THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9504280024
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Deciding whether a story makes the front page, the MetroNews section or doesn't get covered at all is a fickle process.
Breaking news can shift all priorities. But there are other factors: Is a reporter available? What do editors think of the story? How much space is available? Is the artwork decent?
The vagaries of story selection were evident recently in two very different stories, each of which caused its own share of vexation.
The first was a consumer story about Car Pawn of Virginia Inc., a Norfolk business that's under fire from the state attorney general's office.
Car Pawn Manager Michael Freeman had no real problem with the April 19 story. What bothered him was the big front-page presentation.
Freeman had quite willingly posed in front of Car Pawn (Pawn Your Title Keep Your Car) but, he asked, did the photo have to be so big?
Along with a graphic, the package took up more than a third of the front page, almost dwarfing the lead story on President Clinton defending his accomplishments.
``To think my picture overshadows Bill Clinton's really shows the values of the newspaper,'' said Freeman. ``I felt really used. . . . This was taking advantage of a small person.''
Compare that to the fate of a completely different story - one we decided not to cover at all.
On Saturday, April 22, hundreds of Rotary Club volunteers painted homes owned by low-income seniors in Chesapeake and Norfolk.
Sounds like a heartwarming story to me; at the very least, a photo op. But despite lots of notice to the newspaper, there was no story, no photo last Sunday.
Metro coverage was planned. But other stories pushed it off the weekend list and the Paint Your Heart Out project had to wait for a Friday cover story in the Chesapeake Clipper.
Sponsors and coordinators were upset. At least a half-dozen called to say so.
Two different scenarios, but both victims of journalistic ``fate.'' One was on a slow news day and got overblown, the other took place on a busy weekend and got bounced.
Ironically, if the Car Pawn story had been written a day later, it would not have made the front page. In fact, it might not even have made the Metro-News front.
That day, April 19, a bomb went off in Oklahoma City. . . .
GET BACK TO BASICS, and get them right. That was the message from readers last week. Their main gripes:
Out of step. A large photo on the April 21 Daily Break front showed JROTC cadets marching - ``feet forever in step,'' the caption said.
That got a laugh from military readers. At least a dozen called to tell us that the marchers were noticeably out of step.
Crypto-crisis. It was not a happy week for Cryptoquip fans. Twice in three days the puzzle, which runs on the comics page, was missing its clue. On the ``good'' day, one of the letters wasn't clear.
Dozens of readers called for the missing clues, though a few hardy souls did without.
It's wrong! You didn't have to be a grammarian to stumble over this headline in Wednesday's A section: ``Crew feels special bond with it's namesake.''
When, asked callers, are we going to learn the difference between it's and its?
Rainy-day mystery. Readers trying to gauge the area's rainfall gave our weather report a dousing. They couldn't help but notice that rainfall for the month and year declined as the week went by.
No, it wasn't evaporating. Some of the figures were wrong.
For the birds. Then there are those mysterious typos or misused words that just seem to leap out of the best stories.
Several bird-watchers called in to translate a Tuesday Daily Break column about taking a nature walk. It referred to such critters as a ``black crown knight hero'' and a ``leaft vittern.''
Make that ``black-crowned night heron'' and ``least bittern.''
A fluke, or a flock of errors?
by CNB