Category Archives: Politics

Our policy on staff caucus participation

Jan. 31, 200810:37 p.m.

Here’s a note I sent to the newsroom today explaining our newsroom policy on caucus participation:

With Kansas caucuses fast approaching, we need to have a clear policy in place on staff participation in the Republican and Democratic Party caucuses.

It’s difficult to determine the right and fair balance between staffers’ rights as citizens and our need to protect the newspaper’s credibility and objectivity. One major complicating factor is that the two state parties’ caucus procedures are significantly different.

I don’t have a problem inherently with staffers taking part in caucuses. Since Kansas has a closed primary system, employees are already required to declare a party affiliation to participate in primary elections. That affiliation is public record.

The upcoming Republican Party caucus vote is done by secret ballot. Participants are not required to publicly declare support for a candidate, and for that reason, newsroom staffers who want to participate are allowed to do so. However, you must stop short of campaigning for candidates at the caucus – doing so would greatly jeopardize your credibility and the newspaper’s, and I ask you to limit your participation to ballot voting.

The Democratic Party caucus is more problematic. The caucus format is not a private ballot – participants physically and publicly show support for a candidate. We can’t allow newsroom staff members to publicly endorse a political candidate in this way, so we have to ask you not to participate in the Democratic caucus.

I realize there’s no perfect answer to this situation, and this policy has its flaws. It opens us to the appearance of treating two political parties differently. But I also can’t see my way to prohibiting participation in the Republican caucus just so we have a parallel policy for two very different events. The issue with the Democratic caucus is purely in the way the party has structured the event.

I want our staff members to be engaged citizens. I know that many newspapers bar staff participation in caucuses, but I don’t think that’s necessary here since our typical primary system requires you to declare a party affiliation to vote. But we have to stop short of staffers publicly endorsing candidates or campaigning on their behalf. I believe most of us understand that we sacrifice the right to those activities by choosing the jobs we’ve chosen.

If any of this troubles you, let’s talk.

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Newspaper ethics, Politics, Reader issues | Comments (0)

Why wasn’t Iraq-statements story in the paper?

Jan. 26, 20081:40 a.m.

A couple of readers wrote in wondering why we didn’t run a story about a study that compiled statements made by President Bush and others about Iraq in the two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

It was mentioned in the WeBlog section of the Op/Ed page, but it wasn’t in our Nation and World report.

I should point out that those looking for some hidden conservative agenda here should go play somewhere else. Heck, those looking for some hidden liberal agenda are wasting their time, too.

OK, back to the topic at hand. Basically, comparisons of statements made leading up to and during the war versus what was found are topics that have been reported on many times in the paper over the past few years. So, with little new ground being covered, I didn’t see any compelling reason to run it in the print edition.

On Kansas.com, however, we published the full story as well as posted links to the organizations that created the study.

That story can be found here.

If you’re looking for another opinion on the study, Newsbusters and others have taken issue with it.

Agree? Disagree? Jump over to the comments section and sound off.

By Michael Roehrman | Filed under Current Affairs, News content, Politics | Comments (2)

How many turned out to vote?

March 2, 200710:15 p.m.

A headline in Wednesday’s paper said that seven out of eight county voters skipped the primary election.

The 13 percent turnout didn’t set a record for the worst turnout in Sedgwick County, but it was hardly a show of civic engagement.

Actually the turnout was more dismal than 13 percent.

The numbers in the paper were based on the number of registered voters.

Ken Ciboski, a political science professor at Wichita State University, called to suggest that The Eagle follow the standards used in national elections and base the turnout on the number of adults living in the county, rather than the number of adults who register to vote.

That would put the turnout closer to 7 percent. Some of those folks had an excuse. Not every small town in Sedgwick County had a primary. (The 13 percent turnout number was based only on voters living in towns with primaries.)

Bill Gale, the Sedgwick County election commissioner, acknowledged that there are two ways to figure voter turnout.

But, he said, his office knows the number of people registered to vote in Sedgwick County. It doesn’t know the exact number of adults living in the county on Election Day.
In addition, those with felony records and those who are not citizens couldn’t register to vote if they wanted to.

Gale said that 233,147 people or about 70 percent of the county’s adults, are registered to vote.

In the future, we will try to be more careful in explaining how those voter turnout numbers are calculated.

— Jean Hays

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

Endorsements vs. ads

Aug. 4, 20062:00 p.m.

A blog poster asked recently about the difference between an Eagle endorsement of a candidate and a paid political ad.
As Managing Editor Theresa Johnson explained yesterday, the Eagle’s endorsements of candidates are made by the newspaper’s editorial board. That board is made up primarily of opinion-page staff and Publisher Lou Heldman, and is not a part of the news-gathering staff. Typically, the editorial board interviews candidates before making its endorsements.
Political advertisements are purchased by candidates or organizations through our advertising department. Generally, neither the editorial board nor the newsroom is aware a candidate has purchased an ad until we see it in the paper.
The advertising staff resides on the second floor of The Eagle’s building, and has no interaction with the editorial board that makes candidate endorsments. The opinion-page staff and the newsroom are on the building’s third floor, in separate departments.

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

Ads on Election Day

Aug. 1, 200610:16 a.m.

A reader named Paula called me this morning, upset that The Eagle had published a sticky-note on the front page today with a political advertisement for judge candidate Robb Rumsey. Paula felt that political ads should not run on Election Day.
The note, which we call an Eagle Note, was distributed Monday and Tuesday to about 33,000 subscribers in Wichita and Sedgwick County, in specific ZIP codes (not our full circulation).
Some newspapers don’t accept political ads on Election Day and others do. This morning I asked Wendell Funk, The Eagle’s vice president for advertising, about the newspaper’s policy on the ads.
“We do not have a policy on not allowing Eagle Notes on Election Day, but we do have a policy to review each Eagle Note to be sure that there is nothing controversial in nature,” Wendell said. “In this case, if it had been reviewed properly, we would not have allowed Robb Rumsey to make a statement about Judge David Kennedy on the Eagle Note.”

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Politics | Comments (1)