voting machines heavily into the mix, who knows?

I'll see you on the other side.

Readers who write

A letter in Monday's paper from a woman in Lumberton noted how happy she was to see letters by four liberals (and women, at that) in last Wednesday's paper. A letter that came in the mail today from another reader took the opposite view; we'll get that in this week sometime.

The Readers Write section is one of the best-read in the paper, and we'd like to keep it that way.

We print all letters we get with only a few qualifiers -- one letter per month, no personal or business disputes, and we have to use your name and city. Basically, we get them into print as soon as possible, usually within a few days of receiving them. We may try to run a group of letters on one topic on a single day, but otherwise we keep the pipeline moving.

If we can balance liberal and conservative viewpoints within a group of letters, that's great. Last Wednesday, however, we basically had four good letters ready to go, and all of them were from liberals. So that's what ran last Wednesday. On other times, we've had batches of letters that leaned to the right.

So if you see a letter with an opinion you don't like, don't worry, the next day's paper might well have a rebuttal. If you want to make sure the other side gets equal time, please write it yourself.

23 Ways to Become a Great Writer

So you wanna be a writer? We have lots of readers who ask us if they can write columns or news stories for us. Others want to edit copy for us because they often see typos in The Enterprise. Many of these helpful readers worked on their high school newspapers and know they would be excellent additions to our staff ... and they might be right.

Being a writer is easy ... it's the actual writing that can be difficult. Luckily for all of us, Frank Visco has condensed some good writing advice into 23 tips. And if you can follow Visco's guidance, you might have a career in newspapering!

"How to Write Good"
By Frank L. Visco

1. Avoid alliteration. Always.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
8. Contractions aren't necessary.
9. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
10. One should never generalize.
11. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
12. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
13. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. Profanity sucks.
15. Be more or less specific.
16. Understatement is always best.
17. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
18. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be avoided.
21. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
22. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
23. Who needs rhetorical questions?

Is your newspaper biased?

This photo has been floating around the Internet since yesterday. "Halp us Jon Carry - We R stuck hear n Irak," reads the sign reputedly held by soldiers from the Minnesota National Guard, now stationed in Talil, Iraq. The photo obviously pokes fun at U.S. Sen. John Kerry's remarks this week that were interpreted as saying, "stupid and lazy American kids will be 'stuck' in Iraq."

One blogger posted it today with a question: Is your newspaper biased? He helpfully provided the answer: If they don't run this photo, they are.

Ah, if bias were only so simple to spot. Might the newspaper that runs it be biased in favor of the blogger? Isn't that just as biased? And if you don't see it in your local newspaper, might there be reasons beyond bias (such as authenticity)?

Newspapers struggle every day to remove bias as much as possible from content. Because we are human reporters and editors, so-called "bias" might be as benign as choosing the verb "leaped" when some people believe the subject actually "hopped." Often, what readers might see as bias is unconscious, but very subtle. And sometimes -- rarely -- it raises its ugly head in more malignant ways ... but it's far rarer than amateur media critics believe.

Once, after writing a passionate and forceful editorial, an angry reader called to chastise me for my "biased opinions." I asked him: "What other opinions are there?" What you read on our editorial and op-ed pages ARE opinions. If they are editorials, they reflect the opinion of the newspaper as an institution. Everything else is printed to make you think, and here at The Enterprise, we try to cover as many perspectives as space permits.

I believe the real bias is in the reader. Increasingly, the reader comes to his media reports with firm convictions. If those reports support his convictions, they are deemed "fair." If they don't, they are "biased." If you believe President Bush is a misunderstood hero, then any report that suggests otherwise is "biased. If you believe Hillary Clinton is God's deliberate gift to mankind, then any story that celebrates her is "fair." But chances are, those reports were factual and even presented varied views.

Here's the part that will cause you to post a response: People genuinely want media bias .... as long as it suits their prefabbed biases. They love bias, if it's THEIR bias. One reason Fox News has become a darling of conservative media consumers is that its perceived (and perhaps real) bias supports their views. Fox viewers don't rail against Fox's bias; they embrace it.

It's unlikely you'll see the John Kerry photo above in The Enterprise. Does it mean we're biased? No. Would it mean we're not biased if it popped up here? No. We try harder than you can imagine to keep our news columns free of bias, and you can trust me on this, when we fail, we have a couple hundred thousand eyes ready to catch us. I think, all in all, The Enterprise and most mainstream newspapers do a good job of keeping bias out of the news.

But that's just my bias.

No conspiracy here folks

John Kerry made a mistake. We probably did too.

Kerry told some students at a political rally that if they didn’t do well in school they could “get stuck in Iraq.”

One reader, disappointed that we didn’t have a big story about the incident in our Wednesday newspaper, sent us an irate e-mail. She called Kerry’s comments “a slap in the face to our troops serving in Iraq and around the world.”

Kerry has apologized for his comments, calling the statement a botched joke. We’ll apologize as well, calling it what it was, a mistake.

We can’t get inside Kerry’s head – or probably past his political handlers at this point – to know any additional thoughts or agendas behind his comment. I can, however, let you inside The Enterprise to give you a glimpse into our thoughts about the situation.

John Kerry made his comments at a political rally in California on Monday. President George Bush, at a political rally in Georgia on Tuesday night, quoted Kerry and added fuel to what, until then, had been a smoldering politically charged issue.

That smoldering issue became a full-fledged political wildfire (or backfire, some might say) beginning Wednesday, becoming serious Internet fodder as well as the topic of numerous talk shows and newscasts.

Readers depending solely on the printed version of The Enterprise didn’t get the story until Thursday – on page 3A.

There are numerous reasons for that mostly involving some very busy people on a very busy day with some early deadlines.

There also is the fact that the Kerry quote wasn’t major news until late in the day on Tuesday. It actually didn’t blow up until Wednesday. Even if we had printed something about it in our Wednesday paper, it wouldn't have been played as a major story.

The Associated Press moved its first Kerry quote stories just before noon on Tuesday, but other major newspapers didn’t start reacting to the quote until much later. The Boston Globe, Kerry’s home-state paper didn’t move a story until 6:30 p.m. and it was 9:30 p.m. before USA Today decided it was a story.

That said we do recognize our error of omission. Our nearby sister paper, the Houston Chronicle, had the Boston Globe story on page 10A of their Wednesday paper. They followed with a story on page 8A Thursday. Our first and only printed version of the story was on page 3A Thursday though on-line versions were available on our Web page, BeaumontEnterprise.com, through the AP link beginning Tuesday.

It wasn’t a conspiracy, it was a dropped ball. Forgive us and we promise we will continue to try harder to meet your expectations.