Good morning,

I received a few calls over the weekend from readers who believed showcasing two war-related packages on Mother's Day was inappropriate.

The first package continues the story of the Shipp twins of Hauser Lake, Id., whose journey from high school to the Marines and then on to Iraq has been the subject of several excellent stories in the last two years. Here is the link to Sunday's story on Robert Shipp, reported by Jim Hagengruber and photographed by Brian Plonka.

The second twin's story will be published next Sunday.

The second war related package was Kevin Graman's excellent report (link here) on the Saturday funeral of Army Staff Sgt. Chad Caldwell, killed while serving his third tour of duty in Iraq.

Personally, I think Mother's Day is a good fit for stories about how we send husbands, sons and fathers to die in a far off war. Maybe Mother's day is the perfect time for such stories.

On the Sgt. Caldwell story, two things caught my eye.

First, the presence of Major General Edgar E. Stanton III at the funeral. Maybe readers who are ex-military can tell me if it's unusual to have a major general represent the Army at such funerals.

Of course the piece that really caught my eye was Jesse Tinsley's heartbreaking photo of Sgt. Caldwell's widow, Raechel Caldwell, crying as she receives the folded flag from Gen. Stanton. Ordinarily, we avoid funeral pictures that intrude on private grief. But in this case, the photo perfectly captured the pain of the family back home on the occasion of a soldier's death.

I thought the photo was especially appropriate for Mother's Day.

But what do you think? Should we have saved the war stories for another day? Should we have avoided the photo of Raechel Caldwell?

And what do these stories say about young people at war?

steve

Good evening,

Actually, it's early morning in Sweden. But I have a few minutes available to get back to the Better Business Bureau "Naming Names" discussion.

In the earlier thread, there are several comments from readers of Jan Quintrall's column who take issue with the editing decisions we made in her first-of-the-year column identifying the worst offenders in local business. I also received several e-mails and have read a great deal of Jan's correspondence. Yes, the reaction was nearly universally supportive of Jan's complaint.

But, as always, there is another side in support of our editing decisions. The purpose of this blog is to explain why we do what we do, and then let readers judge.

In the past, we have published the BBB's top 10 list. We have done so even though some of those named were advertisers in the newspaper. At no time did our business-side people or the publisher complain about that to me or suggest we no longer run the list.

This isn;'t about advertisers. As I've said before, our business is different from most others. Even though I'm an executive in the newspaper company, I am allowed to make decisions all of the time that cost the company money. That is the way most mainstream daily newspapers operate. Trust me, months of Jim West coverage cost the newspaper. Sometimes, a decision as innocent as not shooting a sports photo in such a way as to highlight an advertiser's arena sign can lead to a significant loss of advertising.

So the BBB case isn't about that.

Instead, we have a very interesting clash of equally valid procedures and values.

Read the rest of this entry »

Good afternoon,

It has taken some time, but we're finally done with our new code of ethics. It goes into effect today.

In addition to the online version (link here), we'll print the code in the Sunday paper.

I'm traveling this week and next (back in Sweden), but will blog more on this as soon as I can and still will deliver some thoughts on the Better Business Bureau dustup.

But feel free to comment. I'll try to answer any questions raised as quickly as possible.

steve

Good morning.

Perhaps you saw Jan Quintrall's Better Business Bureau column in this morning's Business section.

Here is the link.

Jan takes issues with an editing decision from January which resulted in the removal of the specific names of 10 businesses that received the most unresolved BBB complaints in 2007.

Jan produces a year-end column each January. In the past, we have left in the names of specific businesses, but we also have taken them out.

So we have been somewhat inconsistent.

I told Jan I had no problem allowing her to challenge our editing decision in today's paper and that I would start a thread on this blog for folks to weigh in.

If, after reading her column, you have thoughts, please post them here.

I'll come back later to respond and maybe elaborate a bit more on why we made the decision to eliminate names this year.

Thanks,
steve

Once again, I am reminded that we really are lucky to have landed Rebecca Mack for the Hard 7 column on Fridays.

Her column today on the "ombudsman lite" plan is simply outstanding. Here is the link.

Well written, unequivocal commentary on significant local issues is what Hard 7 should be about. And Rebecca is delivering that consistently.

steve

Good afternoon,

Thanks to Tim Connor, who blanketed the western world with an e-mail announcing the decision (and vowing to appeal), we know this afternoon that Connor's conflict-of-interest, unethical conduct charge against SR lawyer Duane Swinton has been dismissed by the Washington State Bar Association Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

We'll be working up a news story on the decision and will post the relevant documents later this afternoon.

The decision is not even close and it supports the conclusion of the Washington News Council (in its audit last year) that there is a distinction between legal conflict-of-interest and journalistic conflicts.

And, without saying "I told you so," I believe it confirms my own view that the complaint was merely another baseless extension of the loopy conspiracy theories perpetrated by Connor and his fellow travelers.

This bunch will do everything they can to perpetuate the RPS debate until the day Betsy Cowles is publicly executed on the streets of Spokane -- by Connor, Shook and their goofy gang. Anything short of Cowles blood will not satisfy.

Readers of this blog will remember that the News Council did recommend that the newsroom find another attorney to represent the newsroom's interests, that our use of Swinton and his firm would always present, at the least, the appearance of a conflict.

I rejected that recommendation at the time, saying Swinton's abilities as a First Amendment lawyer are unmatched locally and retaining an out-of-region lawyer would put the newspaper and newsroom at legal risk.

I still believe that.

However, as I said then, we continue to take all RPS-related issues to outside counsel.

Currently we have retained westside attorney Bill Holt to represent the newsroom in its battle for previously unreleased RPS legal documents now in the hands of city officials.

That request, likely to be denied by an always secretive city, will lead us to take additional and protracted legal action, all of which will be handled by Holt.

The RPS conspiracy gang has filed other complaints against other RPS players and institutions. Connor and crew filed a complaint with the U.S. Attorney General against U.S. Attorney James McDevitt. That complaint is just as baseless as the complaint lodged against Swinton.

Expect the AG to dismiss it sometime soon.

And, count on it, the folks behind the complaint will simply lodge another appeal and drag this out, seemingly forever.

steve

I am curious --- do any of you read the .TXT section in the Monday paper?

.TXT is the section devoted to the Internet, blogging, websites and tech gadgetry.

Would you be more or less inclined to read .TXT if it were an online-only feature? If it were in print on Sunday instead of Monday?

No wrong answers here, I'm just looking for any quick thoughts.

Thanks,
steve

Good afternoon,

So this is the yin to my previous post's yang.

There was a bomb threat today at EWU that led to the evacuation of hundreds of students faculty and staff from campus buildings. We had a brief on the threat and evacuation posted on our website for a time.

But our policy, in general, is not to report bomb threats unless the threat or evacuation actually has a more newsworthy impact or unless a bomb is actually discovered or some other specific factor makes the threat news.

The reason we generally don't report threats is that the prankster/vandals who make empty threats get off on the public attention their dispruption causes. The more empty threats you report, the more threats occur.

So the brief has been taken off the website and there will be no story in tomorrow's paper.

I've just offered our explanation/rationalization for that decision. But how does that match up with the oft-stated value I mentioned in the earlier thread? "We tell people what we know when we know it without fear or favor."

What do you think?

steve

Good afternoon,

This is a fascinating and troubling story out of Columbus, Ohio.

(Link here)

Seems the Columbus Dispatch learned a regional airline serving the area was going to shutdown. They accepted an embargo on that news so were able to send a reporter out on the last flight. She knew all aboard had one-way tickets, that once arriving at their destination, they would have to find other ways to get home.

But the paper sat on the story and the reporter never told other passengers of their impending flight in order to honor the airline-imposed embargo.

At the SR, our values state "We tell people what we know when we know it without feaer or favor." Now, of course there are times when a story of minimal public significance is held for logistical reasons or for more reporting. And there may be times, though I cannot recall any in my career, when we could be persuaded that breaking a story could threaten public safety or national security.

Other than that, if we're dealing with issues of public significance, we do not accept embargoes imposed by special interests. If we learn an airline is shutting down and stranding locals, we'll report it.

For those who believe all editors are alike or that we make decisions from the same playbook, this case is a good example of the reality.

steve

Good afternoon,

Here is a tough one for folks to think on tonight.

This afternoon, The Spokesman-Review, in the lead and with the philosophical and financial support of most Eastern Washington and Idaho news organizations, filed a brief with United States District Court Judge Edward Lodge asking the judge to ensure public and press access to all elements of the Joseph Duncan sentencing procedure now underway in Boise.

Here is a link to the story by Bill Morlin, just posted on our website.

And here is the background:

Read the rest of this entry »

Good morning,

I really appreciate the feedback on this blog and at Huckleberries Online re: the Elton John concerts.

At our news meeting this morning, the group agreed we should have done something with the concerts in order to live up to our value that states "we reflect the life of our community in all of its wholeness and complexity."

That likely would not have involved a review of the concert. As Ken Paulman noted in the earlier thread, we generally don't review the superstar concerts even when they are in Spokane.

Part of the problem is logistical. The concert Saturday night ended long after deadlines for the Sunday paper. The concert Sunday evening ended after deadline for the Monday paper. The best we could have done with a review would have been to get the Saturday review into the Monday paper and I still don't see much value in that.

But we could have done something earlier Saturday out of Pullman, some sort of feature story or enterprise report, maybe with a photo from earlier in the evening. If we had done that, we would have acknowledged and validated an event that was important to thousands of people.

As was noted this morning, the fact that idea never even entered our minds is a sign that we remain more disconnected from our readership than we like. And that's the worst bit of news that comes out of this relatively innocent incident.

Thanks,
steve

Good afternoon,

Not much controversy with the morning paper.

But I did get a couple of calls demanding to know why we had no mention of Elton John's Pullman concert Saturday night in the Sunday paper.

Well, this is another case that begs the question (and you've heard this before) what is news?

We had given the concerts substantial advance play. He showed up Saturday night, apparently wowed a crowd of 12,000 and will do it again thsi afternoon. But is any of that "news" that warrants a live story from the event?

We rarely review superstar concerts. They are usually one-night events so there are no repeat showings. That means a review doesn't fulfill one key purpose -- to let folks know whether or not the event is worth the ticket price.

And the fact that 12,000 saw Elton John perform doesn't seem like news in and of itself. The concerts have been sold out for weeks, and we have reported that.

So is it news? Should there have been a story in this morning's paper (or in the Monday paper, for that matter)?

Let me know what you think.

And by the way, the singer stayed in the Holiday Inn Express in Pullman. For Sir Elton, that may be a first. Maybe that is news.

steve

Good afternoon,

It's spring, so it should not be surprising that a few of our local nut jobs are back on the blogs, trying to hijack threads and do their crazy thing.

We have firewalls and filters that are pretty good, but not infallible.

We'll kill the posts as soon as we can. But if you see something posted by someone using a goofy name or a post that goes off in the to-be-expected ozone, just ignore it.

If we should inadvertently kill a legitimate post, just e-mail me, Ryan Pitts or the blog's admin directly. Identify yourself and we'll restore it.

You patience is appreciated.

These blogs are here to serve our readers, not the narcissistic few.

Thanks,
steve

Good morning,

We had an interesting discussion this morning on Gov. Gregoire's visit to Spokane yesterday.

It was a campaign stop during which she delivered what will be her opening stump speech to a crowd of about 200.

We had previewed the appearance and the speech at the top of the Northwest section on Tuesday.

Jim Camden attended yesterday's event. He captured some audio for our radio broadcasts. And he wrote an item for his political blog, Spin Control.

But he didn't write anything for print and no one asked him to do that.

This morning, when it came up, my first, reflexive reaction was "how did we miss that?" But as we discussed it, I quickly came to the conclusion there was no reason to write a story for the print paper.

We handled the event online and on radio while it was happening. But the governor didn't make any news, we had already written at length about her campaign stop. So what value would a day-late print story bring to our readers?

However, some at the meeting argued the opposite, that whenever the state's governor visits Spokane something should make print, even if it's just to note the visit for the record.

Dave Wasson, our deputy city editor for political coverage, felt so strongly, he crafted a fresh story for the website this morning.

This debate is a preview of debates to come. Should the print paper include some version of all of the news that makes the website or radio during the previous day?

What about this "for-the-record" angle? Do we note otherwise news-empty events in print just to complete the historical record?

What do you think? Did we miss the boat on the governor's Wednesday visit?

steve

It is not at all unusual for the defendant in a high-profile case to cite unfavorable press coverage as the reason behind a change-of-venue request.

But lawyers for Jonathan Lytle, accused of the torture and murder of little Summer Phelps last year, have included every article, every blog post and every related document published by the SR as part of the two-year Our Kids: Our Business project as the reason Lytle cannot get a fair trial anywhere in our circulation area. Here's the link to today's story by Meghann Cuniff.

The motion for a change of venue includes hundreds of pages of articles and online comments that create what lawyers argue is an association between Lytle and child abuse in general.

Of course, Lytle is owed a fair trial. Personally, it doesn't matter to me where the trial takes place. If prosecutors have their act together and have the evidence that supports a conviction, he will be convicted.

But I have to ask: Has Our Kids: Our Business made it impossible for Lytle to get a fair trial in Spokane?

steve

think

Good morning,

We made our debut this morning on KJRB. Good work by Dan Mitchinson and Dick Haugen gives us a professional sound right off the bat.

Our two-minute news cut-in at the bottom of each hour showcases our staff's growing breaking news capability. So far today, each newscast has been fresh with the latest news off our website.

But I don't want people to think "that's all there is."

The brief news cut-ins are just the beginning. We hope to have an hour-long daily news and talk show up and running by mid-May. That format will give us time for more long-form work.

And we'll continue to branch out from there.

But give the new hourly newscasts a listen and tell me what you think.

KJRB is 790 on the A.M.

steve

Producer's note: Here's the related video clip of the 10 a.m. discussion on Tuesday Apr 8, where editors talk about the coverage from Baghdad.

Get the Flash Player to see this video.

Good morning,

It was great seeing a Jim Hagengruber byline in our paper again.

His report in today's paper on U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, is the first of three stories he and photographer Brian Plonka will report out of their recent trip to the war zone. Here's the link.

Hagengruber was among the casualties of our layoffs last year, so is operating as a freelancer. We paid for a portion of his expenses, with Jim hoping to make up the balance freelancing content to other publications. He's already been published in the Christian Science Monitor and apparently has some prospects with European papers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Good morning,

The SR has won its second Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism.

We won in 2005 for the ethical processes we followed and our transparency during the Jim West investigation.

The latest award, announced today, is for requesting and then publishing the Washington News Council report on 10 years of River Park Square coverage.

Read the rest of this entry »

Good afternoon,

Two important SR content initiatives launch this week.

Our hourly radio newscasts on KJRB-790 begin Wednesday morning. For the first few weeks, the broadcast team of Dan Mitchinson and Dick Haugen will be working out of the KJRB studio while our newsroom studio is finished.

Construction is done. This week, we're installing wiring for all of the equipment, including a snazzy "On Air" sign, something I've secretly always wanted in a newsroom.

As soon as some important production software arrives and is installed, we'll move the newscasts to our newsroom, by early May, I hope.

Meanwhile, we're already beginning to plan for a daily talk show, also on KJRB, maybe by late spring.

On Thursday,we'll debut the new West Plains Voice, a new edition of our popular weekly suburban "zoned" sections. The new Voice brings to seven the number of zoned editions we offer. And beginning this week, all of the Voices will be available free on racks as stand-alone sections.

There will be other major content initiatives this year, but these two are biggies.

steve

Good morning,

I've said it before, I'll say it again. Nothing -- and I mean absolutely nothing -- angers readers like a mistake in the crossword puzzles.

We had two weeks of puzzle confusion in the Sunday comics section.

Problem is, we don't do the comics section here. We buy it from an outside vendor, in Denver, and it is printed weeks in advance of distribution.

As Ken Paulman attempted to explain in Sunday's paper, the crossword provider submitted the wrong puzzles for the wrong dates and it take two weeks to move past the confusion.

We can't reprint the comics sections when an error of this sort happens. All we can do is try to explain to readers what happened and provide the clues/solutions to the mixed up puzzles.

It isn't enough.

I've commented before on how angry some readers become. What truly amazes me is the language used by older readers, particularly older women.

If anyone wants to know why today's generations are less civil than previous generations, all you have to do is listen to my voice mails to hear grandmas go wild -- and profane, and with a total stranger, to boot. How can we expect them to have taught their children any differently?

Thus endeth today's rant.

steve

Good afternoon,

Today's Our Kids: Our Business package may be the best we've done in the two years of the project, certainly in terms of providing useful information for a community interested in protecting and nurturing children.

The main story, by Alison Boggs, explains how Portland's Children's Investment Fund supports programs that really help at-risk kids and their families.(Link here)

Similar funds exist in other cities, including Seattle. Establishnig a similar program in Spokane County is one of the top priorities of the child advocates involved in the OKOB project.

But in a sidebar, Alison notes that passing such a small tax levy would be an uphill battle. (Link here)

Our OKOB poll, as reported by Jim Camden, indicates a majority of those polled in Spokane Coutny and North Idaho would support a tax increase to pay for child protection programs.(Link here)

But we all know it is one thing to express support for a tax increase in a news poll and quite another to support it at the poll that really counts.

The Portland fund levy is really small, just a few dollars per year per home owner.

Would you support such a levy here? Would you help campaign for it?

Do you think it might win voter approval or should child advocates look elsewhere?

And while you're thinking about it, dig out the OKOB poster in today's paper and display it on a window in your home or business. And don't forget to sign the Call to Action pledge promising to do just one thing in the coming year to help children. Here is the link to a PDF version of the pledge.

Thanks,
steve

Good morning,

I have been in Pullman the last few days for the annual Murrow Symposium.

The highlight of the event is the honoring of a legendary journalist, almost always a broadcaster, with the Murrow Award for lifetime achievement.

This year's honoree was Don Hewitt, the creator of 60 Minutes. Now 85, Hewitt is one of the few recent Murrow Award recipients to actually work with Murrow.

He was one of the legendary "Murrow Boys" who essentially created TV journalism. During a Q&A after the ceremony, he talked about his introduction to television, in 1947.

Read the rest of this entry »

Good morning,

Was anyone else surprised that, according to Rich Roesler in a Page 1 story this morning, Spokane County and the city of Spokane Valley fared well in a statewide audit of citizen access to public records? (Link here)

Our experience with those two entities isn't quite that rosy.

But it is much better than our ongoing experience with the city of Spokane.

Marlene Feist, apparently having seen more of the audit than has been widely disclosed as yet, suggests the city did better than most.

Of course, Rich cites a case in which the city never did fulfill an auditor's request for records of police travel.

The fact is, even with somewhat more open officials in city government these days, the default at City Hall, at least insofar as newspaper requests go, is to delay, delay, delay and then complain that the state should be paying for the costs of searching out the requested records.

Perhaps the final audit, when it's released, will prompt some changes where they really need to take place -- in the Spokane city attorney's office.

steve

Good morning,

I'm recovering from eye surgery and have been unable to spend as much time working on the computer as I normall spend in a work day. I have to park my face about six inches from the screen to see much.

Still, the istuation is improving and I should be able to do some limited posting the rest of this week.

Meanwhile, if you haven't had a chance, check out the new Community Comment blog. Right now, the venerable and thoughtful Dave Laird is the primary poster and quasi-admin. But a handful of other community voices will be added to that blog in the coming days.

Here is the link.

More later.

steve

Good morning and happy Easter,

Several bits and pieces jumped out at me this morning.

First, the 6-month-old baby girl who was grievously injured by her mother's boyfriend late last week died yesterday (story here). Nevaeh ("heaven" spelled backwards), died just a week before we launch this year's iteration of Our Kids: Our Business, our month-long project aimed at helping the community understand and deal with issues of child abuse and neglect.

Last year, just weeks before the start of the project, the community was confronted with the horrible, torture death of little Summer Phelps and we dedicated that first-year project to her.

Nevaeh isn't Summer. Her death, probably due to shaken-baby injuries, may not represent the ultimate evil embodied in the years' long, programmatic abuse endured by Summer.

Nevaeh's death actually is rather ordinary. A poor working mother allows a suspect boyfriend to babysit the child while she goes to work and the boyfriend allegedly abuses the child and then smokes marijuana (or uses meth or goes to a bar, it's a common story) while the baby suffers and then expires.

This sort of thing is, in a sad way, almost a cliche.

And that is why Nevaeh's death is so horrific. People might be able to look at Summer Phelps's murder and consider that an exceptional case and therefore not an indication of our community's inability to protect its children. There is no such escape from the horror of Nevaeh's fate.

What will this community do to prevent more of these "common" tragedies.

You will see us taking on that issue in much greater depth beginning March 28.

(And here's a prediction -- there will be fewer letters to the editor about Nevaeh's death than we received about Chico the monkey. Think on that.)

Also in today's paper:

Read the rest of this entry »