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Online comments

Since The Post and Courier has begun inviting readers to comment on stories online, some of the people who were wont to contact me are now hashing things out in online exchanges. At first I wondered if the conversations would be helpful to readers who really have concerns about news stories. But after watching the number of comments grow, I am a convert. Often readers hit the same points I might have touched on. They don't seem to mind taking some blows. And readers cannot accuse them of being an apologist for the paper.

I hope to continue to hear from readers who want answers about the fairness and accuracy of the paper, but I think t he online conversations are a bonus.

Good hearts

A few things that newspaper readers hate:
- Changing comics.
- Changing the TV grids.
- Changing the typeface.
- Changing anything.

Just when I think there's not a happy one in the lot, I get a message from someone like Susan. She read about the tough transition Vince Holback has had after returning from service in Iraq. She wants to help him and other like him.

The newspaper should know by now that there are tender hearts throughout the community. We should provide information about how people can help who want to. In this case, it will come after the fact:

The Association of the U.S. Army donated $2,000 so Holback could get his furniture from storage. Larry Dandridge, vice president of the association's veteran's affairs, has also worked with Holback to assist him in seeking a job. The association would accept funds to help other vets as well. A contact number for the association is 276-7164.

New Column

If you haven't had found it already, please let me commend to you Brian Hicks' new column at www.Charleston.net. Brian, a reporter for The Post and Courier, has a delicious wit and isn't afraid to aim it at people and institutions. Today's column is about Charlestonians. Coming soon will be Brian's personal take on Al Parrish and his items to be auctioned.

Polite versus probing

I could feel this coming. Some of those newspaper readers who applauded The Post and Courier for its initial coverage of the fire that claimed the lives of nine firefighters are now on the warpath.

They liked the paper when it was publishing stories about those brave men who died -- stories that talked about their service and their sacrifice. I liked those, too. They were a big part of the story.

But now that the newspaper's coverage has widened to include investigating the fire and how it was handled, some of those readers are saying the paper is insensitive to the grieving families and disloyal to the Charleston Fire Department.

It doesn't matter when I explain to them that some of the families have asked the paper to do some investigative reporting. These readers don't want to hear that. It doesn't matter to them that an investigation might help prevent a similar disaster. They don't want the tragedy to be muddied. They want heroes.

Firefighters from across the country who are following this story have commended the paper for its work, and have encouraged the staff to push forward. A tragic loss like this is cause for concern among the entire firefighting community.

I would imagine that even Charleston Fire Chief Rusty Thomas, clearly devoted to his firefighters, would want to find out if there were a way his department could avoid another disaster.

The newspaper's obligation to readers and to the community is to answer questions about the fire and how it was handled. Readers might conclude that nothing needs to change. They might conclude otherwise. But just ignoring the story because of that uncertainty is not a possibility.

Streaming video

A woman from Fort Worth wrote today to say "thank you" for giving her the opportunity to watch the service in memory of nine firefighters who died earlier this week. "All the way from Fort Worth Texas we shed tears for your city."

Charleston.net offered streaming video of the memorial and, in doing so, offered people outside of this area to follow the story that has touched so many.

Citizen journalism

If any old-school journalists need to be convinced of the value of citizen journalism as a component of the newspaper business, they might want to check out charleston.net

There is a dramatic video by local videographer, Howard Armstrong. And there are some photos submitted by people who were on the scene.

You might want to check, also, what readers have to say about the fallen firefighters.

Picture this

Today, a reader charged that someone on The Post and Courier staff "must really dislike Fritz Hollings." He inferred this because he considered a photo of Hollings in Monday's paper "the worst I have seen in 50 years."

I have to agree the photo could have been better. Upon review, the page designer who chose it didn't disagree. The original photo was taken of Hollings during a conversation. He was gesturing with his hand and the bit of a frown on his face made sense. The photo reflected some animation and sincerity. The problem came when the photo was cropped to show only the head and shoulders. As such, the frown looked more pronounced and, honestly, a little odd to my eye.

What interests me is that this reader concluded that a staff member at the paper would intentionally publish a poor photo of Hollings. Why? Hollings has retired from public office. He continues, however, to be a source of information and often colorful quotes for news reporters. Further, it is interesting to me that people are quick to believe that newspaper staffers are here to promote personal agendas rather than  to put out a good  newspaper.

In this case, there were better photos for the page, but often page designers do not have a choice. And sometimes a photo that isn't postcard pretty is actually appropriate. During the upcoming Family Circle Tennis Tournament, the paper will likely publish photos of competitors grimacing or shouting. Those aren't pictures that flatter, but they are pictures that tell readers a lot about the intensity of the game.

Covering candidates

The Presidential Candidates Parade through South Carolina has begun. The Post and Courier's front page today featured two articles -- one about John McCain's visit to Sun City Hilton Head and one about Hillary Rodham Clinton's stops in Columbia, Florence and Charleston. We can expect more and more.

Both stories reported on the local reaction to these candidates. McCain found a warm greeting. Clinton found enthusiastic crowds. Both also reported on some of the substance of what the candidates said.

As the parade continues, I would prefer the meat to be high up in the stories. I want to know if the candidates find support in the state, but I really want to know what they have to say about issues -- war, health care, the environment, the economy. I'm more inclined to stay with a story that tells me, first thing, that McCain said Donald Rumsfeld would go down as one of the worst Defense Secretaries in history or what Hillary Clinton said about the Kyoto treaty.

Excuse

Today has been an encouraging one for me. I spend a lot of time talking to readers about why a headline is right/wrong or whether a story is slanted.
Today, I got to spend time with Anna Crowder, a junior at the Academic Magnet High School. She is writing a thesis about journalistic ethics and agreed to spend some time here.
I'm encouraged that this topic is of interest to someone as gifted as Anna -- and that, indeed, she is considering a career in journalism one day.
I'm also encouraged by her intelligence and knowledge. It bodes well for us all.

FOI

Adhering to Freedom of Information laws isn't just the legal thing to do, it's often the smartest thing.

Today's paper reports that four Mount Pleasant police officers resigned and a fifth was facing possible disciplinary action. Town and police officials, however, wouldn't explain the situation to the public. That means that news gatherers will likely write about the situation again -- and perhaps again -- until the facts come out. If officials had simply told the public what they have a right to know, the story might go away more quickly.

And when officials fail to be forthcoming, the public might also assume something worse than the truth.

It lasts

Someone called today to ask if I remembered that the newspaper had published a special section about the Grace Memorial Bridge IN 1929! I must say I was gracious. No, I didn't actually REMEMBER it, but he was correct that such a section had been published.

For a little while, I licked my wounds. How old did this man think I was? And then I decided to look at the call from another perspective. The work that journalists here did 77 years ago hasn't been forgotten!

Happy 100th

If you look on-line for your news, this might not apply to you. You likely go to different sites for different news. I'd like to think you go to The Post and Courier's website for local news.

Lots of readers get their news the way they have for years -- by unrolling the paper and reading it.
For those readers, changes in the paper can be unsettling. They are conditioned to think that the stories on 1A are the most important stories of the day. But newspapers are showcasing the best of the local stories on 1A and often putting major national and international stories inside the section.

Some readers really don't like this trend towards being more and more local stories -- except when it comes down to their own news. For some years, the paper politely declined to publish information about someone's great grandmother celebrating her 100th birthday. There was much  more important information to publish. Not any more. The paper wants those neighborhood stories, and the same people who decry the changes on 1A say they like reading about Granny's birthday.

I like seeing the local news and I like it when the best local stories appear on 1A, but I think the paper takes it too far sometimes in the interest of being local. On 1A, I'd rather see top world news than a local story that doesn't rise to the occasion.

What bleeds leads

On many days when the front page of The Post and Courier features news about homicides, I hear from readers. They simply don't want to see that news on the front page. Tell them anything else -- just not that.

Oddly, today's front page drew no responses, and the theme of every story was the same: violence.

Christan Rainey talked about losing his mother and four siblings in a shooting spree at their home in North Charleston.

North Charleston Police talked about their use of Tasers which killed Kip Black on Sunday.

Gregory S. Mullen was sworn in as chief of police for Charleston and said, "Violent crime will be our priority."

And a fourth story reported on the landscape Mullen is meeting -- a landscape where "people are afraid," according to Councilman Henry Fishburne.

Notes on 1A referred readers to more related local news inside the paper: another shooting on the East Side; a hearing for the young children who robbed a video store; and a group planning to march against drugs and violence. Then there was a front-page key telling readers to find a story on 3A about a gunman executing three girls and himself at an Amish school.

Nobody called. Nobody wrote. I'm not sure why.

Maybe a single shooting story seems to them to be there "simply to sell more papers." Maybe a page full of news seems to reveal that the area is facing a serious problem. Maybe they were simply too depressed to pick up the phone.

Newspapers and television news programs are sometimes derided for paying too much attention to crime. "If it leads, it bleeds." Reader polls indicate the opposite -- people want to know if their neighborhoods are safe or not.

Today's front page tells me the paper must continue to report on crime news --  not because polls suggest it but because citizens have a need to know it.

Storm news

Ernesto has helped demonstrate how the union of newspapers and blogging can work. In the past, the paper has been able to provide readers with good, solid information about preparing for a storm and about recovering from one, but the up-to-the-minute coverage has come from television and radio.

With Ernesto, The Post and Courier has kept a blog giving readers timely information about things like school closings, road floodings and storm movement. It has provided helpful links for users, and it has provided a forum for people to register comments and to get answers to their specific questions.

My hat is off to the blogging staffers who made it happen.

You can find it at http://postscripts.typepad.com/stormwatch/.

Swim meet

The big-hearted folks in the Sports Department of The Post and Courier were feeling warm and fuzzy. They had published photos and a story about the city swim meet at the Jewish Community Center. They were envisioning how happy thousands of parents and children would be to have the event covered. They are even setting aside extra space to publish full results in upcoming Sunday editions of the paper.

Then came the email. The paper should be "ashamed." It needed "a little journalism." Its coverage was "a proverbial belly flop." The story should have reported on inadequacies in the execution of the meet instead of the winning swimmers.

Huh? Really?

Let's be honest. The paper covers the swim meet not because it is a sports event on par with the ACC Tournament or the Family Circle tennis championship. It is a community event involving almost a thousand children and probably twice that number of parents. Readers like to see photos of children they know and see swimmers' names. I doubt they expect to see an analysis of how smoothly the event was managed. And I really don't know how you can report on a swim meet without reporting on who won.

Am I (sorry about this) all wet here?

Metro columnist

Several times in recent weeks, The Post and Courier has been criticized by readers saying 1A stories have been handled too playfully. They say the treatment has cheapened the story. They also say the stories should have been presented as columns, not news stories. The difference is that a columnist often injects himself or his perspective in his writing.  Generally, a news reporter does not.

The comments have raised an issue for me: Does The Post and Courier need a metro columnist? If so, what would you want to see in one?

Freedom of information

When journalists talk about freedom of information, it is not unlike patriots reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The expectation that public officials and public bodies should conduct public business in the sunshine is serious stuff to reporters.

Recently, The Post and Courier staff reported on the board of the College of Charleston failing to abide by the state's Freedom of Information rules following the resignation of college president Lee Higdon. As Executive Editor Bill Hawkins reported in his May 12 blog and reporter Diane Knich detailed, college officials have since agreed to mend their ways.

While stories like this are victories for the public, sometimes Freedom of Information battles read like journalistic insider stories. It isn't unusual for such stories to draw little response from readers.

Does that mean readers aren't concerned? I don't think so. A year ago, The Post and Courier gathered a diverse group of readers for dinner and a discussion of Freedom of Information. The overwhelming sense of the group was that they want the news media to hold public officials and public bodies accountable, and that they want public information to be just that.

Maybe this is a good sign for newspapers -- that readers trust the media will be vigilant where freedom of information is concerned.

Front page news

The newspaper's front page philosophy has changed over the years. There was a time when it showcased the world's big stories. These days, it is most likely to be dominated by local news.

Some readers are unhappy when a major national or international story appears on 5A with only a brief mention on the front page guiding readers to where to look for the whole story. They expect 1A to help them judge what is most significant.

The trend in newspapers is to use 1A to showcase the best and most interesting local stories. That doesn't mean you won't find major national and international stories there. It does mean that editors are pushing for strong local stories to earn a place there.

The reason? That's what readers value most from their local newspapers -- local news. The front page acts as an invitation to readers to keep going. Pick up the paper because there is a story about the top-ranked cadet at The Citadel (see the page from Saturday pictured at right). Then keep reading because you find other things -- local and otherwise -- that you want to read.