Mistakes are not part of newspaper “plot”
Government today is anything but business as usual. People aren’t just interested, aren’t just concerned, they are angry.
The conspiracy theorists seem to think that members of the media are omitting or twisting news to suit some unstated but well-organized “plan” that will result in outcomes ranging from adoption of a government health-care plan to the end of life as we know it.
The reality is, in the chaos that is the news business, sometimes we just blow it. Unfortunately when we do, it undermines our credibility and compromises our efforts to represent the news as straightforwardly as possible. We know it frustrates readers; it frustrates us too.
The Beaumont Enterprise is a local newspaper with a regional reach. Anyone looking at it should be able to tell that almost instantly. The front page is almost always all local. The stories inside section A and on the top pages of our Web site are primarily local or regional. A national story seldom gets more than a mention on the “yourWorld” page — because we are a local newspaper.
When our reporters write stories, they might check Web sites or other publications for basic information, but if they use any of that information, they attribute it. For the most part, they go to original sources to do their own reporting.
We have no reporters in Washington, D.C., (or New York, or Iraq . . .) We don’t always have the means to do original reporting of national or international interest.
We are a Hearst newspaper and therefore have some resources, like a Hearst Washington, D.C., bureau for information. We also use information from The Associated Press, a news cooperative that helps us provide our readers with news from other areas.
What we don’t generally do is assign staff reporters to national or international stories, though they might pursue local angles on those events.
On Sept. 12, when thousands of taxpayers marched on Washington, D.C., to protest government spending, we missed the story. The Associated Press listed the march on its story budget, but our editors on duty missed that notation and left the story out of our Sunday paper, and then our Monday paper.
There was no plan or plot; they simply left out a story that should have been in the newspaper. Because the event was on a weekend, it took us two days to fix that mistake. Tuesday, after complaint calls and e-mails from readers, it was on the “yourWorld” page, as it should have been Sunday.
Additionally, early in the week, news surfaced about a video that showed alleged abuse of government funding by an organization known as ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now).
The video, said to be secretly recorded by concerned citizens, surfaced through media sources and was interpreted by some as being supportive of the operation of a house of prostitution that would employ underage illegal immigrants. We ran a story about the group, but not as soon as we should have.
Late Monday, the U.S. Senate voted to block funding to the controversial ACORN group because of a voter registration fraud investigation. It was almost 9 p.m. Monday when AP moved the story, which was not listed on any earlier story budgets.
It should have been in our Tuesday paper, but it wasn’t. We blew it again. Twice in one week we left out stories that were important to our readers and that should have been in their newspaper.
We did, however, run a fairly lengthy story in our Wednesday paper including mention of the video, a follow-up story on Thursday and multiple letters to the editor justifiably critical of our omissions.
In between, I had so many angry, vile calls from readers accusing us of some kind of conspiracy that I wanted to run from The Enterprise building screaming.
Among them:
-- A woman who, because I told the truth and answered “California” when asked where I was born, said she therefore knew where I stood on these issues and that I should just leave Beaumont if I hated it so much. She didn’t even want to respond when I criticized her for pre-judging me based on that one statement. (Trust me, I consider myself a Texan.)
-- A caller who said she wasn’t calling me a liar, then called back and left me a message saying I was a liar and she hoped I went hungry someday.
-- A caller who said I am obviously a liberal (something people who know me would laugh about.) Truth is, I am liberal on some issues and conservative on the others — just like most Americans.
-- A caller who was going to call her attorney because I addressed her by name, based on the caller ID on my office phone. In her opinion that should be illegal.
-- A caller who was offended when I pointed out that I knew his call was based on comments from conservative talk show host Glenn Beck who that morning had told listeners to call their local newspapers and complain, and don’t back down and don’t be timid.
-- A caller who knew we hadn’t reported on the ACORN “scandal” because it wasn’t on our Web site, his only source of information because he doesn’t subscribe to our newspaper.
Angry readers who feel the need to vent like this need to recognize that the more they scream, the harder it is to hear their message. Just as in our case, their behavior undermines their credibility.
Based on this experience, this is my advice to readers:
-- Do call, please, when something concerns you, but don’t make it personal. My job at The Enterprise is to resolve problems and chase down solutions. I don’t always have immediate answers, but I do try to find them. Blaming me for newspaper decisions (or in this case, mistakes) is as wrong as blaming a refinery worker for air pollution or a grocery clerk for the high price of food.
-- Don’t assume the worst. We are human and we make mistakes. We try to correct them. In almost 30 years at The Enterprise I’ve never known anything to be part of a “plot” to slant the news in either direction. Frankly, we usually don’t have the time to be organized enough to carry out a plot even if we had one.
-- Treat me and others you encounter with respect, just as you have the right to be treated with respect. I have a very long fuse, it takes a lot to make me angry, but I was angry most of last week and it’s not an experience I wish to repeat.
A footnote to the ACORN story: The organization’s Web site says the staff member in the video was simply playing along with the two amateurs who made the tape. She said “They were not believable . . . somewhat entertaining, but they weren’t even good actors. I didn’t know what to make of them. They were clearly playing with me. I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me.”
The group has published a release stating that they have repeatedly been the victim of the “right wing media,” which, “has attempted to blame us for everything from the 2008 financial crisis to voter fraud.”
Doubtless, they consider us part of that “plot,” too.
The conspiracy theorists seem to think that members of the media are omitting or twisting news to suit some unstated but well-organized “plan” that will result in outcomes ranging from adoption of a government health-care plan to the end of life as we know it.
The reality is, in the chaos that is the news business, sometimes we just blow it. Unfortunately when we do, it undermines our credibility and compromises our efforts to represent the news as straightforwardly as possible. We know it frustrates readers; it frustrates us too.
The Beaumont Enterprise is a local newspaper with a regional reach. Anyone looking at it should be able to tell that almost instantly. The front page is almost always all local. The stories inside section A and on the top pages of our Web site are primarily local or regional. A national story seldom gets more than a mention on the “yourWorld” page — because we are a local newspaper.
When our reporters write stories, they might check Web sites or other publications for basic information, but if they use any of that information, they attribute it. For the most part, they go to original sources to do their own reporting.
We have no reporters in Washington, D.C., (or New York, or Iraq . . .) We don’t always have the means to do original reporting of national or international interest.
We are a Hearst newspaper and therefore have some resources, like a Hearst Washington, D.C., bureau for information. We also use information from The Associated Press, a news cooperative that helps us provide our readers with news from other areas.
What we don’t generally do is assign staff reporters to national or international stories, though they might pursue local angles on those events.
On Sept. 12, when thousands of taxpayers marched on Washington, D.C., to protest government spending, we missed the story. The Associated Press listed the march on its story budget, but our editors on duty missed that notation and left the story out of our Sunday paper, and then our Monday paper.
There was no plan or plot; they simply left out a story that should have been in the newspaper. Because the event was on a weekend, it took us two days to fix that mistake. Tuesday, after complaint calls and e-mails from readers, it was on the “yourWorld” page, as it should have been Sunday.
Additionally, early in the week, news surfaced about a video that showed alleged abuse of government funding by an organization known as ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now).
The video, said to be secretly recorded by concerned citizens, surfaced through media sources and was interpreted by some as being supportive of the operation of a house of prostitution that would employ underage illegal immigrants. We ran a story about the group, but not as soon as we should have.
Late Monday, the U.S. Senate voted to block funding to the controversial ACORN group because of a voter registration fraud investigation. It was almost 9 p.m. Monday when AP moved the story, which was not listed on any earlier story budgets.
It should have been in our Tuesday paper, but it wasn’t. We blew it again. Twice in one week we left out stories that were important to our readers and that should have been in their newspaper.
We did, however, run a fairly lengthy story in our Wednesday paper including mention of the video, a follow-up story on Thursday and multiple letters to the editor justifiably critical of our omissions.
In between, I had so many angry, vile calls from readers accusing us of some kind of conspiracy that I wanted to run from The Enterprise building screaming.
Among them:
-- A woman who, because I told the truth and answered “California” when asked where I was born, said she therefore knew where I stood on these issues and that I should just leave Beaumont if I hated it so much. She didn’t even want to respond when I criticized her for pre-judging me based on that one statement. (Trust me, I consider myself a Texan.)
-- A caller who said she wasn’t calling me a liar, then called back and left me a message saying I was a liar and she hoped I went hungry someday.
-- A caller who said I am obviously a liberal (something people who know me would laugh about.) Truth is, I am liberal on some issues and conservative on the others — just like most Americans.
-- A caller who was going to call her attorney because I addressed her by name, based on the caller ID on my office phone. In her opinion that should be illegal.
-- A caller who was offended when I pointed out that I knew his call was based on comments from conservative talk show host Glenn Beck who that morning had told listeners to call their local newspapers and complain, and don’t back down and don’t be timid.
-- A caller who knew we hadn’t reported on the ACORN “scandal” because it wasn’t on our Web site, his only source of information because he doesn’t subscribe to our newspaper.
Angry readers who feel the need to vent like this need to recognize that the more they scream, the harder it is to hear their message. Just as in our case, their behavior undermines their credibility.
Based on this experience, this is my advice to readers:
-- Do call, please, when something concerns you, but don’t make it personal. My job at The Enterprise is to resolve problems and chase down solutions. I don’t always have immediate answers, but I do try to find them. Blaming me for newspaper decisions (or in this case, mistakes) is as wrong as blaming a refinery worker for air pollution or a grocery clerk for the high price of food.
-- Don’t assume the worst. We are human and we make mistakes. We try to correct them. In almost 30 years at The Enterprise I’ve never known anything to be part of a “plot” to slant the news in either direction. Frankly, we usually don’t have the time to be organized enough to carry out a plot even if we had one.
-- Treat me and others you encounter with respect, just as you have the right to be treated with respect. I have a very long fuse, it takes a lot to make me angry, but I was angry most of last week and it’s not an experience I wish to repeat.
A footnote to the ACORN story: The organization’s Web site says the staff member in the video was simply playing along with the two amateurs who made the tape. She said “They were not believable . . . somewhat entertaining, but they weren’t even good actors. I didn’t know what to make of them. They were clearly playing with me. I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me.”
The group has published a release stating that they have repeatedly been the victim of the “right wing media,” which, “has attempted to blame us for everything from the 2008 financial crisis to voter fraud.”
Doubtless, they consider us part of that “plot,” too.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 4:09 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home