Bias exists in people, not this newspaper
Contrary to what is apparently a popular belief, The Beaumont Enterprise doesn’t have a political agenda, at least not where political candidates are concerned. We, as a newspaper, do fight diligently for Constitutional rights such as Freedom of the Press, and for the public’s right to know. That’s our job and we do our very best to pursue it diligently.
Now, for all the people who are picking up their telephones at this moment to raise the issue of political endorsements, please (literally) hold the phone for a moment. Yes, we, as a newspaper DO generally (though not always) endorse political candidates, but that is a completely separate issue.
Those endorsements are discussed and decided by an editorial board of several senior managers. They represent, not one person’s opinion, but the opinion of a group of people of varying backgrounds and preferences who generally have personal interviews with the candidates before making those decisions. Those endorsements are published on our editorial or opinions page – the ONLY place in a newspaper where any opinions (other than those properly labeled as commentary or criticism, such as movie reviews) should appear.
The news pages of the paper (particularly the front page) are not the place for expressions of political support or, in the alternative, lack of support for any political candidate.
Yes, we do have staff members who have their own political opinions involved in selection of those stories and photos and creation of those pages. They are encouraged to keep those opinions to themselves. Our Beaumont Enterprise ethics guidelines prohibit editorial employees from participating in political campaigns or placing political bumper stickers on their cars parked in company parking lots. That’s how serious we are about keeping political bias out of our newsroom.
Last Thursday the Iowa caucus officially kicked off the beginning of major political positioning for the 2008 Presidential election. Barack Obama won the Democratic caucus (while Mike Huckabee won the Republican.) On page 2 of Friday’s Beaumont Enterprise it was an approximately three-inch story, without so much as a small photo.
That was a bad decision and bad play of a very important national story. Not only was it an important milestone in the election, it was an important milestone for our country as the first ever African American, running and a primarily white Mid-American state, won a major party caucus. Our editor, Tim Kelly, sent out an internal message that day, helping editors making those decisions recognize the error in judgment.
They apparently listened. In fact they even discussed it, deciding during Tuesday’s planning meeting that results of the New Hampshire primary would run high on the front page with photographs of the winning candidates for both parties. At that time, obviously, we had no idea who those winning candidates might be. We were trying to correct an error in judgment made when we published Iowa caucus results. It was an error that needed to be corrected, whether or not the perfect political situation presented itself.
This time, Obama wasn’t the winner, Hillary Rodham Clinton was. Some readers want to make that an issue. They even want to make it a racial issue. It isn’t, it wasn’t, it was a mistake that we corrected.
But, just to prove that everyone seems to be a conspiracy theorist these days, we also had complaints that the photograph of Clinton we published was not flattering and therefore provided evidence of our bias against her.
No, it wasn’t. We aren’t. Really. We cover the news; we simply don’t have time to try to mold it to suit any underlying purpose other than that.
Now, for all the people who are picking up their telephones at this moment to raise the issue of political endorsements, please (literally) hold the phone for a moment. Yes, we, as a newspaper DO generally (though not always) endorse political candidates, but that is a completely separate issue.
Those endorsements are discussed and decided by an editorial board of several senior managers. They represent, not one person’s opinion, but the opinion of a group of people of varying backgrounds and preferences who generally have personal interviews with the candidates before making those decisions. Those endorsements are published on our editorial or opinions page – the ONLY place in a newspaper where any opinions (other than those properly labeled as commentary or criticism, such as movie reviews) should appear.
The news pages of the paper (particularly the front page) are not the place for expressions of political support or, in the alternative, lack of support for any political candidate.
Yes, we do have staff members who have their own political opinions involved in selection of those stories and photos and creation of those pages. They are encouraged to keep those opinions to themselves. Our Beaumont Enterprise ethics guidelines prohibit editorial employees from participating in political campaigns or placing political bumper stickers on their cars parked in company parking lots. That’s how serious we are about keeping political bias out of our newsroom.
Last Thursday the Iowa caucus officially kicked off the beginning of major political positioning for the 2008 Presidential election. Barack Obama won the Democratic caucus (while Mike Huckabee won the Republican.) On page 2 of Friday’s Beaumont Enterprise it was an approximately three-inch story, without so much as a small photo.
That was a bad decision and bad play of a very important national story. Not only was it an important milestone in the election, it was an important milestone for our country as the first ever African American, running and a primarily white Mid-American state, won a major party caucus. Our editor, Tim Kelly, sent out an internal message that day, helping editors making those decisions recognize the error in judgment.
They apparently listened. In fact they even discussed it, deciding during Tuesday’s planning meeting that results of the New Hampshire primary would run high on the front page with photographs of the winning candidates for both parties. At that time, obviously, we had no idea who those winning candidates might be. We were trying to correct an error in judgment made when we published Iowa caucus results. It was an error that needed to be corrected, whether or not the perfect political situation presented itself.
This time, Obama wasn’t the winner, Hillary Rodham Clinton was. Some readers want to make that an issue. They even want to make it a racial issue. It isn’t, it wasn’t, it was a mistake that we corrected.
But, just to prove that everyone seems to be a conspiracy theorist these days, we also had complaints that the photograph of Clinton we published was not flattering and therefore provided evidence of our bias against her.
No, it wasn’t. We aren’t. Really. We cover the news; we simply don’t have time to try to mold it to suit any underlying purpose other than that.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 12:48 PM
2 Comments:
You don't believe that garbage you printed about the Enterprise not being biased...VERY BIASED...and you know it Sheila! I dealt with you, Tim Kelly and that other woman who moved into your spot after you got promoted for a long time. I felt the hatred, saw the bigotry and lived the misery of walking into that newsroom each time I brought my Blues Connection column in to the Enterprise for printing. Don Jacobs wrote a column on Country and Western music and each word he felt he needed to write was published while I was censored, yes CENSORED very harshly. If you want me to I can cite chapter and verse of when some of those times happened to me. Nothing has changed at the Beaumont Enterprise..except maybe some of the more prejudiced "editors" got promotions. I was eventually canned because I spoke out once too often.
If there is no agenda, why isn't the Enterprise questioning every move that's made in the PNG, Lumberton and Vidor ISD bond issues?
You all had a LOT to say when Beaumont was trying to fix up their schools...
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