THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408260009
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
Female condoms . . . on the front page! That was the biggest flurry to hit me on getting back from vacation.
If you're a Virginian-Pilot reader, you missed the controversy. But readers of the Aug. 16 Ledger-Star got a detailed color graphic on how to insert a female condom. The news peg: The condom had just gone on sale nationwide.
No nudity in the graphic, per se - just a vaginal canal, cervix and that sort of stuff.
``I can't believe what you put on the front page tonight,'' said Jeanne Parsons of Chesapeake. ``It is very embarrassing to see female reproductive organs on the front page.''
Other readers, like Jeb B. Raitt of Norfolk, didn't want their children exposed to the topic. Raitt has two sons, the older one 6.
``If he had seen it, the article, and especially the picture, would have raised some embarrassing questions,'' he wrote. ``. . . Please consider how many young children see this paper, and be a little more discreet with such subject matter.''
Ledger editor Bill Sizemore stands by the story play.
``I thought the female condom story, reporting the first public availability of a disease-preventing birth-control method that gives a new measure of control to women, was important enough to deserve Page One play,'' he said.
``In this era of AIDS, I think we need to get beyond our Victorian prudery and fulfill our educational function in a forthright way. As for the graphic, I thought it was a key part of the package. By showing how the product works, we were helping women evaluate it.
``As for the parents who don't want their children to see such stuff, that's the kind of mind-set that has helped make AIDS the killer it is.''
I can't argue with Sizemore on the importance of the story - any weapon in the war on AIDS deserves prominent attention. But the story could have had impact without putting the graphic on the front page.
If by doing so we turned off readers, then it doesn't help educate or enlighten.
LIBERAL VOICES. Two new editorial columnists have made their debut - and readers have noticed.
``Given the right-wing drift of the editorial pages, it is kind of a breath of fresh air to see Alexander Cockburn and Molly Ivins,'' said one caller, a professor at Old Dominion University.
That's precisely why they were picked. Readers complained that the pages lacked diversity, that they had too many conservative voices.
Ivins and Cockburn (pronounced Coburn) should help tip the scales, to put it mildly. Ivins, who works for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is described as a ``brash liberal from Texas'' by Creators Syndicate, which handles both columnists.
``She's an original,'' said editorial page editor John Barnes, ``a great voice with a different perspective.'' Barnes also admires liberal Cockburn's ``slashing, incisive style.''
The new blood was made possible by more space on the op-ed (as in ``opposite-editorial'') page. Six days a week, there will be no ads on the page.
Other new additions are two editorial cartoonists - Doug Marlette, a Pulitzer Prize winner based at the New York Newsday, and Chip Bok, who pens his ``libertarian message'' for the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal.
COLOR IT GREEN. The story was what journalists like to call a ``brite'' or a ``hey, Mabel'' - as in, ``Hey, Mabel, did you see the one about the 73-year-old farmer who drove 240 miles on a 1966 John Deere lawn mower to visit his sick brother?''
The farmer story ran on the Pilot's front page Wednesday, along with a cartoonlike illustration showing a man riding a red mower.
Oops! Everyone knows that a John Deere lawn mower is green, said South Norfolk resident Rachel Fatherly, who grew up on a farm.
She's right, confirmed Elaine Ward - she sells lawn and garden equipment at Briggs Equipment Corp. in Suffolk. All John Deere mowers are green, with yellow trim. In fact, she said, all John Deere machinery is green - hence the term ``John Deere green.''
Ward went a step further. She found a '66 John Deere mower in Briggs' warehouse, waiting to be restored. It's green, of course.
SACRE BLEU! Two callers jumped on us for a story about French Canadian vacationers that appeared in the Aug. 17 Virginia Beach Beacon. The headline said, ``Bienvenue, Quebecers.''
That should be Quebecois, said one woman. ``Calling them Quebecers is like calling Parisians Parisers.''
I consulted with several Quebec residents, including Robert Walker, ombudsman for the English-language Gazette in Montreal. He said we were OK. In French it's Quebecois, in English Quebecers.
What is a problem in Quebec, said Walker - a Chapel Hill native who is fluent in French - is the expression French Canadian, especially with the province's separatist fervor and upcoming elections.
Many Quebecers do not feel like any kind of Canadian, he said, and view the term French Canadian as condescending and prejudicial.
SAILOR OR OFFICER? ``Trial scrutinizes sailor's actions,'' said a Metro headline last weekend. The sailor, it turns out, was a lieutenant commander.
``An officer is not a sailor,'' said one of about a half-dozen readers. ``Please try to get this right.''
But is it wrong? In common usage perhaps but, according to the Webster's New World Dictionary, a sailor is: ``a) an enlisted man in the Navy'' and ``b) any person in the Navy.'' (Sailor is also defined as a straw hat, but we won't get into that.)
Military editor Dennis Joyce admits to a constant tug of war between Navy and ``generic'' lingo. But in this case, he didn't see any equivocation.
His verdict: The headline should have said ``officer.''
MEMO: Call the public editor at 446-2475, or send a computer message to
lynn(AT)infi.net. by CNB