Did I actually hear one of our local TV news guys ask viewers to respond online to the question "should legislators be prohibited from going into adult bookstores?"

I think I heard that.

I have my own thoughts on this highly controversial social issue. Without revealing my personal position, thereby compromising my ability to direct aggressive newspaper coverage of such a ban, I'd suggest that somewhere in the question, we need to be asking about red hose and black slinky underwear, at least in the case of male legislators.

Some days, TV news just leaves me numb. This left me on the floor in painful convulsions of laughter.

steve

steve

All the ones I keep reading are about closeted gay married men who are chasing after younger, barely legal men. Can't we have a story or two about state legislators who HAVEN'T drowned in hypocrisy?

[Greenbluff, Washington]

Shawn has a picture of an excellent mosaic of autumn colors this morning over at The Falls Blog which set me on a course remembering a day recently spent wandering down brilliantly-colored pathways in retrospect the other Sunday at Greenbluff. It seems the older I get, the more retrospect plays an increasing role in my daily life; simultaneously while I am looking at my granddaughter playing in the autumn corn maze with a lightness and laughter that crowns her with more beauty than I sometimes feel worthy, I find myself drifting down old, familiar memorized roads and visiting old faces from my far and recent past.

Autumn is a state of mind, as well as a season, which has all the vibrancy, the colorful glory of that spent among the autumn colors with the leaves crunching beneath my feet. While around us there is a sense of things fading away, deep within ourselves there is still the persistent throbbing awareness of newfound growth yet to come. On an autumnal afternoon, despite feeling the tug of the here-and-now, I found myself revisiting one of the truest Philosophers I have ever met, and yet I know you will not find the name Chuck Gondor anywhere in the vastness of Google. It is as if he never existed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Good morning,

Well, it looks like our old buddy, City Councilman Al French, is at it again.

French savaged the newspaper last night, blaming us for an ethical mess he has stumbled into -- and without any help from us.

Yes, we had a bad headline in last week's North and South Voice sections. Those sections go to about one third of our audience. We corrected the headline the next day in the Accuracy Watch, on the cover of our Northwest section and read by far more people than the Voices can reach. And we'll correct in the Voice sections Thursday, as per policy. I also apologized to French personally.

The story under the headline, by reporter Mike Prager, was accurate, French said. No problems with that, just the headline.

French talked to me a couple of times last week, at one point even asking me for advice on how he could extricate himself from the ethical morass. I don't advise politicians, explained to him that he'd have to figure that out for himself and offered him a chance to talk to the editorial page folks about a letter or even an op-ed column. But that would not be my call to make.

French was understandably upset by our headline. It was not a good one, for sure.

But the ethical fight had begun before we even wrote a story and the pressure he's getting from his political opponents has nothing to do with the newspaper.

Still, as he did a few years ago when he was involved in another ethics flap involving illegal dredging on the Spokane River, French takes the same old route -- blame it on the Spokesman.

Of course, when he thought I might have some say in our editorial endorsements, he was in my office, shining my shoes and telling me how much he appreciates the newspaper and the fine work we're doing.

Today, it's about our relentless negativity, about how we're unfair to him and how our journalism is to blame for his problems. All this for one headline in two of five Voice sections. It's not as if French has been Page 1 news on much of anything for weeks.

I think citizens generally see through this stuff. Voters certainly do. As I recall he was third in the three-way mayoral primary. While he's fighting his latest ethics controversy, his opponents from the primary are fighting for the city's top job.

There is nothing new about politicians blaming the press for their problems. But it sure gets tiresome, at least from where I sit.

steve

Good morning, Netizens...

We start off another day in the Blogs by citing a quote from a very interesting statement made by an elementary school teacher, and then we'll expound:

==================================================

"The feeling is that we are moving away from what has worked for hundreds of years with millions of kids to something that nobody is quite sure of."

– Balboa Elementary School teacher Jim Harrison, describing the reaction he's heard from parents to Spokane Public Schools' new spelling curriculum, which frowns on memorization.

[Taken from Today's In their own words]
==================================================

Read the rest of this entry »

Good evening, Netizens...

David Brookbank wrote in another Blog:

People in the US lack the ability to analyze their own reality and to define their own interests. We leave that to the corporate media, ruling class politicians, and others such as intellectuals, etc.

Until people in this country learn to define their own interests and to tune out the corporate media and pollsters and public relations firms and other propagandists, forget about it. They have us right where they want us. Fat and fatter, dumb and dumber, poor and poorer.

===================================================

There is power in the acquisition and gathering of true knowledge which supersedes and circumvents everything, from the self-serving hedonism of corporate America to the acrimonious and deliberately misleading statements of our civic leaders and their minions of misinformation. Have we becoming the very vapid, uninformed flat-minded people that our forefathers warned us about?

The first step toward recovery:

“Blow up the TV, move to the country, plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches and try to find Jesus on your own.” (Song: Blow Up the TV, by John Prine)

The battle for control over our childrens' lives is over, and unfortunately, we did not even come in a close second to television. You would think that after over 4,000 studies that carefully examined TV's effects on children, that the parents of modern America would have needed the warning signs before now.

Perhaps the most bone-chilling statistic is that American parents spend less than 4 minutes per week in meaningful conversation with their children, while the average child spends over 1600 minutes watching television. Let's put up a cheer for dear old dad, shall we? It is too bad that 54% of 4-6 year olds, when asked to choose between spending time with their fathers and watching television preferred television. While the average American youth of school age spends approximately 900 hours in school per year, they spend approximately 1500 hours watching television.

Read the rest of this entry »

Good morning, Netizens...

I am not surprised in the least that FEMA is apologizing again for yet another gaffe. In this instance of incompetence, our nation's main disaster-response agency apologized on Friday for having its employees pose as reporters in a hastily called news conference on California's wildfires that no news organizations attended. FEMA held a press conference about the fires in Southern California, but no one from the news media came to the press conference. No problem. FEMA invented their own press corp, or should I say press corpse, because the panel of imaginary j
journalists died and disappeared as soon as the real press corps learned about it.

A spokeswoman for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who has authority over FEMA, called the incident "inexcusable and offensive to the secretary."
I personally find Michael Chertoff inefficient, inexcusable and offensive for his inaction and utter incompetence during and after the Hurricane Katrina crisis in 2005 not to mention his continuing attempts to impersonate a professional in charge of rendering assistance in the time of disasters. Who gave the order for FEMA personnel to impersonate news journalists? Is it plausible that FEMA will be sending formaldehyde-laden trailers to Southern California to house the homeless?

FEMA is reviewing its press procedures and will make changes to ensure they are "straightforward and transparent," Johnson said on Friday.

From my limited perspective that means FEMA will persist in their incompetence and graft, but continue to improve at how they cover it up. Of course, your thoughts may differ.

Good evening, everyone...

To save space I have snipped up a bit of message that Editor Steve Smith posted earlier today in News is a Conversation:

Editor Steve Smith wrote:

=======================================================================
To all,
[snipped for brevity]
But, for now, unless you have something new to say, new information to provide, I am not interested in RPS posts and I am particularly disinclined to let RPS posters hijack threads on other issues.

At the risk of reiterating my previous comments regarding River Park Square, I am going to come out from behind the back corner of the cloak room from whence I have been covertly operating on a different kind of writing assignment for over a week to add my personal fifteen cents and a few pieces of pocket lint to the statement above by Steve Smith. While I am at the process, perhaps it is simply time for me to submit for everyone's consideration what it is about the Blogs that attracts or conversely detracts my attention, which may serve to explain, at least from my vantage point, why I agree with Steve Smith's statement (above)
[continued below]

Read the rest of this entry »

Good evening,

Even in this time of uncertainty, business must go on. So today, I named a new WSU sports reporter who will be based in Pullman.

Nick Eaton replaces Glenn Kasses who left for graduate school last spring.

Here is my announcement to the SR staff:

I am pleased to announce that night cops reporter Nick Eaton will be our new WSU sports reporter based in Pullman.

Nick is a 2007 WSU graduate and former editor of The Daily Evergreen. He joined us last spring as an intern, but has quickly established himself as one of the newsroom's bright young talents.

Because he has lived and worked in Pullman, he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to his new assignment. He has covered WSU football and basketball, not just as a writer and editor, but as a multimedia videographer. He has produced highlight videos, post game interviews and audio slide shows for both sports. And, of course, he edited every sports story The Evergreen published during his time as copy chief and editor-in-chief.

In his new role, he'll provide traditional written sports coverage out of Pullman. Furthermore, he'll also help grow our hugely popular Cougar sports blogs and build additional online and multimedia content.

Please join me in congratulating Nick.

I'll leave it to Joe Palmquist and Addy Hatch to work out a start date. I know Addy must have time to fill the night cops position. Once he starts, Nick will shadow Vince Grippi through basketball season (Vince takes the lead on basketball as compensation for suffering through football) and then take over the beat in the spring. During the intervening months, in addition to shadowing Vince, he'll work with Joe on developing new digital content as the department's first mo-jo.

I know some of you may wonder why we're announcing a significant beat change during a time of uncertainty. But the fact is we can't sit still while we sort through other staffing issues. We must have a beat reporter in Pullman if we’re to fulfill one of our core responsibilities to readers. Our long-term strategic goals require nothing less.

Good afternoon,

I had a delightful, conversational meeting with Dave Oliveria, our Huckleberries Online maestro, and eight of his most prolific and thoughtful posters this morning.

We met at a Coeur d'Alene restaurant to discuss how far Dave should go in trying to enforce some semblance of civility on his blog -- and by extension how far we should go with other SR blogs.

This is a knotty problem. The newspaper is dedicated to open, anonymous discourse on its blogs. But all of our blogs are, after all, extensions of the newsroom and its values. There are countless places to go online for unmoderated, wild and wooly and rude discourse.

Our blogs should be somewhat more thoughtful.

One role of the newspaper is to generate the conversation in a community that should be happening but isn't. Blogs that are hijacked by venomous name-callers, flamers, trolls and spammers don't provide for the civil discussion of important community issues.

But enforcing civility is a real problem. Some trolls learn quickly how to circumvent any barriers we establish and posting offensive content becomes a game for them.

Until or unless we require registration with identity verification, this problem will continue. I don't want to go the registration route, but we may have no choice in the end.

In the meantime, my best advice to those interested in civil discourse is to ignore the trolls if you see their posts before we can kill them. Just don't respond to people who want to turn any conversation into a fesitval of insult and self-indulgent patronization.

Generally, the blowhards tire of the game and go elsewhere. That will leave our blogs for the folks who really have something to say.

And if you're interested, here is a link to Dave Oliveria's HBO thread on our meeting.

Thanks,
steve

Good morning,

My thanks to all who contributed to the Cabela's threads yesterday. The response was helpful, particularly in reminding us that outdoors/hunting/recreation remain this region's big interest.

We devoted a fair amount of time and space on the Cabela's issue on our blogs yesterday. It wasn't as if this was an earth shattering problem. But I chose it precisely because it reflects the more routine, everyday sorts of debates we have in the newsroom. Not everything is about RPS or liberal/conservative bias or newsroom ethics codes.

Most daily debates are over issues such as this. And if you take the time to listen to the webcast news meetings from yesterday, you'll get an honest sense of how those debates play out.

Also from this morning, kudos to Bill Morlin for his diligent work in developing the story of the SPD undercover officer who is being accused of rape. Late last night we received a mug shot of the cop and could have used it with the story. But he is undercover so showing his face could potentially expose him to danger should he return to the streets. There will be time enough to use the mug if the accusations actually lead to criminal charges.

And last issue for this morning; we had a bad headline in our North and South voices. The headline suggests that City Councilman Al French was caught in a conflict of interest. The story accurately notes that French raised the potential conflict himself and chose to recuse himself from a vote that hasn't even been taken yet. The headline creates a false impression and so we'll correct it tomorrow and in next week's voices. My apologies to French.

More later.

steve

Good evening,

Well we had another spirited discussion this afternoon re: Cabela's

The verdict: bottom of Page 1 with a "secondary" photo.

Managing Editor Gary Graham and I reluctantly agreed to the story placement, proof that we're willing to listen to our editors even when we're nervous about the outcome. The thing about news judgment is that there is no clear-cut answer. They might be as right as Gary and I, and their arguments persuaded us to compromise.

Watch the meeting here:

Get the Flash Player to see this video.

Meanwhile, I asked Carla Savalli, our senior editor for local news, to explain the decision which she stronlgy advocated.

Here is what Carla wrote:

There is no formula for putting together a newspaper's front page, although there are guidelines and common practices that comprise the journalistic conventions all newsrooms follow. For example, breaking news - especially news of magnitude - carries more weight than a timeless feature story. At The Spokesman-Review, we elevate local news over most national and international news because our readers look to us to reflect their everyday lives. We also occasionally look for front page stories that are surprising, unique, whimsical - even entertaining.

That is why the occasional sports story gets onto the front page, or a pop culture story like the latest American Idol winner.

The Cabela's story will be on Thursday's front page because it is one of those whimsical stories. It's a sense-of-place story because it reflects this region's love affair with the outdoors. It is certainly a local story - for both our Washington and our Idaho readers.

Is it news? No. And it doesn't pretend to be. For that, we're giving readers three other weighty - and local - topics: more on Larry Craig, an exclusive story on a law enforcement investigation, and a follow-up to our stories on drug-resistant infections, which The Spokesman-Review first reported ahead of many larger newspapers.

We've got serious news covered. The Cabela's story is one of those uncommon surprises. It doesn't detract from the serious topics on the page. It does reflect where we live. It will, hopefully, charm readers with its creative approach. It will, hopefully, make readers smile.

That's not such a bad thing.

Carla Savalli

I should probably note that a Cabela's representative was watching the morning webcast. She called our ad department to ask them to correct me on a statement I made at the meeting...Cabela's will, in fact, be an SR advertiser, apparently a six-figure advertiser.

That doesn't influence our decision and she made a point of telling the ad folks she didn't care one way or another about a story from us.

But it can create an impression that we need to be aware of, in any event. On the other hand, we put Kohl's on Page 1 and they are an even bigger advertiser.

And for more reader feedback on the issue, check out this inconclusive thread at Hucklberries Online.

Also, here is a link to the Dan Hansen story, just posted online.

steve

Good afternoon,

Back to issues of news coverage, thankfully.

We had a spirited discussion at this morning's meeting about whether or not a feature story about Cabela's -- the new outdoor recreation/hunting superstore -- belongs on Page 1 tomorrow.

Deputy City Editor Dan Hansen, an outdoor enthusiast and expert, and Assistant Photo Editor Liz Kishimoto, toured the new store today as part of a staged media event. The store won't open to the public until Nov. 9.

Cabela's certainly isn't a typical retail store. It's size -- humongous -- and its status as a tourist destination separate it from its competition.

But, in general, we don't cover staged news. And we try not to overcover retail developments, although we did give modest Page 1 coverage to the opening of Kohl's Department Store a few weeks back.

So the debate this morning was spirited and there was no firm resolution.

Take a look at the meeting discussion and weigh in here. There is still time to influence this afternoon's decision.

steve

Get the Flash Player to see this video.

Good morning,

Here is an excerpt from this morning's meeting talking about our coverage of our pending downsizing.

Among other issues, we discuss whether we are making more of this than readers want or deserve. Are we too self-obsessed? I wonder about this re: this blog. But, my take is that if we're going to be transparent, we don't get to pick and choose and it's better to default to openness and transparency than go through this process behind locked doors.

Some of you may have thoughgts on this.

In any event, here is the morning meeting discussion.

steve

Get the Flash Player to see this video.

Good evening,

In August, I first alerted readers of this blog to pending downsizing of our newsroom (here is a link to that post and thread). At the time, I said we would do everything possible to avoid layoffs, but that we definitely would have fewer staffers by the same time next year.

Since that original posting, the newspaper's long-term financial situation has taken firmer shape. And in the last several days, it has become obvious that newsroom downsizing won't wait until next year and layoffs cannot be avoided.

This afternoon, Publisher Stacey Cowles sent a memo to the company outlining steps the newspaper as a whole will take to control costs. There will be staff reductions in other company departments, although I am not yet privy to the details.

But I can address cuts in news staff and the likely impact on our news report.

A news story written by reporter John Stucke with comments from me and Stacey has been posted online and will appear in the Tuesday paper in the Business section (here is a link to the online story). Here is a memo I sent the news staff this afternoon:

Good afternoon,

By now, I'm sure most of you have read Stacey's memo on downsizing and the early retirement plan. I know the implications have sent a ripple of
concern through the newsroom.

I wish I could say something to ease the tension. Unfortunately, the news is not good.

The early retirement program might produce a couple of newsroom retirements. There really is no way to predict. But I now have a better
sense of what the newsroom's "share" of the downsizing plan will mean for us.

Stacey alluded to involuntary layoffs numbering at least 30 companywide. The total number of departures throughout the company will be higher
than that, some through retirements, some through resignations and some through layoffs.

As much as the newsroom managers have worked to avoid layoffs, our efforts have failed to achieve our hoped for results. I fear we may be looking at involuntary layoffs in excess of 10 positions, maybe substantially more than 10. That is terrible news and I am saddened and embarrassed to have to deliver it to you.

At this point, I have begun to develop some ideas on how this might be managed. But I have made no firm or final decisions. And the decisions will be mine to make after consulting the senior managers, particularly Managing Editor Gary Graham.

As you know, any involuntary layoffs must be managed in accordance with our SES contract. So I'll be working, as much as possible, with the SES
on matters of timing, notification and so on.

I can't give you a firm timetable as yet. But I think all the managers are in agreement that we don't want to keep the newsroom in limbo for
any length of time. So we'll proceed as quickly as possible.

Let me restate my comments from last August: These cuts will mean a lesser paper. Some things we do now, important things, will be eliminated. Our readers will notice. I can only promise to do the best I can to preserve resources necessary for our core mission.

My door is open. I'll answer whatever questions I can.

steve

As the memo notes, any staff layoffs must be conducted in accordance with our contract with our newsroom union, the Spokane Editorial Society. Our current contract requires that layoffs be based on seniority, although management has some discretion in terms of identifying which departments will take cuts.

At this time, I am not certain how content will be affected except to say whatever happens, it will be noticeable. As soon as I have a better idea, and as soon as I have notified the staff and the union per our contract, I'll let you all know, too.

It is going to be a very tough couple of weeks in the newsroom. As much as we try to focus on our work, there will be distractions. We'll all do our best, our professional best, to prevent those distractions from interfering with our work.

steve

Good morning,

Here is an excerpt from today's webcast news meeting during which we talked about the suicide incident posted first on Huckleberries online and then reported in a news brief in today's paper.

Please weigh in and tell me what you think.

steve

Get the Flash Player to see this video.

Good evening,

Ziggles, a frequent poster on Huckleberries Online, posted the following on this blog's thread dealing with The Vox package in Sunday's paper. I created a fresh thread for the discussion so as not to divert The Vox thread to a debate over suicide coverage.

Here is what Ziggles posted:

On an unrelated note, does the Spokesman-Review cover suicides now, and name the victims, as it does in this posting?

Posted by Ziggles (Roaring on the 'net!) | 21 Oct 7:56 PM

Here is a link to the Huckleberries Online post to which Ziggles refers:

Here is my response:

Our policy re: suicides does support reporting the name of a victim if the suicide occurs in a public place. A suicide on a college campus or at a school and involving a firearm might well be reported.

On the other hand, this young woman killed herself in her dorm room, which is also her home.

So this incident is right on the cusp. Ordinarily, there would have been a discussion among editors before reporting the name of the victim.

From my home on Sunday night I can't tell you if there was additional discussion on this case before DFO posted the CDA press release on Hucks.

Should the blog be subject to the same policies that apply to print? This is a debate, Ziggles, that you have weighed in on from a different perspective.

We'll talk about it at tomorrow's news meeting, which is webcast live, and I'll get back to this thread with more information and a better informed opinion.

steve

Good morning,

I hope you all had a chance to read today's A-section package on high school life written by members of The Vox staff. Here is a link to education reporter Sara Leaming's Page 1 introduction. And here is a link to the students' package of stories and anecdotes.

There is a wealth of wonderful information, clever insight and good writing in the package.

I came away with a couple of quick reactions.

I wouldn't go back to high school for any reason, for any amount of money, for eternal youth and beauty.

And, today's high schoolers are smart, motivated, hard-working and community oriented. And, as has been the case forever, self-absorbed and self-conscious.

The package is worth your time.

If you;d like to let The Vox staffers know what you think, here is a link to their blog, The Vox Box, which has a thread on the package.

steve

Good morning,

Frequent poster John August Olsen was quite offended by this morning's Noah Kroese editorial cartoon, Page B10, showing Mayor Dennis Hession as a boxer knocking out campaign civility.

Gus, who has become a Hession supporter in the current mayoral campaign, argues the cartoon is offensive and unfair.

He posted to that effect in an earlier thread devoted to a discussion of a new daily/sunday comic strip.

This new thread is a better place for the debate over Kroese's editorial cartoon. So I am going to kill Gus's post in the earleir thread, but copy it here.

Here is what Gus wrote:

I was terribly disturbed by the editorial cartoon, lower left hand corner of the Sunday Paper... find below the text of a message i wrote to all of the "editors" that i could think of at the Review... i'd solicit comments from folks as they take a look at the cartoon through the "eyes of other"... if they are able to.. or from the of they are "other" what the impact of the cartoon had on their psyche??

Steve,
I am as you will read below highly offended by the very very ugly in my opinion "cartoon" on the lower left of the editorial page this morning. From my perspective as a very active member in the community of other.. as an advocate and vocal person, here and in public forums i ask you to consider the impact of this horrific picture on the pages of your paper this morning. It is pandering and very nasty with it's implication that Mayor Hession is racist, and not in favor of all of the issues that I and hundreds of others on the Spokane Task Force for Human Relations, and the Spokane Alliance are working to turn around.

I do not think that raising this cartoon up in public will serve any purpose other than to "play it again sam".. and thus give it wider audience...

I know Mayor Dennis, and Jane Hession personally now.. as a function of being an active and "out' grunt for their campaign. These are two of the "best" people i've known in my life. Mayor Dennis takes longer to make decisions than i might.. and other mechanical stuff... but their character is in my opinion beyond reproach.

They did more than ever would/could one expect to heal this town after the firing of Mayor West.. in the GLBTQ community (in which i am an active and vocal ally)...

I could go on but will not... It gives me great pause that the major news paper in this town would run such a cartoon... Freedom of speech "YES" This cartoon however is akin to "Shouting Fire" in a closed auditorium... the tenor of the community of "other" is very very fragile now.. i know this from personal conversations with multiple persons... and you have chosen to throw Kerosene on a tinder pile.. my good god..... "with due respect"... Dr John A. Olsen

As readers of this blog know, I no longer supervise the editorial pages. So I saw the cartoon for the first time this morning just as you all did.

It's a tough piece of work, sharp and critical. From experience, I can tell you that editorial cartoons that make the strongest points also generate the most controversy.

The cartoon troubles me personally on a couple of levels. But I also appreciate the message the cartoonist was attempting to convey and I respect
the role of the editorial cartoonist in expressing a strong point of view.

You all might recall that the paper editorially endorsed Mayor Hession for re-election. The cartoon, therefore, represents the editorial editors providing space for a strong alternative point of view.

Also, keep in mind the editorial writers late last week criticized both candidates for resorting to unseemly mud-slinging. And Mayor Hession's recent anti-Verner TV ad, to which the cartoon refers indirectly, has been criticized as dirty and unfair.

Aside from some unintended but obvious racial concerns, my biggest criticism is that the cartoon didn't take both candidates to task.

What do you think?

steve

As you may have read in Sunday's paper, Tundra (drawn by Chad Carpenter, pictured above with a fuzzy woodland friend) was the overwhelming winner in our comics survey.

For an editor, this strip is a godsend. It's popular with kids, older folks, and everyone in between. The occupations listed in the survey showed the strip had fans from all walks of life. A lot of people who were fans of "B.C." loved it. The popularity was overwhelming, and the decision was a no-brainer.

I answered some frequently-asked questions in today's editor's note, but I'm also opening up this thread in case people want to comment or ask additional questions. So fire away...

Good morning,

In the newsroom, at least, there was a bit of consternation with today's Page 1 centerpiece on the bombing in Pakistan yesterday.

It has been so long since we centered with a wire story that the page just felt different, maybe less relevant than usual. And, frankly, wire stories are almost always stale by the time they hit the print edition.

Deciding what to put on Page 1 on any given day is a process of judgment, limited by what is available. Yesterday, there were no good story/photo options for Page 1 from the local budget.

Just one of those days. A story or two fell through, a story was held and you get to 4:30 p.m. with a bare cupboard. So turning to the wire becomes a logistical necessity.

Still, we might have made other decisions earlier in the day had we simply concluded we would NOT centerpiece with a wire story on Page 1 for any reason.

So, what do you think? Was the Bhuto story old news? Would you rather see a softer local centerpeice -- say the bannana boy from the Northwest cover -- than a harder news wire package from halfway around the world?

What decisions would you have made differently today?

steve

Good morning,

This link takes you to a summary of a new World Association of Newspapers report on what newspapers and newspaper journalism might look like in 2020.

The full report is being delivered this weekend to a WAN meeting in Amsterdam.

It makes for interesting reading.

You might compare the views of the futurists involved with what you see in the SR.

Let me know what you think.

steve

Good evening,

A couple of stories in the last week or so highlight the problems associated with identifying story subjects by race or ethnicity.

As a rule, such identification is included in a story only if it is considered significant to the story.

So this week, in editing stories on Shonto Pete, we were careful about referencing his Native American heritage. For example, in today's hard news story on his auto theft trial, link here, there is no mention of Pete's race.

But in the secondary story about his mother's vigil at the trial, link here, Pete's Native American ethnicity is central to the story.

(As reported on spokesmanreview.com, Pete was found not guilty on all charges late today.)

A more complex issue was raised in a story last week by reporter Sara Leaming headlined "Awesome teacher honored." Here is the link.

Here is what deputy city editor Dan Hansen told me in an e-mail today when he suggested this thread for News is a Conversation:

Sara Leaming wrote the story last week about the Rogers HS teacher who won a prestiguous $25,000 Milken Family Foundation Educator Award. In it, she wrote:

"Jones, who is black, has been an inspiration to a diverse population of students, teaching them not to let difficult issues like race, ethnicity or class stand in their way, her peers said.

"She started a 'Ladies of Distinction' group at the school to introduce female students, specifically those of color, to professional women in the community..."

Sara also noted that Jones was raised in the Netherlands by white parents. It was clear in the interview that race is one motivating factor for this amazing teacher.

Since the story ran, Sara has received some e-mails asking why she felt it necessary to include Jones' ethnicity. Jones herself sent an e-mail, saying that some of her students and colleagues are questioning it. It doesn't sound like she's angry, just curious -- especially since anyone could tell from the photos that this is a black woman.

I think it's a valid point for discussion because we could have written the story without mentioning her ethnicity -- take out the words "who is black" and the paragraph above still showcases her success. On the other hand, her background is one of the things that made her the passionate teacher that she is.

Sensitivity to racial identification can lead to some fairly amazing self-censorship. One of the nation;s top dailies a few weeks ago, wrote about an at-large criminal suspect including some important physical attributes in their description of the dangerous fugitive, but not telling readers the suspect's race. He is black.

Is that political correctness run amok? Where is the line between appropriate sensitivity and failure to deal with critical information.

There is no right or wrong in this discussion. But the conversation is always difficult and fascinating.

steve

Good morning,

We reported the Jane Hession assault allegation as our lead brief on the Northwest cover this morning.

I was comfortable with that decision. This appears to be more about politics than assault, at least based on what we know. The alleged victim of Jane Hession's shove was protesting the change in trash pickup procedures in north Spokane neighborhoods, so probably wasn't directly associated with the Mary Verner campaign. And the Verner campaign doesn't seem interested in getting involved with the case.

Our political reporter, Jim Camden, notes the folks blaming Mayor Hession for the trash pickup changes are becoming increasingly confrontational.

In any event, if you watched any of the local TV news shows last night, you might have been under the impression that Jane Hession pulled a .44 and nailed the elderly victim with a "make-my-day" shot. It was pretty amazing.

I anticipatyed calls or e-mails this morning from readers suggesting we underplayed the story because the newspaper editorially endorsed Hession. So far, none of that.

Obviously, if the mayor's wife is charged, the story advances. But I'm going to go out on a limb and predict nothing will come of this. I might be wrong. But the political silly season rarely produces criminal charges, especially against a candidate's wife.

steve

Good morning,

For those of you interested in the best new thinkingo n the future of the press in the digital age, let me suggest you check out Media Shift Idea Lab, a new blog developed by Media Shift and underwritten by the Knight Foundation. The blog will bring together many of the industrty's most innovative thinkers to discuss real-world examples of journalistic innovation.

The site just went up and I haven't had time to dig deeply. But what I've seen is fascinating and should be of interest to those who have weighed in here on the future of journalism.

Here is the link to Idea Lab.

Good morning:

I know exactly how the staff of the Idaho Statesman in Boise feel this morning. They are outraged, amused, a bit defensive and, mostly, annoyed by Larry Craig's defense, "the Statesman made me do it."

We've been through a few of these storms, too.

Why is it disgraced politicians decide their best defense is to deny responsibility for their own actions and blame the press?

Yup, there are folks who are so distrustful of the news media they may give the benefit of the doubt to the political hacks. But most citizens, I believe, see through the sham.

A regular citizen in trouble with the law either takes responsibility and mends his ways or watches his life spiral down. Only politicians can use the press as a scapegoat and find entertainment shows masquerading as news to air their trumped up defense.

Shameful.

steve

Good afternoon,

You probably know that the Fred Russell vehicular homicide trial has opened in Kelso.

Shortly, jurors will be presented with photos of the traffic accident six years ago that claimed three lives.

It is unlikelty we'd publish such photos in the paper. But the online world presents different opportunities and somewhat different standards.

Should we consider posting photos the jurors will see as they deliberate Russell's future?

steve

Good afternoon:

After careful consideration and reflection on the exchanges between Steve Blewett, our new and part-time ombudsman, and me and other members of the staff, I've decided to terminate our agreement with Steve.

Our contract with Steve had a built-in Dec. 3 expiration with an extension possible if both parties agreed.

But given a profound disagreement between us and Steve over standards and practices (particularly over the need to speak directly with people about whom he was writing) it seemed better to end the relationship now.

If you're interested in a better understanding of our disagreement, you can review some of the earlier threads on this blog where the issue was debated.

I'll begin looking for a replacement immediately. And will keep you all posted as that process progresses.

steve

Good evening,

Well, I'm back in town after watching my Duckies beat the Cougs Saturday in Eugene.

I root for the Cougs every game every season except for this one annual game.

Last year was tough. My neighborhood is all Coug fans and after their win in Pullman I had to display a Cougar flag on our garage door for a week or so.

But as much as I appreciated the Duck win Saturday, I was sad for the Cougar faithful. It was a pretty sad display and I know it was distressing. And I felt badly for Alex Brink, a fine young man who had a really bad homecoming.

If you look at our Sportslink blog, you're going to see a lot of anti-Bill Doba comments. Coug reporter Vince Grippi will tackle the topic of Doba's future sometime soon. But don't be surprised when he suggests Doba is going to be staying put.

steve

Good evening,

As you may remember, Steve Blewett's ombudsman column of a week ago was somewhat critical of column diversity on the op-ed page and in our Faith & Values section. Here is a link to the original column.

A couple of us criticized Steve's column, not for the conclusions but for his reporting.

He has asked me to post the foloowing response:

In a recent posting Steve Smith criticized me for allegedly not doing my homework (my words) on the question of who has the opportunity to publish in the Faith & Values space in the Saturday paper and the op-ed space.

I pointed out that I did do my reporting on the subject; I talked with several staff members and researched the use of the space myself.

Steve's examples listed six alternate examples over a six-month period, describing that record as "pretty good diversity." I won't argue with that description, but I think that "pretty good diversity" should not be the goal of the paper and I think that six alternative contributions in six months is not a very aggressive approach.

I did not state that there wasn't any diverstiy in that section, but that there could be more. I reject the claim that I didn't do my job as a reporter. My perspective is that we have a difference in expectations or interpretation.

I also did acknowledge that I should have picked my terms more carefully, and should have said the paper should "encourage" or "seek out" or "develp" alternative contributors rather than saying "allow" more.

Intolerance is never acceptable in our household. My wife and I have each trod different paths throughout our lives and learned tolerance through hard-fought lessons. There was a time, many years ago, when trapped in the throes of alcoholism, I lived along the Great Mississippi River in a cardboard shack, and my neighbor-among-the-weeds at that time, an African-American former minister who was battling his own wars with alcohol, while making hand-made furniture in his cardboard shack along the river, and at nights playing the Blues in East Saint Louis among the jazz clubs. That is excepting when either/both of us fell off the wagon in which case, in our own thinly-skinned language, we were both just two young drunks. Somehow, we each managed to beat the demons off our backs, and through our talking over chicory coffee late at night, we each found something of tolerance in one another. It was a pivotal time for us both, and somehow we both simultaneously outlived our demons and increased our understanding of racial tolerance.

While raising two children of her own, my wife fostered four foreign exchange students, inviting them into her already-hectic life as mother and university student. In retrospect it not only gave kids from other races and nationalities a taste of American living, but it also helped her own children become aware of other cultures and belief systems not of their own lives. It was, in her own words, not an easy task, bringing children not of her own family into the home, but it paid multiple dividends then and now. To this day her children remember learning how to circumnavigate the language barrier through various means; kids, it seems, can speak to nearly anyone regardless of their language.

Aside from educational fare which we watch frequently, mainstream television seldom is invited into our home because it often straddles material that is either in poor taste or, as in the case of ABC's Cavemen, borders so closely on racial intolerance so as to be marginally revolting. Of course, we are not your typical television viewers, by any means, for both of us vastly prefer to reading a good book than have our brain pans laden down with amorphous advertising, and flimsily-written story lines.

Perhaps that same intellectual curiosity is why I tuned in to watch Cavemen, I was enrapt with the unconventional premise of using a lead character that originally had been created for advertising in a sitcom. I was truly curious to see how the creators would migrate from advertising to sitcom fare.

Although Cavemen is not overtly racist in nature, they do exploit the racial differences that separate and divide us all. One example cited frequently by other critics of the show the phrase "Sape" in a conversation referring, of course, to a homo sapiens female. Pardon me, but the racial overtones from the African-American culture in modern society was apparent to me when I first heard the term.

I cannot imagine any real-life situation where racism is the least bit funny, even if the comedic person(s) involved are making fun of their own race and culture.

I will probably never watch Cavemen again. The existing chasm that separates us all from one another is serious enough by itself. We do not need to watch what are ostensibly Cro-Magnon men making light of an already-intolerable racist society.

Of course, your TV fare may differ...

Good morning, Netizens...

Do believe the claims made by the supporters of R-67? Of course, a great deal of whether or not you believe everything you have heard from either side on R-67 may depend upon whether you have ever been in an adversarial relationship of any kind with an insurance company. Four large insurance groups that do business in Washington have contributed more than 60 percent of the $9.6 million advertising costs which are trying to repeal a new law making it easier for people to fight the denial of claims.

Those groups, which coincidentally have the biggest slice of the state's insurance market, also generated the most customer complaints with the state Office of the Insurance Commissioner -- 1,096 last year.

First, let us examine some of the relevant facts. Referendum R-67 would allow policyholders to sue for triple damages when a company denies a legitimate claim. According to Sen. Brian Weinstein, the Democrat from Mercer Island and the prime sponsor of R-67, this bill, if passed by the voters, stated in this morning's online edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's article on R-67 (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/335354_insurance13.html) that the Referendum would stop the consumers from being ripped off by the insurance companies.

Of course, if one believes that the insurance companies all abide by state law, perhaps you should read the list of enforcement actions taken by the Insurance Commissioner's office against them, which are available to the public at: http://www.insurance.wa.gov/industry/enforcement.asp .
Briefly, let us examine who has paid the costs of opposing R-67, since perhaps some people have no idea who is behind the Reject Referendum R-67 campaign.

Contributers and the amount contributed:
Farmers 1,888.663
State Farm 1,608,327
Safeco 1,305,105
Allstate 1,077,390
Property Casualty Insurance Association:
880,000

And, to keep the playing field as close to level as possible, guess who had the most complaints filed with the Insurance Commissioner's office in 2006?

Farmers 407
Allstate 251
State Farm 223
Safeco 185
Pemco 149 (Pemco has not contributed to the No on R-67 campaign)

Some of the half-truths and outright lies that are printed on the No on Referendum 67 supporters' website (http://www.reject67.org/info_myths.html) are especially difficult to accept based upon the above statistics and what the Referendum's proponents tell us so, for some, it may be easy to be confused by the high volume of claims and counter-claims by both sides.

Perhaps the most egregious insult to my intelligence is the claim by those in favor of No on Referendum R-67 that Washington law already protects consumers by requiring full compensation when an insurance claim is wrongfully denied.

A few years ago my wife was involved in a car accident which was not her fault involving an intoxicated driver. Serious injuries occurred to her, requiring prolonged medical treatment for nerve damage done to her arm, and, for a time, she lost all use of her hand, and thus was off work. The other driver's insurance denied our claim, and we sued them and won.

It should also be mentioned that Washington State is one of five states that do NOT allow punitive damages.

It should also be noted that, to summarize things, more than 60 percent of the money supporting No on R-67 is from four large out-of-state insurance groups, nearly all of whom have histories of adversarial relationships to consumers based upon complaints filed with the Insurance Commissioner.

So how are you going to vote on R-67?

Good afternoon

Steve is out of town so he asked me to update readers on an issue we had today with the Spokane County Sheriff's Office.

Dave Reagan, the public information officer for the sheriff's office, e-mailed reporter Bill Morlin about our story this morning on Trent Yohe ("Yohe lawyer questions lack of charges in death").

To call Reagan's complaints 'ironic' would be an understatement. Reagan alleged that we were unfair in our reporting, that we took Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich's reaction out of context, and that we were less than accurate.

Turns out, Reagan was the one who failed to thoroughly report the facts before e-mailing the following to Morlin: "All we have ever asked of local media is that they be accurate and fair. In this instance, the former is questionable and the latter is nowhere to be found."

These ARE the facts:

Morlin saw Knezovich in the newspaper's lobby Wednesday and asked him for a comment on Prosecutor Steve Tucker's decision that Yohe's death was an "excusable homicide."

Morlin asked the sheriff if he would analyze the ruling and call him back. Knezovich said he would.

We didn't hear from the sheriff so we included the following sentence in Morlin's story: "Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich was asked for a comment during a visit to The Spokesman-Review on Wednesday, but did not immediately provide one."

Read the rest of this entry »

Good morning,

We had a pretty good discussion this morning on our policies re: naming juveniles involved in criminal activity.

As you may have noticed this morning, we named the 16-year-old driver of the stolen car that led police on a dangerous high-speed chase yesterday. Here's a link to the story.

We received a call this morning from a former journalist asking why we did so and if there was a discussion in the newsroom about naming the young man.

Well, the discussion was brief and didn't extend to the senior editors. Our policy is that we name juveniles accused of major felonies when we know the names. Reporting the name of the 16-year-old is consistent with our policy.

The 13- and 12-year-olds represent a different problem.

First, we didn't have their names yesterday so we didn't have a decision to make. But we will probably learn their names today, or soon. Do we report them? The 16-year-old could well face adult felony charges. The younger boys will almost certainly move through the juvenile justice system. Does that make a difference?

The older boy could be remanded to juvenile custody, too, but we've already named him. There is a built-in inconsistency.

We wouldn't hesitate to name a 12-year-old charged with murder or any other serious felony such as shooting a teacher in school. But what is the cutoff? Yesterday's incident could have caused numerous deaths, but did not. Does that make a difference?

Further, the Northwest cover photo this morning showing one of the boys being placed in a police car does not identify the young man. We think it's the 16-year-old, but we couldn't confirm that. So the boy is unnamed. Carla Savalli asks if we should even have used the picture given the possibility the photo is of one of the younger boys. Should we have used the photo?

And, finally, Jeff Bunch notes that with online data bases now, if we ID any of these youngsters at any time, the stories and their names will remain available pretty much forever so that a youthful mistake by a 12-year-old will become a lifelong stain.

So what do you think about naming the juveniles involved in yesterday's chase and juvenile offenders in general?

Here's a link to the portion of today's morning meeting devoted to the topic.

steve

Good morning, Netizens...

While I appreciate having the weather bar atop the SR web site, unlike most people reading the news online, I have little use for the link and even less use for Accuweather, but the story only begins there, for my tastes in what I allow on my computer desktop differs a lot from your typical Windows user. I've been tempted several times, and nimbly danced away from it, to write a comprehensive article about my personal choices when it comes to an operating system. I've read nearly everything written by Tom Sowa in the TXT blog, and largely ignored it all.

That is because, for over five years and change, I have been nearly-exclusively running Linux in the GUI workstation mode, and for over two years using Ubuntu Linux workstation as my operating system of choice. For the benefit of those who do not understand what this GUI business is about, suffice it to say that my workstation appears to resemble Windows in some ways, since it uses the KDE desktop, and replicates nearly every function of Windows without any problems. While I still have two remaining computers that run Windows, a plain workstation and a laptop both used for development projects, I spend very little time using either.

I could diversify this conversation quite a bit by delving into by how and why I made this choice, but I fear this would lead Windows-centric users down a pathway of false belief that suggests anyone with minimal skills can run a Linux workstation, but that is simply not true. It does take a certain degree of expertise to set up and configure a Linux workstation, especially if one has an eclectic set of tastes similar to my own. Let us take, for example, the weather. Using Windows, the Weatherbug application is running and thus gives me the temperature and weather on the bottom bar, but as of recently, even it has turned into what I call “Nagware” and is repeatedly asking me to upgrade to their latest version of the software, which unfortunately involves me paying them a fee. It is either that or I get the ubiquitous pop-up advertising. Sorry, I don't allow pop-up advertising nor do I pay heady upgrade fees to third-party software purveyors.

On my KDE workstation, the KDE application Kweather is running cheerfully on the bottom bar, giving me the latest temperature and local weather from any of 500 different weather stations throughout the world, and with a single click gives me the latest weather conditions locally. If I truly need more detailed information, I also have a hot-link on my desktop to http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/otx/ which gives me the official U.S. Weather Bureau forecast for Eastern Washington. Two clicks of the mouse and I have a detailed seven day weather forecast. When it comes to Doppler weather radar, and I immediately click on http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php and I can access the satellite and Doppler radar images current to the last two minutes, once again from the U.S. Weather Bureau.

This heady mix of software demystifies the weather, rather than handing me allusions. For example, KREM-2's weather forecaster Tom Sherry repeatedly mentions KREM-2's Doppler weather radar, and until its demise, the station even named their dog Doppler. Contrary to what KREM-2's weather forecaster suggests, they do not have a Doppler weather radar site in Spokane. I checked. The actual radar images, at least for the satellite feed I examined this morning, come from KING-5 TV in Seattle. At least the SR tells us truthfully that the radar and satellite images come from Accuweather. Of course, that entails lots and lots of advertising on their site, which immediately gives me an allergic rash.

It all depends upon what you want with your weather.

Good afternoon,

One of the more interesting conversations I had during my Scandinavian trip was with Norwegian journalist/bloggers who told me the big Norwegian papers refuse to allow any of their bloggers to link to any outside content such as news stories or blogs, especially those produced by other media outlets.

The worry, I was told, is that readers will link out to the competing media and not come back.

Today, as I was scanning our most successful blogs, including the new Shawn vestal blog, The Falls, I noticed how we apply a completely different philosophy. We'll link to just about any source any time, including other newspapers in our region.

I have yet to see a downside to this. People are going to find this content without us. I'd much rather be the wheel point where people come for the links that interest them. And I trust they'll come back.

steve

Good afternoon,

Local blogger and frequent poster on SR blogs, Remi, wonders why we top the home page every morning with a weather story.

Here is a link to Remi's blog and post. Check out the comments for some insight from a couple of SR folks involved with online weather.

I'll also plead guilty to being a booster of weather stories wherever and whenever we can do them. In my years in this business, I've learned you simply can't write enough about the weather, Remi's point notwithstanding. But that's just me. There are editors in the room who strongly disagree with me.

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting discussion.

steve

Good afternoon,

As you know, I don't currently sit on the newspaper's editorial board. That means I wasn't aware of the paper's political endorsements for Spokane city offices until I saw the editorial in today's paper. Here's the link.

I won't say whether or not I would have agreed with the endorsements.

I will say I thought the edit was soft on Hession when it comes to issue of public access to government, transparency and openness.

I was hoping our editorial would put both mayoral candidates on notice that we will hold them accountable for a level of openness that simply hasn't existed in this community for (maybe) decades and certainly has not seemed to be part of Mayor Hession's first couple of years in office.

In the newsroom, our posted value -- "We believe the public's business ought to be conducted in public, always." -- means our news reporters will continue to push for information whenever necessary and that we'll continue to go to the courts when public officials, including the mayor, forget their obligation to open, transparent government.

Meanwhile, check out our new Spokane-area blog, The Falls. Blogger Shawn Vestal asks if newspaper endorsements are still meaningful. Here's the link.

Thanks,
steve

Good morning,

I was pleased to see today's story on Tom Batiuk, the cartoonist who writes and draws the Funky Winkerbean strip. Here is the link.

As regular readers of the strip know, a primary character, "Lisa Moore," died of breast cancer in the strip last week after a months-long story line about her struggle.

Batiuk began transforming Funky from a gag strip to a socially conscious strip a decade or so ago. I have received complaints from time to time at this paper and others from people who don't like serious, social commentary on the comics pages. Funky has been a frequent target.

Why aren't the funny pages funny anymore, I am asked?

I think some folks forget that daily newspaper comics pages featured several types of strips over the years. There were the soap opera strips (Judge Parker, Mary Worth), the action adventure strips (The Phantom, Steve Canyon), the political satire strips (Pogo, Lil Abner), the gag strips (Hagar, Alley Oop, Beetle Bailey), and the family life strips (For Better or Worse, Blondie), and so on.

Some were not the leat bit funny.

In any event, managing comic strips is a tough job for an editor. In our case, the editor-on-the-spot now is Ken Paulman.

What advice would you offer Ken? What strips do you read? Hate? And is there room for seriousness, even sadness, in the comics?

Thanks,
steve

Good afternoon,

Sometimes, it's better to just not come home from a trip.

This morning I was greeted with the news that we had mistakenly printed the Tuesday puzzle/horoscope/people page in the Today section.

This is the mistake that will keep on giving.

The puzzles work fine, of course. But people who do today's puzzle won't see the answers until Wednesday. Those who read tomorrow's answers will already know the answers to the Monday puzzle in the Tuesday paper (I know, this is confusing).

All of this means we received angry calls today (no matter how you slice it, the horoscope is wrong), we'll gent angrier crossword calls tomorrow and we'll get calls Wednesday, too.

This is our mistake. Our proofreading system on our dayside copy desk should have caught this. It is the fourth significant crossword error in a few months. So we will be taking action. There just isn't an excuse.

Meanwhile, we apparently have had some minor press problems producing some late papers. That happens, but people do want their paper on time.

And finally, I was not too happy with our new ombudsman's Sunday column on the diversity of columnists.

I won't address the issue of the op-ed columnist, I am not on the edit board just now, so will leave that to Doug Floyd.

But the references to the religion page were simply incorrect.

An ombudsman must be as much reporter as critic. A simple phone call to the section's editor in advance would have avoided any confusion.

When I came to the paper, our only religion columnist was Paul Graves, a middle-of-the-road, relatively liberal mainstream Christian whose column has been a fixture for many years. I added Steve Massey a few years back because he represents the fundamentalist, evangelical community and presents views on social issues and political issues through that frame.

Personally, I find many of his columns somewhat offensive. Anyone who reads my posts regularly knows I am not comfortable being the target of evangelical zeal and too many of his columns strike me as Sunday sermons translated to the newspaper.

But his voice belongs on our pages if we're to represent the broadest posible range of views.

We added Donald Clegg after I met with area atheists and agnostics and agreed with them that we absolutely needed to represent that community which is much, much larger than you might think.

Then several months ago, in an effort to broaden our reach further, we added a fourth column to be filled by people writing in on their own to cover any other points of view that might be appropriate for the page. We solicit those columnsw but don't "recruit" them, as it were.

Here is a list of the columns that have run in that space:

4/28 - John Temple Bristow, Disciples of Christ pastor, on gays and the Bible (Massey response)

5/26 - Mary Mullen, on visiting the Holocaust Museum

6/23 - Lisa Foiles, on the Moscow shootings

7/21 - Stan Hudson, Seventh-day Adventist pastor, on creationism/evolution

8/18 - Janet Yoder, on the nature of God

9/15 - Richard Erhardt, Unitarian minister, on original sin

There is some pretty good diversity there. Over time, I would expect columns from some writers representing the community's smaller denominations. They are all welcome.

So, the truth of the matter is we have gone from one religion columnist writing from one point of reference four times a month to three regulars writing from distinctly different frames once a month and a rotating colum for anyone else. That strikes me as the opposite direction from what our new ombudsman suggested.

Further, the statement that other faiths are not allowed by us is simply, flat out and totally incorrect.

I am using this space to correct the record, for what it's worth.

Thanks,
steve

Good evening,

Well, if this is Thursday, it must be Norway. I just returned to Stockholm tonight from a seven-hour visit to Oslo. I had never been there before and wish I had the time to stay for a few days.

What a wonderful city, a bit more old-world appearing than Stockholm, which has plenty of character of its own.

I spoke to a group of editors and students in a seminar sponsored by the Norwegian Institute of Journalists. It was a good session. If John Hamer of the Washington News Council is monitoring this blog, he should know the RPS audit was, again, of great interest.

But what made the day so enjoyable for me was the time I spent with my host Carl-Erik Grimstad, and his 20-year-old son who actually drove me into the city from the airport 40 kilometers from town.

The younger Grimstad is waiting to be accepted into the police academy and work at night as a private security guard. I thanked him for picking me up while his father was in class. It was bvery gracious,I said.

"No trouble," he said in excellent English. "My father is paying me to do this."

All at once, I was in the car with my 21-year-old son, Sam, who would tell me he would be happy to help out with such an errand. "But what'll you pay me," he would ask. There are no real differences bdetween the peoples of the world.

Carl-Erik the elder has held a variety of positions as a journalist and now teaches, works for the institute and authors books combining his interest in journalism with his academic specialty, political science.

At one point in his career, he worked for three years in the protocol office of Norway's king (we forget the Scandinavian countries have ceremonial monarchies).

The job didn't suit some journalists who thought it was not right for a respected editor. But Carl-Erik used the experience to write a book about life inside the palace, which then offended his former employers in the royal household. He has since written several books about the formal and informal influence of ceremonial monarchies in various countries and now is called upon by radio, television and newspapers to comment as an "expert" whenever there is a hot story out of the palaces of Europe.

Today, there was a hot story out of Norway. During my three-hour presentation, he received 15 voice mails from journalists asking him to comment on the latest screwup by the royal princess Makta Louise.

Seems Makta is young, pretty, vivacious, quick to share her views, but unfortunately handicapped by a gene pool that has weakened over time. She is not too bright.

Yesterday, in a visit to Sweden, she told reporters that women have achieved equality in the workplace in Norway, get paid as much as men and that the feminist movement is, apparently, no longer needed.

The women of Norway who fight a many-layered glass ceiling and who make far less than their male counterparts, went crazy and the princess was the target of venomous attacks this morning. Carl-Erik was being asked to comment.

He said the ruckus was so big, he'd probably wait a day or two before saying anything. It is just too hot right now, he said.

Now, as an American, I had to laugh at this. Our forefathers ceded to us a democratic republic. We elect our leaders. As a result, we never put in power stubborn, ill-informed, hereditary figureheads from weakened gene pools who ignore the advice of lawmakers, turn a blind eye to the country's political mandates, show insensitivity to social and cultural divides and who say dumb things while visiting foreign countries. This is why our country is better than Norway.

And I told Carl-Erik so.

We were driving to the airport at the time. He had to pull into a gas station (petrol, you know, about $6 per gallon equivalent) laughing too hard to drive. I chose not to argue with him.

In any event, we had a fine visit and he is trying to bring a group of Norwegian editors to Spokane. To the SR staff -- don't worry, it will be sometime next year.

My work tour is over. I've visited three newspapers, one TV station and participated in two seminars, all in four days. I'm pooped.

Tomorrow I fly to Amsterdam to spend the weekend with my four closest buddies from high school and college. We all just happened to be in Europe at the same time (amazing coincidence, at least that is the story at home and we're sticking to it) so will meet for a weekend of jazz, scotch and Cuban cigars. If I'm able, I'll blog. But don't count on it.

Thanks,
steve

Good evening,

RBT had said he wanted more detail about how my host's son, a freelance photographer who goes in and out of Iraq, feels about the situation there.

I won't name Torbjorn's son here. He sometimes goes as an embed under official sponsorship. But more often, he goes in as a lone freelancer, using a passport with his personal, not his professional name, so that his identity can't be determined by a Google search.

Because he is dark complected, wears a light beard and speaks good Arabic, he can move on the streets outside the Green Zone with relative safety, such as it is there, and without an entourage of security guards. He pays a "fixer" who then bribes the appropriate militia or religious leader for a personal assurance he won't be shot or kidnapped in whatever neighborhood or community he's visiting. Last year he paid about $2,000 to get a few days inside Sadr City where few Western journalists go alone.

As a result, he gets closer to Iraqi citizens and that has been the emphasis of his work.

They have no life, he says, and that is true all over the country. If they work, they go from work to home and close the doors and stay inside. Young people have a hard time dating or forming relationships, he says. They can't go to a movie, there are no movies.

Life is incredibly dangerous, very hard, with the country's infrastructure in total shambles. No electricity, little running water. The so-called rebuilt schools are few and far between.

The government is corrupt. The religious leaders are corrupt, prices are out of control, the black market flourishes and professionals are fleeing as fast as they can.

He says the Iraqis he talks to miss Saddam and even view those times with nostalgia. He was a cruel dictator, people died, but the country worked and people knew how to take care of themselves. There was brutality, but it wasn't random. It was possible to lead a life. Now violence strikes everyone, everywhere and Americans are blamed for destroying the country, not credited with removing a dictator.

He is careful not to offer political opinions. His father and I share similar view of George Bush, but the son avoided those conversations. The U.S. military generally treats him well.

We talked for some time and it was a very, very discouraging conversation. He has spent time in most of the Middle East covering wars and revolutions in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and the Sinai. The situation in Iraq is more complicated than westerners can appreciate and solutions to the situation our country has created simply may not exist.

Whether you agree with him or not, you have to agree he is a very, very brave man. American journalists, unless they actively work in a war zone, don't have to risk their lives to do their jobs. This young man, in his early 20s, risks his life with every assignment.

Just back from Cambodia, his mother and father were proud and relieved. Last year, his mother gave him a high-end bullet-proof vest for his birthday.

Yesterday, before joining us for dinner, he said he and his girlfriend had gotten in an argument, that she doesn't want him to leave again.

He told me he's moving to India next year for several months. He says he told his mother he couldn't get in trouble there.

But when she was out of the room, I asked him if he was thinking of taking a few side trips to the Pakistan/Afghan border country, considered one of the most dangerous places in the world for western journalists.

He smiled. That is the reason to go to India.

Thanks,
steve

Good evening,

A long day today, up early for a flight to Sundsvall and a visit to the daily paper there, Sundsvall Tidning.

The editor, Kjell (pronnounced "shell") Cambro, was open, friendly and curious about the transparent newsroom. Being a smaller local paper, he faces some interesting forms of competition, including the nation's biggest paper, Afton Bladet, moving into his area with a regional web site that will siphon some advertising dollars.

Most interesting was his explanation of Swedish newspaper economics. In a good year, a Swedish newspaper will have a profit return of anywhere from 4 to 6 percent. The U.S. average is in the mid-20s and I've worked at papers where anything under 40 percent was considered a crisis. The SR doesn't aspire to those astronomical returns. But we have to do better than the Swedish papers. If our business could survive on 3 or 4 percent per year, we would have no financial pressures on the newsroom. Oh well.

Dinner tonight was at Torbjorn Van Krogh's apartment. His wife, Lina, a psychiatrist, prepared her family specialty, reindeer stew with rice. Absolutely wonderful, a real surprise. Torbjorn prepared several kinds of pickled herring. Not usually something I like, I really enjoyed his specialties.

The surprise of the evening was the appearance of his son, a young freelance photographer who works in one war zone or another. He has been to Iraq several times and had just arrived from Cambodia where he spent several days at a conference while attempting to get a visa into Burma. No luck, so he flew back and came to dinner. We had a lengthy and fascinating conversation about Iraq. When I am less tired and have time, I'll blog about it. He has no stake in the war, and so brings a truly neutral perspective to the situation. And because he has a dark complexion, he can pass as an Arab he gets into places most western journalists must avoid.

In any event, I'll blog more later. Tomorrow it's off to Oslo for a day-long session with the Norwegian Institute of Journalists.

Thanks,
steve

Good evening,

An interesting day today. My host today was an institute for Swedish journalists somewhat similar to America's Poynter Institute for Media Studies or maybe the American Press Institute. I spent the day with editors of two regional newspapers talking about transparency and credibility and mutual concerns and problems.

Dinner tonight was with the staff of a monthly magazine that deals with media issues. The SR has been featured in that magazine in an article written by one of my hosts, Torbjorn Van Krogh.

Interestingly, the Swedish editors today described a relationship between press and readers that is very much like that found in the United States. Too many newsrooms remain aloof from their communities, are viewed as separate, arrogant, aloof and isolated. Credibility problems that result are the same as those we face.

Unlike the United States, editors here, particularly at the regional level, have embraced transparency as one response worth exploring.

So while the experiments are somewhat different from ours, they do exist. And today we shared some ideas. (Note to SR staff -- don't worry, I'm not coming back next week to make our paper Swedish. But I find the conversation fascinating and enjoy the give and take involved in these discussions.)

One of the editors today described her newspaper's efforts to apply civic journalism lessons to election coverage. She described how her paper four years ago talked to and surveyed citizens about issues that were important to them and how the paper insisted political candidates talk about those issues.

The more she talked, the more familiar her approach seemed. So I asked her where she got the ideas. She described attending a civic journalism seminar several years ago in the United States where editors described their civic journalism projects. Then it all made sense. I was among three or four Knight-Ridder editors who spoke to a group of Scandinavian journalists at a seminar, describing the public journalism election project that began in Wichita and then involved papers in Miami, Charlotte and Columbia.

Hearing our presentation repeated back to me years later in Swedish was a strange experience.

Much of the afternoon session was spent discussing Wiki reporting projects that allow citizens to join with professional reporters on some kinds of stories. There are some ideas there we might explore later.

Dinner included another lengthy conversation on the Channel 4 scandal. I now understand that a bit better. Channel 4 is more like a national network than a TV station and the scandal is the equivalent of a 60 Minutes anchor, for example, admitting he had demanded money from subjects before agreeing to report their story. The reporter in this case is simply the most famous TV journalist in the country. In media circles, he is as good as dead. My hosts do not believe his career will survive the scandal. They also believe that is only proper. They are ashamed of what he has done and how it casts doubt on the integrity of broadcast news throughout the country.

Tomorrow, I catch an early morning flight for Sundsvall, a smaller city about 400 kilometers north of Stockholm. The paper there, about 40,000 circulation, is doing some civic journalism and transparency experiments. It will be fun spending time again with regional journalists who are inevitably closer to their communities than their big-city counterparts.

Thanks,
steve

Good evening from Stockholm:

This was my first full day in Sweden and the timing for the visit proved ideal.

Tomorrow, I'll spend the day with a group of Swedish editors talking about our transparent newsroom initiative. This is the second time I have been invited to Scandinavia for these presentations. Sweden is where the newspaper ombudsman was first implemented and also the home of the first news councils. So there is an affinity here for news organizations struggling to improve credibility through transparency.

Ideas that get me laughed out of American newsrooms are embraced here, or at least considered.

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