THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604270027
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: REPORT TO READERS
SOURCE: Lynn Feigenbaum
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
Puzzled readers want to know: What was Timothy McVeigh doing on the front page of Tuesday's Virginian-Pilot?
That is, why was there a large color photo of the Oklahoma City bombing suspect, a couple of quotes by him, but . . . no story? Just McVeigh's pale, sad face under his comment ``I do know about disenchantment,'' with more quotes below and a brief explanation that they came from a Sunday Times of London interview.
Tom Aiken of Virginia Beach was perplexed - and annoyed. ``The bits presented are not profound, newsworthy or revelatory,'' he said. ``They do not even express clearly his evident intent.''
Aiken said it reminded him of publication of the Unabomber's manifesto, ``but at least in that case a public purpose was involved. . . .
``When I saw the McVeigh spread,'' he added, ``I assumed, incorrectly, it was a lead-in to an in-depth story elsewhere in the paper, where the circumstances, context, more complete quotation and analysis might be offered.''
Other readers also objected. To Jeff Bell of Norfolk, it seemed as if the newspaper was making a ``sympathy play'' for McVeigh. Eileen Crowder of Virginia Beach thought we glamorized the accused terrorist.
Apparently, McVeigh became a front-page centerpiece somewhat by default. Earth Day photos were considered and rejected, said Pilot creative director Eric Seidman. Mostly, they showed politicians pursuing the green vote.
``We were looking for something meaningful to promote visually,'' said Seidman. ``We all concluded that the McVeigh quotes were a powerful insight into this man.
``The mistake we made,'' he added, ``was misleading the reader to believe this was an oversized promotion for something much deeper and more comprehensive inside the paper. Therefore, the reader felt cheated.''
Indeed, the reader was cheated, because the Sunday Times of London story - aside from being a jailhouse ``scoop'' - was fascinating.
But that account wasn't available on the news wires - though it could be read via the Internet. The Pilot's presentation came from a short, cut-and-dried Associated Press rewrite. By the time McVeigh's ``sound bites'' were included in the A1 photo package, there wasn't much left of the AP story to run.
I applaud trying to create a compelling centerpiece for a pictorially slow news day. But if it doesn't work, forget it. A nice photo of a blooming azalea bush would be more suitable.
BUT DID SHE GET THE SPOONS? Multiply that question by more than 200, and you have some idea of the number of readers who called about the incomplete stories in Friday's MetroNews section.
The continuations of two stories were missing. One was about a local ``Jackie junkie'' who went to the Sotheby's auction to bid on two of Jackie Kennedy Onassis' spoons. The other story, the Metro-front centerpiece, was about a new museum in Cape Charles.
Readers always go ballistic when story jumps (as we call them) are missing, but this case was especially infuriating. The Jackie story left us all dangling: Did Linda Dyer of Virginia Beach get her spoons or not?
We had to wait till Saturday to find out - that's when the stories were rerun. Also missing was a related story on the auction.
What went wrong was. . . well, to make a long excuse short, local readers got a version of page B9 meant for North Carolina readers. The new Metro page got lost in the electronic shuffle of pages between editions.
Naturally, editors and production folks are trying to make sure this NEVER happens again. At the very least, don't let it happen to a story about Jackie O.
MADONNA & THE UNABOMBER. Last weekend, on Saturday, readers got a double whammy: an editorial cartoon skewering Sen. Bob Dole and a Daily Break feature on the pregnant pop star Madonna.
The Mike Peters cartoon suggested that the Unabomber would make the perfect running mate for Dole - he's ``a Harvard graduate, pro-guns, anti-government and he sends a DYNAMITE campaign letter.''
William O. Foss of Virginia Beach, for one, found the cartoon ``pretty crude, rude and uncalled for. . . . I'm not a fan of Sen. Dole,'' he added, ``but he's a decent man and I think having him associated with the Unabomber is pretty bad. I don't think you guys should have run it.''
I disagree. Editorial cartoons are, by definition, opinions. They're there to amuse, outrage and satirize, not to be ``nice.'' This one, I'll agree, wasn't. Many of them aren't.
Other readers were offended by the Saturday Daily Break story headlined ``Madonna and Child,'' with an illustration of Baby Girl Madonna wearing pointy Dixie cups for a bra.
Surprisingly, it wasn't the illustration that stirred up reader wrath; mostly it was the headline. ``It offended every Christian in this area,'' said one woman.
A Chesapeake teacher said the story set a poor example for teenagers, making it seem glamorous to be an unwed mother.
I don't think every story we run should be viewed as a socio-economic treatise, but I was concerned with the other criticism. Were we being sacrilegious?
``The woman's name is Madonna,'' said Daily Break editor Eric Sundquist. ``Any headline about her would contain that word.''
More importantly, he added, ``The story did not hold Madonna up as a heroine. Far from it; the story was about the incongruity of the mistress of bad taste becoming a mom. So the irony of the headline's double meaning - evoking both the sacred and profane - was apt.''
MEMO: Call the public editor at 446-2475, or send a computer message to
lynn(AT)infi.net
by CNB