Monthly Archives: June 2007

Sneak peek

June 30, 200712:31 a.m.

Earlier tonight I copy-edited the 1A centerpiece for Sunday’s paper.

It’s the story of a Greensburg resident’s horrific injuries and remarkable recovery, and what his family has dealt with over the past two months.

I’m sure you’re going to enjoy it just as much as I did.

Here’s a preview:

As the black whirling cloud approached their 1950s ranch home in southwest Greensburg, Danny looked outside. He told his girlfriend, Suleenia Charlton, he was afraid they would get hit.

They had no basement, so Danny, Suleenia and her 11-year-old daughter, Mariah, huddled in the shower. Kasha, 16, was at a forensics tournament in Salina. Nathan, 15, was bowling in Pratt.

Danny can’t remember what happened, but Suleenia does.

“The bedroom wall blew in, and the square tiles in the bathroom began popping off the wall one by one,” she recalled. “Wires started popping, and I covered my head.”

They held onto each other. They joke now that they flew United — together.

They were blown 100 yards into a gully. When Suleenia came to, they were surrounded by chest-deep water and debris.

Mariah had two 4-inch triple-hook fishing lures embedded in her back. But she managed to scramble out of the debris.

She did her best to dig the adults out, but she couldn’t. It was dark. She could hear people driving by, but nobody stopped. She was afraid her mom and Danny would die.

What happens next? Check out Sunday’s Eagle.

Michael

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Eagle’s position on casino

June 29, 200710:39 a.m.

I’m getting increasing questions about when The Eagle will take an editorial stance on the casino issue, and what that position will be.

First, a reminder that the news and opinion functions of the newspaper are independent of each other. I don’t oversee the Opinion pages, or sit on the editorial board. I rarely know what position the paper will take on an issue until I see the editorial in the paper.

Today I asked Phillip Brownlee, editor of our Opinion pages, if and when the editorial board will take a position. He said it will do so before the Aug. 7 vote, but is still evaluating the issue.

I believe a substantial number of voters are also still deciding. You can expect our team of casino reporters to continue accelerating our fact-finding reporting before the vote.

Sherry

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under News content | Comments (0)

The big type

June 29, 200712:25 a.m.

As we put together Friday’s paper, we wrestled with what to focus on in the headline over the Supreme Court school integration story.

Is it more important to highlight the news of the day (the court’s ruling) or the local question (will busing continue in Wichita?)

We opted to make the decision our main headline and the local ramifications the summary headline.

Is that what you would have done? On national stories with local impact, where do you think the focus should be?

- Michael Roehrman

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (4)

In living black and white

June 27, 20071:50 p.m.

052407greensburg_th3 When we think of high-impact photography, we generally think of full-color images. At The Eagle, we have a talented photo staff, and we try to showcase their work — in color — on the front page of the paper each day, as well as in all our news and features sections.

But photographer Travis Heying recently showed how a black-and-white image can stir our emotions and capture our interest. His portrait of Patsy Schmidt, a volunteer aid worker at Greensburg in the wake of the May 4 tornado, won The Eagle’s in-house photo contest.

Here’s what Travis had to say about his photo:

"The idea for the portrait of Patsy Schmidt basically came from this: I had already spent two weeks shooting pictures of splintered trees in Greensburg and was desperate to do something that looked and felt different.

"We don’t typically run black-and-white photos on our news fronts, but I made the argument that maybe if we did, it might draw increased attention to Page 1. In addition, reporter Tim Potter was writing a story that I thought would serve as a great historic record to what happened in Greensburg on May 4. When I think of historic photos, I think in black and white.

"Patsy Schmidt was the last of three individuals I photographed that day. I shot the photo around 1:30 in the afternoon, a time of day any photographer will tell you is the absolute worst time for making good pictures. The sun creates horrible shadows when it’s overhead. To counter this, I set up a light on Patsy and underexposed the existing light to give the background additional saturation. The batteries on my flash were nearly dead, so I only took 7-10 frames.

"This was a bit of an experiment for us to run black and white on Page 1. Senior Photographer Bo Rader did an excellent job in pre-production with the photo to ensure that it looked great after going to press.

"Based on the reader reaction to the photo, I’d say it worked out nicely."

And based on the in-house voting at The Eagle, it’s a winner, as well.

Good work, Travis.

Arlice

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Let’s be more clear

June 27, 200712:41 p.m.

If you read Jeffrey Martin’s column in last Sunday’s Sports section, you probably now have a substantially errant view of what "transparency" means in the news world.

At times I’ve been as quick as anyone to roll my eyes at gimmicky trends in the news business, and I’ve watched many come and go with little result. The idea of transparency isn’t one I’d throw on that scrap heap.

Transparency isn’t about newspaper editors explaining away the mishap of the day. Transparency simply means the newspaper’s decision-makers explain more often why they make the decisions they make. Readers won’t necessarily agree with the decisions, but they can more often understand the rationale behind them. That’s why this blog exists.

I don’t get how that can be a bad thing. The current movement toward greater transparency — more willingness to shed light on what we’re doing and why — is a much-needed shift from an old newsroom culture that said to readers, "It’s none of your business." If someone wants to label it a buzzword, OK. But it beats the culture it’s replacing: institutional arrogance.

Sherry

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Newspaper ethics | Comments (0)

Business weighs in

June 26, 200712:20 p.m.

Charlie Chandler and Jack DeBoer, two of the bigger names in the Wichita business community, met with The Eagle’s editorial board and weighed in on the issue of casino gambling. Both oppose the idea of a casino in Sedgwick County, and they say many other business leaders — including top aviation officials — oppose it as well. Both Chandler and DeBoer think a casino will be harmful to Wichita’s economy. Reporter Dan Voorhis posted an update on our Midday Business Report and will write a fuller story for Wednesday’s Eagle.

At one time, it appeared the casino vote on Aug. 7 would be an easy victory for the pro-casino camp. If the business community starts to mobilize against casinos in a big way, I’m not certain that will be the case. It’s going to be an interesting six weeks before the vote.

Tom Shine

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Kansas.com on your cell

June 22, 20073:59 p.m.

If you’d like to Wap_2
see Kansas.com on your cell phone, I’ve got a couple of new options for you.

For the past week, we’ve been testing our new "WAP" (wireless application protocol) site, which
takes a portion of the content on Kansas.com and formats it in a way that makes it accessible on your mobile phone, as in the picture at right. Point your phone’s browser to m.kansas.com ("m" stands for "mobile"). It’s almost all text, so if you’ve got a limited data plan, you should be able to use the site regularly without inflating your cell bill.

If you’ve got a more sophisticated smartphone — say a Palm Treo, Blackberry or Motorola Q — and you don’t mind tinkering a bit, I’ve got a different option for you. I recently downloaded the free "beta" version of the Opera Mini 4 browser on my Treo. Amazing. If you’ve not been satisfied with the way Kansas.com displays on your smartphone, I urge you to try this. It works by preprocessing a Web site on Opera’s own servers, then sending your device a simplified, mini version of it on your phone. Use your phone’s navigation to highlight the section of the page you want to see in detail, click and, voila, you’ve zoomed into that section of the page in near-perfect detail. Slick and fast. (Keep in mind that this is "beta" software, although I haven’t had much trouble. Eventually, though, you’ll want to download the final version.)

— Nick Jungman

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under News content | Comments (0)

On the bookshelves

June 22, 200712:25 p.m.

Several people asked me this week how it feels to see three books by current and former Eagle staffers on the best-seller list at Watermark Books. Well, it’s awesome.

Last Sunday’s Books page showed that "Bind, Torture, Kill: The Inside Story of the Serial Killer Next Door" is at the top of Watermark’s list. It’s written by Eagle editors and reporters L. Kelly, Roy Wenzl, Hurst Laviana and Tim Potter.

Tom Schaefer, our former Faith & Values editor, has a terrific new book out ("Seasons of Faith"), a compilation of his columns published in the newspaper. It was #4 on the list.

And gardening writer Annie Calovich has a great book for gardeners, "The Best Garden Plants for Kansas," at #5.

On top of that, reporter Stan Finger has written a just-released book, "Into the Deep," Robert Rogers’ account of losing his family in the 2003 Turnpike flood and how his faith sustained him through his loss.

I’m proud of these books and what they say about The Eagle’s staff — they’re a tribute to the depth of experience, knowledge and writing skills that we’re fortunate to have in our colleagues.

– Sherry

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Books | Comments (0)

Campaigns and contributions

June 22, 200711:41 a.m.

One of the most frequent questions I get is about the role newsroom staffers can take in political campaigns or fund-raising. Here’s a note I sent to the news staff this morning. This is specific to the newsroom — Eagle employees in other divisions don’t work under these same restrictions.

"With campaigns gearing up on the casino issue, and a presidential election on
the horizon, I want to remind everyone that our ethics policy precludes newsroom
employees from contributing to or working on political campaigns. This policy
extends to issues such as the casino. In addition, newsroom employees shouldn’t
wear buttons or stickers for candidates or issues, or have yard signs or sign
petitions. The best rule of thumb: When in doubt, consult first with a senior
editor. If you have questions or concerns, let’s talk. Thanks."

– Sherry

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Newspaper ethics | Comments (0)

No smoking zone?

June 18, 20077:05 p.m.

A reader asked today about a small photo of John Travolta that appeared in Parade magazine in The Eagle this past Sunday. In a spread about Travolta, the magazine included several shots from Travolta’s movies over the years. One was an iconic shot from the movie "Saturday Night Fever," with Travolta in his famous white three-piece suit.

The reader said he was certain Parade had digitally removed a cigarette from Travolta’s hand. He wondered why the cigarette was removed, yet elsewhere on the page, in a scene from "Pulp Fiction," Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson are shown brandishing firearms. The reader asks, "Why is a cigarette unacceptable, but two professional murderers with automatics are OK?"

Dan, here’s what I found out today: I spoke with the photo editor of Parade, Miriam White, and she says the magazine absolutely did not alter the photo. She sent me a copy of the original photo as it was given to Parade by an agency, and sure enough, there’s no cigarette. The cigarette had been removed, and there’s an odd blurry spot on Travolta’s hand.

I’ve read of other instances of studios, record-companies or celebrities removing cigarettes from older movies, photos or album covers. That appears to be the case with the Parade photo. And yes, it does make Travolta look odd, with his hand in the air in a strange position — strange even for a scene from SNF.

– Sherry

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Reader issues | Comments (1)