All's as fair as possible in love and politics
Valentine’s Day might be the subject filling the advertisements in The Enterprise for the next couple of weeks, but the date having the most impact on the newsroom is May 12th, when most local city and school board elections take place.
Although the official filing period for the elections has not arrived, numerous candidates in cities throughout the region already have announced their intentions to seek office.
We like to think all news that passes through our computers and into publication (either in the print edition or on-line at BeaumontEnterprise.com) gets careful scrutiny and consideration. We also like to think that fairness is always a consideration in our news coverage. Even in criminal cases we ask ourselves: "Is it fair to the defendant?" and "Is it fair to the victim?"
But, in covering elections and candidates, there’s one more layer built into that consideration. We ask ourselves, not only, "Is it fair?" but also "Is it equal -- or at least comparable?" We go to some lengths to make sure that candidate announcements are comparable, in timing, in placement, in headline size, in length of story and in use (or not) of photographs.
Sometimes that doesn’t work out, especially early in the political season, before we get into our routine. Maybe different people do the announcement stories, and they vary. Maybe we don't have a file photo of the candidate, and the candidate doesn't have one available. We can't wait till we have a photo to report the announcement.
And news happens. If candidates choose to announce their participation on a day of a major news event, it may well have an effect on the resources we can spend in treating their announcement story the same as we have their opponents'.
In any case, the treatment of political announcements is ALWAYS a news decision. Those who might choose to construe one announcement vs. another as some type of endorsement -- or negative comment -- are misinformed.
The Enterprise, as most respectable newspapers, saves its opinions, clearly identified as such, for the Editorial pages. We will, I’m sure, before the election arrives, express the collective opinion of the members of the paper’s editorial board, concerning endorsements in many of the races.
That’s where those opinions belong. In the meantime, watch the news pages for the continuing stream of political announcements, delivered in as fair and equitable a manner as we can.
Although the official filing period for the elections has not arrived, numerous candidates in cities throughout the region already have announced their intentions to seek office.
We like to think all news that passes through our computers and into publication (either in the print edition or on-line at BeaumontEnterprise.com) gets careful scrutiny and consideration. We also like to think that fairness is always a consideration in our news coverage. Even in criminal cases we ask ourselves: "Is it fair to the defendant?" and "Is it fair to the victim?"
But, in covering elections and candidates, there’s one more layer built into that consideration. We ask ourselves, not only, "Is it fair?" but also "Is it equal -- or at least comparable?" We go to some lengths to make sure that candidate announcements are comparable, in timing, in placement, in headline size, in length of story and in use (or not) of photographs.
Sometimes that doesn’t work out, especially early in the political season, before we get into our routine. Maybe different people do the announcement stories, and they vary. Maybe we don't have a file photo of the candidate, and the candidate doesn't have one available. We can't wait till we have a photo to report the announcement.
And news happens. If candidates choose to announce their participation on a day of a major news event, it may well have an effect on the resources we can spend in treating their announcement story the same as we have their opponents'.
In any case, the treatment of political announcements is ALWAYS a news decision. Those who might choose to construe one announcement vs. another as some type of endorsement -- or negative comment -- are misinformed.
The Enterprise, as most respectable newspapers, saves its opinions, clearly identified as such, for the Editorial pages. We will, I’m sure, before the election arrives, express the collective opinion of the members of the paper’s editorial board, concerning endorsements in many of the races.
That’s where those opinions belong. In the meantime, watch the news pages for the continuing stream of political announcements, delivered in as fair and equitable a manner as we can.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 4:26 PM
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