We had another good discussion in the newsroom today about a word in a headline. This time, I’ll side with the critics.
This was the headline on the front page today:
Police
shoot
teenager
on street
The objection is to the word "teenager." The person in question here is 19 — an adult, at least in the eyes of the law and this newspaper’s normal style rules. I imagine most readers seeing the word "teenager" assume we’re talking about someone who is not an adult, reason enough not to use the word here.
In the headline online, we changed the word to "19-year-old."
Nick
I wanted to give you a heads up about stories you won’t want to miss in our Sunday edition.
Reporter Tim Potter and photographer Fernando Salazar give readers an exclusive look inside the Wichita police crackdown on gangs. Tim and Fernando spent 11 hours overnight on the streets with a police gang unit last Saturday. It was a busy night: Police hunted for shell casings as they investigated a shooting, and then tried to blend into the background as they spied on a parking lot they thought might draw rival gang members. The story offers a revealing glimpse of a world most people don’t get to see.
We’ll also have our everything-you-want-to-know guide to the Rolling Stones concert on Sunday night, from how to navigate the traffic around Cessna Stadium to how to take in the concert without a ticket.
Finally, read about Wichita’s cell phone dilemma: Everyone wants to use one, but no one wants a transmitter tower in their neighborhood.
We intend to deliver a strong, compelling newspaper to you every day — especially on Sunday. Check it out.
Marcia
Most of us will never be able to fly a World War II-era biplane through the skies over Wichita. But Eagle photographer Travis Heying puts us in the co-pilot’s seat with his great photo on the front page of today’s Local & State section.
We get a Red Baron’s-eye view of downtown Wichita. How did Travis do it? He tells us:
"My intentions for the Red Baron photo initially was to mount a remote camera
directly above my forward seat, on the top wing of the biplane. Using this, I
could simply fire the camera with a radio remote while I sat and enjoyed the
flight from Newton to Wellington.
"But the squadron leader rejected my
idea on the premise that a camera sitting out on a wing, travelling 120 miles
per hour, might not be there when we landed.
"So instead, I took my
camera, wrapped the strap around my wrist and held it up as high as I could and
pointed it at the pilot behind me. I estimated the focusing distance before I
held it up.
"Sounds easy, but the first time I tried it, I thought I was
going to lose the camera and both of my arms.
"Good thing it worked. I
spent the rest of the trip with the camera in my lap and an air sickness bag in
my hands."
Want your own copy of the photo? Go to www.kansas.com.
Arlice
I did. But I didn’t move them very far.
As part of our new Business Today section, we reconfigured our stock pages on Thursdays. As a result, we moved the Eagle 100 — our stocks of local interest — to the adjoining page. We also moved the key indexes — including the New York Stock Exchange — to package with it. The list of indexes is tucked along the right-hand side of the package. We also moved Futures, Grain Prices, Currencies and Spot Metals to that package, along with our local daily data.
We did this so we could run as many stock listings and mutual funds on our regular stock page. Spreading the material over two pages allows us to get more data in.
Based on the calls we have received the last few Thursdays, readers are still adjusting to the change. We appreciate your patience. And if you still can’t find the stock or mutual fund you are looking for, contact us at businesstoday@wichitaeagle.com or 316-268-6501.
Remember that up-to-the minute stock listings are available at eaglebusinesstoday.com.
Tom Shine
I’ve noted a couple times in this blog that editors in the newsroom frequently disagree with each other on news decisions - and I think that’s healthy. Open debate almost always leads us to decisions that are more sound than those made in a vacuum.
So on that note, I’m going to disagree with Nick Jungman, our senior editor/nights, in his post below about a headline in the paper today.
The headline (“Mexican sentenced in accident that killed 3â€) was on a short story on the front page of the Local & State section. I’m not disputing that it’s correct, and the person is Mexican. But any time you refer to a person only by their ethnicity, as a noun, out of context (which is what headlines often have to do, by their nature of brevity) - the result often sounds crass to a reader’s ear.
I made the same argument years ago at another newspaper about referring to “a black†- a usage that most newspapers (including The Eagle) have stopped.
Though ethnicity is relevant to the overall story today, I can understand why it would sound prejudiced to a reader when isolated in a headline. Nick made the point to me that Mexican is a nationality, not a race. But I think many readers consider it a deeper cultural or ethnic description.
The headline today made ethnicity the single most identifying fact about a person. Would we do the same for others? I can’t imagine us referring to a white person simply as “a white†in a headline. In this case, “Driver†seems to me to be a more relevant headline word than “Mexican.â€
I don’t think there’s a right answer on this. But it’s made for several vigorous debates in our newsroom today (three that I know of), and I’m willing to wager that our readers have similarly varying viewpoints.
Sherry
The one issue I hear most about from readers is how they can get their travel photos in the paper. Our "Best Shot" feature, which showcases readers’ photos, appears regularly on the front page of the Travel section. It is one of the longest-running and most popular reader-participation features in the newspaper.
As a result, we have a tremendous backlog of images. It literally can take months before a submitted photo appears on the Travel page.
Not all photos get used, however. Photos need to be in focus, well
composed and show something inviting or unusual about a destination.
Photos of your family on vacation or of a flower in your back yard are not what we’re looking
for.
That said, there are two ways to get your photo to us. You can mail a 4-by-6 print to Best Shot, Travel, The Wichita Eagle, P.O. Box 820, Wichita, KS 67201. Or you can e-mail a jpeg version of the photo to adavenport@wichitaeagle.com.
Be sure to include a short description of the photo (where, when and how you took it), your name, address and daytime telephone number. If you want your photo returned, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
Taking great travel photos requires thought and preparation — and plenty of practice. One of the best resources for improving your travel photos is www.fodors.com/focus/
We’ve heard from one reader today who thought this headline, which appeared over a brief item on Page 1B today (the third item here), was inappropriate:
Mexican sentenced in
accident that killed 3
The complaint centers on the word "Mexican." The reader thought it sounded prejudiced or racist here.
I think I understand how that would be the case if the person in question were a Mexican-American and we’d shortened that to "Mexican" (which we would never intentionally do). But in this case, the person is a citizen of Mexico — a fact that’s particularly relevant in a story about illegal immigration. The man was sentenced on a count of unlawfully transporting illegal aliens resulting in a death. If the man had been from Guatemala or Colombia, I’m sure we would have said "Guatemalan" or "Colombian," and I’m not sure that we’d have heard from anyone about it.
Has "Mexican" become a sort of epithet? I hope not. But let us know what you think. Post a comment below, and let’s have a conversation.
Nick
On Sunday night, more than 30,000 people are expected to converge on Cessna Stadium at Wichita State for the Rolling Stones concert. And it seems like 29,999 are calling editors and reporters at the Eagle with questions about concert logistics.
OK, that’s a gross exaggeration. But we’ve received enough calls and emails to know that many people are curious about how everything is going to work at the concert, from parking to street closings, tailgating to security, and more.
It’s our job to try to help people navigate this event, and we have been running stories in the past month or so trying to answer some of those questions. We’ll continue to do that in the coming days. If you’re among those looking for info, please be sure to look at the Eagle’s GO! section on Friday for concert details, including a map that will show where the satellite parking lots are, street closings and parking lots on campus.
On Sunday, we’re planning to run that information again, and more as we continue to get new details about the concert. For now, if you have parking questions in particular, take a look at the story we ran last week.
Today I announced to the newsroom that I am promoting Jean Hays to metro editor, effective immediately.
As metro editor, Jean will supervise The Eagle’s reporters and editors who cover crime and safety, courts, politics, government, education, neighborhood coverage and enterprise projects. She will also join us here as one of the editors contributing to this blog.
Jean is a talented journalist who has demonstrated the skills,
news judgment and dedication necessary to take our metro report to new
heights. Jean is dedicated to improving The Eagle’s
investigative efforts, watchdog reporting and in-depth beat reporting across all
metro teams. We are poised now to focus intently on adding vital depth and
energy to our local report.
Jean has been leader of our public life team since 2003. She started at
The Eagle in 1976, when she was an undergrad at WSU, and worked her way up as
a reporter in a variety of beat assignments before becoming a team leader. She and her husband, Jim Cross, have one daughter, Rachel Cross, who is in middle school.
Jean replaces Tim Rogers, who left The Eagle in July to become editor of the Wilson Daily in Wilson, N.C.
Theresa
Julie Anderson from the Derby Reporter wrote a column that ran in her paper today in which she takes issue with actions by one of our reporters covering an event last week at McConnell Air Force Base. She writes: "The event was the presentation of the Distinguished Flying Cross to
Loy Lindsay for her husband, TSgt. Roscoe Lindsay, at McConnell Air
Force Base last week. A reporter from the Wichita Eagle had
asked if we would be able to speak with her following the presentation
and someone from public relations at McConnell went to ask. She
returned with the message that Mrs. Lindsay was nervous about having so
many cameras there. It also was going to be an emotional experience for
her, since her husband had died many years ago, so she didn’t want to
answer any questions. The McConnell representative said, ’so I know you will respect that’ to myself and the Eagle reporter."
Anderson writes that while she respected this request, the reporter from The Eagle did not, and instead "went straight to Mrs. Lindsay and asked her if he could talk to her" after the ceremony.
After reading Anderson’s column, I checked with Joe Rodriguez, our reporter who covered this event. I consider Joe to be most professional and respectful in his dealings with colleagues and sources, and after our conversation, I’m confident that he was in this case.
His version of events differs from Anderson’s. Here’s what he told me: "At McConnell, I asked 1st Lt. Ashley Conner of public affairs if Loy Lindsay, Tech. Sgt. Roscoe Lindsay’s widow, was going to speak with the media. Conner said she would check and later told us that Mrs. Lindsay was
very nervous because of all the media attention. I understood that to mean
that she may or may not speak because she was nervous. I did not hear Conner
nor anyone else tell us that we were absolutely not to talk to Lindsay. After the presentation of the Distinguished Flying Cross, I approached
Mrs. Lindsay, introduced myself and asked if she wanted to talk about the
ceremony. I did this in front of everyone in the room at the time. Her
family members, other members of the media and McConnell personnel were all in
the room.
Mrs. Lindsay told me that she would like me to speak with her
grandson, Patrick Logan, who helped arrange for Tech. Sgt. Lindsay to be
honored. I did later talk to Mr. Logan, and he was quoted in my story. Mrs. Lindsay also agreed to talk to me. As I began my conversation,
two television cameras came to where I was and began filming her speak. Not once did anyone — including her family members nor McConnell folks
— tell us that we should stop. "
Joe also notes that McConnell, in its own coverage in the base’s newspaper, "Contrails," quoted Mrs. Lindsay’s comments from the interview she gave while Joe and others were talking to her.
What did Mrs. Lindsay have to say about the honor bestowed upon her late husband?
"He certainly deserved it, and I’m so happy for him," she told Joe. "I wish he
could be here." Click here to read Joe’s story in full.
Theresa