News notes

The day of Saddam Hussein’s execution in Iraq is nearing. It could come as soon as this weekend, according to Associated Press reports.Journalists already are asking questions like, “Should we publish a photo of a hanging Saddam Hussein?” Generally at The Evening News we don’t print photos of dead bodies, either in the newspaper or on monroenews.com. When we photograph fatal accident or murder scenes, for example, we try to find an angle that tells the news without showing the body. When we select photos from war zones, we try to find images that accurately depict what happened, but without closeup views of fatalities. 

The goal is to comprehensively report the news, but in the most tasteful manner possible. Many of our readers have told us they prefer a family-oriented newspaper and Web site, one their children can read without worrying about nightmares.

There are exceptions to every rule, however. The execution of Saddam Hussein will be one of the stories of the decade. Will readers be expecting the full, graphic version of the story, including photos of the hanging? Does the importance of this story overshadow our guidelines?

We probably won’t decide until we have the story and photos in front of us. What do you think we should do?

The death last night of former President Gerald Ford led to an interesting discussion at our morning news meeting.

Of course, any president dying would be big news. But Gerald Ford isn’t any president; he’s “our” president.

So, how big should we play the news? While we tossed it around, presentation editor Stacy Sominski looked up our coverage of Ronald Reagan’s death. But is that a fair comparison?

Reagan was one of the leading figures of the 20th century; the father of the conservative revolution in America. On the other hand, he wasn’t from Michigan.

Ford was not only a Wolverine, he was an all-star on the football team. And while only a two-year president, he led the nation during one of its roughest periods, leading the pull-out of Vietnam and pardoning Richard Nixon.

Outside Michigan, Ronald Reagan’s death would be bigger news. In Monroe, Mich., just down the road from the Big House, Gerald Ford’s death is probably more meaningful to our readers.

Editorial page editor Tom Chulski received a complaint from a reader this week.

Shame on us, the caller pointed out, for printing a letter to the editor last Sunday that indicated Santa Claus is “just pretend.” What if small children read the letter?

It was an anonymous voice message, so we couldn’t defend ourselves. But I told Tom the letter didn’t bother me. Lots of people don’t believe in Santa Claus, I said, and that’s their right.

For myself, one little letter to the editor certainly can’t shake my faith in Santa Claus. And I suspect that’s the case with most believers.

Of course, no one has defended Santa Claus more eloquently than the Baltimore Sun, in its famous “Yes, Virginia” editorial first printed in 1897. You can read it here.

Merry Christmas.

The news reports of climbers lost on Mount Hood bring back eerie memories.

A few years ago – I think it was 2000 – I traveled to Oregon to visit relatives and climb Mount Hood, along with my then 18-year-old son.

We joined a small group led by a professional guide. After a day of practicing on a lower glacier, we headed for the summit at about midnight. In the summer, you climb Mount Hood in the dark to avoid sunlight loosening ice and making the going more treacherous.

The climb up the south slopes of the mountain is relatively easy – as mountain-climbing goes. Wearing crampons – steel cleats that attach to your books to give you footing on ice and snow – carrying ice axes and roped together, we made steady progress through the night. We were just below the Pearly Gates, the rock pinnacles that guard the summit on the south side, about an hour before dawn.

I was exhausted, but certain that I could make the summit. Just another 30 minutes, the guide said, and we’d be through the gates – the steepest part of the climb.

Then one member of our party became disoriented and nauseated. An experienced mountain climber, she had been on higher peaks. But she was suffering from a severe case of altitude sickness, the guide explained.

We waited there, trying to stay warm on an exposed ridge near the summit, in a surrealistic world of ice and snow lit only by moonlight, while the guide worked with the woman. After nearly an hour, he announced what we all feared. We had to turn back.

Our party was too small to split up. There was only one experienced guide, and he couldn’t both stay with the woman and lead the climb to the summit. So, after all that work, we stopped short of the Pearly Gates.

The climbers who were lost last week on Mount Hood chose to climb the much more difficult north face of the mountain. They apparently reached the summit, and had planned to descend through the Pearly Gates and down the easier south slopes.

But it appears, according to news reports, that they were forced by bad weather to turn back, seeking shelter from the storm a few hundred feet below the summit on the north side.

One of the climbers was found dead in a snow cave. Although the search continues, it’s unlikely the two others survived.

They, too, failed to reach the Pearly Gates.
 

(The photo at right shows the Pearly Gates that guard the south side of the summit of Mount Hood. The point where I stopped is that little ridge at the far left of the photo, just below the rock pinnacles.)

By Bryan Bosch, photo editor, mailto:bryan@monroenews.com

Recently the photo staff got together to pore over all the images of 2006 with the goal of picking the best of the best. Each year we publish our Photos of the Year on the Sunday Living page, typically the last Sunday of the year. While looking through this year’s “rough” edit of 130 pictures, staff photographer Kim Brent pointed out there were four pictures of 4-H kids napping at the Monroe County Fair. All were submitted by different photographers.

Were we copying each other? We chuckled at the idea and then staff photographer Valerie Tobias offered another observation….the heat.

Sure enough all three of us remember the beginning of fair week this year. Walking up and down the fairgrounds looking for pictures is terrible punishment with 20 pounds of photo gear…not to mention that our dress code requires pants and button up shirt.

But we were not the only ones suffering. Each photographer turned in photos of zonked-out 4-H kids…probably because those pictures reflected the exhaustion from the heat.?

By the way, none of the pictures from the hot fair made it into the final edit, but it sure evoked some memories from this past summer.

The World Wide Web has made global connections within reach of even the smallest newspaper’s stories. We recently wrote a story about Tom Treece and the D.O.V.E. fund’s efforts to raise money to build a school in Vietnam. Now we know someone in Vietnam noticed. Here is the link to the Quang Ngai Web site that Tom received from someone in Vietnam. We Baby Boomers can only exclaim ‘what a world we live in.’

http://www.quangngai.gov.vn/quangngai/english/news/2006/15275/

One of the privileges that comes with being a newspaper managing editor is a ballot in the Associated Press annual vote for the top 10 stories of the year.

Here are the 10 stories I chose:

1. Iraq war: political disarray and mounting casualties among civilians, U.S. troops.

2. U.S. election: Democrats seize control of House and Senate.

3. U.S. economy. Dow Jones average hits new high; auto, housing industries struggle.

4. More than 900 killed in month of fighting between Israel, Hezbollah; Lebanon hit hardest.

5. Illegal immigration: U.S. politicians and public divided over how to address it.

6. Donald Rumsfeld steps down as U.S. defense secretary.

7. Cuban President Fidel Castro temporarily cedes power after intestinal surgery.

8. Felipe Calderon elected president of Mexico; loser’s backers stage huge protests.

9. Debate over detainees at Guantanamo and secret CIA-run prisons overseas.

10. Concern mounts over global warming; world temperatues highest in 12,000 years.

What do you think? Would you have picked different stories? I’m already second-guessing myself. Today, I would  move Iran and North Korea and their nucler programs into the top 10, and take Castro out. By the way, I chose Mexico and Cuba changing leaders because of the potential impact on our hemisphere, while I left bigger stories in Africa and Asia off my list because they may have less impact on us here in Michigan.

Some of the top stories I didn’t chose included:

- Sago mine disaster: 12 West Virginia coal miners killed by underground blast.

- Iran, North Korea pursue nuclear programs despite international pressure.

- Widespread Muslim protests, violence sparked by Danish cartoon and papal speech.

- Saddam Hussein convicted of mass killings, sentenced to hang.

- Afghanistan: NATO forces struggle to counter Taliban resurgence.

- Former Enron, WorldCom chiefs Lay, Skilling, Ebbers convicted in corporate scandals.

- Tour de France winner Floyd Landis accused of drug violations.

- Earthquake kills 5,800 people, wrecks 135,000 homes in Java, Indonesia.

- British police thwart plot to blow up jetliners; new carry-on rules inmposed.

- Gunman attacks Amish school in Pennsyulvania, kills five girls and himself.

There were several dozen more choices, but that gives you an idea. By the way, we’re also working on our Top 10 local stories of the year. More on that another day.

I talked to a rather unpleasant person the other day - the kind of conversation where you have to struggle to remain polite and professional.

He was calling to complain about a sports column written by Jason Haupricht, an Evening News sports writer who recently moved to a new assignment as a copy editor.

Jason offered his opinion - that’s what columnists do - that Michigan fans should stop whining about Florida moving ahead of the Wolverines into the national championship game.

About the third time the caller demanded to know why we allowed that crap in the newspaper, and the third time I told him it was an individual writer’s opinion and didn’t necessarily reflect anyone else’s opinion at The Evening News, we decided it was time to agree to disagree.

The Evening News has half-a-dozen writers who offer their opinions in weekly columns. Several are writers or editors on our staff; others, like Tom Treece and John Morris, are members of the community. In all cases, their columns represent their own opinions, not the newspaper’s, and not necessarily anyone else’s.

Some of the columnists, like sports writer Jeff Meade, seem to revel in offering dissenting viewpoints. It sometimes seems like Jeff is trying to pick a fight - to play devil’s advocate. Those who know him understand that’s just his approach - he says what he thinks; take it or leave it.

I suspect that’s partly what Jason was doing with his Michigan-OSU-Florida column. He was hard on the Wolverines and he got the response he expected. Most of our readers probably didn’t agree with him. But he offered them some food for thought.

More than anything else, that’s what columns are all about.

Which brings me to blogs like those on blogsmonroe.com. Much like columns, blogs are a chance to offer opinions, information, advice. Even better, they invite immediate feedback. Readers can join the conversation. If you don’t like the writer’s opinion, offer your own. Check out blogsmonroe.com here.

We also have forums on monroenews.com. Anyone can pick a topic and offer their opinion. You be the columnist, or the blogger. Let others react. Check out the forums here.

By the way, I don’t mind the phone calls. Even the critical ones. Even the unpleasant ones. We really do want to know what readers are thinking.

But I’m not going to do anything to stop columnists from expressing their opinions.

Reporters and editors at The Evening News held our annual session this week to brainstorm in-depth news reporting projects for 2007.

Dozens of great ideas for stories were thrown out. These are stories - we call them “enterprise projects” - where we devote extra time and staff resources to taking a close look at an important issue.

A good example is the series by reporter Charles Slat in September that we called, “Our Changing Landscape.” Over six days, a series of stories covered growth and development topics ranging from urban sprawl to crumbling roads.

The ideas discussed at this year’s session ranged from studying health trends in Monroe County to probing the rise in methamphetamine use by drug abusers.

We’d love to hear your thoughts? What stories do you think we should take an in-depth look at in 2007?

When the first post on “BlackFriday (fake?) charity donations at Mall and Telegraph” appeared on the monroenews.com forums, I was tempted to delete it.

I knew the reference to “black people walking up to cars and collecting money” would offend many people. While I didn’t think it was intentionally racist, it clearly reflected a lack of sensitivity to racial issues.

As John Castellese, our online coordinator, and I discussed what to do about it, Monroe High School’s recent appearance on the Oprah show came up.

I had been tremendously impressed with the students, staff and coordinators of that show. It was built on the concept that the best way to overcome hatred and bigotry is to confront it, talk about it, search for common ground, and eventually replace it with love and respect.

With that thought in mind, we decided to leave the “BlackFriday” post on the forums and see what happened. Here is the link, if you haven’t seen it.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long before someone challenged the unnecessary inclusion of “black” in the description of the people. The color of their skin was irrelevant, as many people pointed out. There were 41 responses to the post over a seven-day period. Black people, white people, newcomers, oldtimers shared their views. Some were insightful, some were hurtful, but all appeared to be heartfelt. 

Race relations in America are complicated. It has been one of the most important issues of my lifetime, which spans the civil rights movement to the present. My first trip to Detroit happened to be as a child in 1967, the year of the race riots. My family just wanted to see a baseball game; instead we saw a war zone.

I suspect race and the tensions created by this wonderful melting pot we call America will continue to be one of the great debates of the next 50 years.

I don’t know whether our decision to leave the “Black Friday” post on the forums helped or hurt the debate. What do you think?