Slaughterhouse operator deserved his say …

In the course of some groundbreaking work uncovering a serious threat to public health this week, Im troubled because the paper ignored a fundamental policy regarding fair play.

Last Saturday, we reported on an illegal slaughterhouse, where animals were killed and sold with no regard for sanitation or hygiene. The story began on the front page and had gut-wrenching photos, taken by a reporter – posing as a customer – with a hidden video camera. It took weeks of legwork and was a piece of shining, investigative journalism. I highly commend the reporters for their …

Whitby feels the sting of a Dimanno classic…

This week the Ombudsman got an earful from outraged Whitby residents after columnist Rosie DiManno, never one to pull her punches, criticized the town where she has been covering a lengthy court trial.

DiManno’s tale of a late-night excursion for a pack of cigarettes riled many, including the town’s mayor.

She made no secret of her feelings calling Whitby “one vast landscape of strip malls and fast-food outlets and auto body garages, box stores, and subdivisions of faux Tudor houses. . .”

It seems DiManno, a non-driver, had to venture out on foot at 11 …

Increasingly, newspapers call on ombudsmen to cure what ails them

By Lucia Moses
Editor & Publisher © 2000

Their motto might be, “Journalist, heal thyself!” While their job description varies, and they go by different names – ombudsman, reader representative, or public editor are common ones – their function is essentially the same: to lend an ear to readers and serve as an internal critic. Sometimes, there’s a price to pay, however, for prescribing tough medicine.

Journalists love to probe, and criticize, but are famously thin-skinned themselves, and “ombuds” are in the awkward position of having to criticize their own newspapers – which can mean taking their employers, co-workers, or …

This is a job for… Ombudsman, writer of wrongs!

By Kim Campbell
The Christian Science Monitor © 2000

When The Los Angeles Times published a front-page photo on May 17 of a Colombian mother with a bomb around her neck, it drew fire from readers. How could the Times print such a shocking photo of a woman waiting to die from the device forced on her by guerrillas?

The answer came in a column written by readers’ representative Narda Zacchino, who has been fielding calls and demystifying newspaper practices – like the choosing of Page 1 photos – since her position was created last year.

At a time when …

Mortal wound: Respect or otherwise for the dead…

The obituaries page of the Guardian, which I edited before moving to this job (moving, as a colleague said at the time, from the dead to the injured), has never presumed to offer a last judgment on its tenants. They lie there side by side, of all classes, creeds, nationalities and races. No more is asked of them than that they are dead and that in life they achieved a degree of fame or notoriety.

The obituary may be affectionate or, in some circumstances, acerbic, and in most cases is somewhere in between. That it is …

Ignorant of Islam…

Joseph Coleman of the Associated Press bureau in Tokyo “is ignorant of Islam, its history and what Islam stands for,” said Ghanim Aljumaily.

Muslim readers scorned Coleman’s Sept. 10 article headlined, “Islam in Asia: A portrait of stunning diversity.”

They had disdain for the article’s statement: “The Middle East is where the creed was founded by Mohammed and enjoyed its first flowering.”

Islam came from God, not from Mohammed, said callers.

Aljumaily responded, “The writer’s statement is offensive to Muslims and exhibits a level of ignorance about Islam that is not worthy of the newspaper.”…

Right to criticize the president is one of the U.S. values h…

It is comforting to live in a nation where citizens can criticize the government in newspaper articles without fear.

Our cherished freedom of speech, lauded by President Bush before Congress Thursday night, has been challenged by many who condemn the Star Tribune for publishing Howard Rosenberg’s article from the Los Angeles Times labeled “analysis.”

Its Sept. 14 headline said, “On camera, Bush needs to display more leadership.”

Rosenberg wrote, “Bush has seemed almost boyish at times — a kid wishing he were somewhere else — when instead a national anchorman was needed to speak believably …

Papers that are people-less are destined to be profit-less…

The controversy over school busing is a big story affecting thousands of Jacksonville families.

The Times-Union has covered this story mostly through the eyes of officials: School Board members, busing officials, company spokesmen.

But a reader-oriented newspaper would focus on the people affected by the decision. Ride buses. Interview family members. Talk to students at bus stops. Go to the schools.

Now comes a mammoth study that says most newspapers desperately need more regular people in their pages. It’s not a new suggestion.

So why don’t newspapers do it? Maybe that stems from their culture, …

McVeigh, journalists and the media’s ethics…

To those who are saying, “Oh no, not another opus on Timothy McVeigh’s execution,” I beg your indulgence today. This painful saga is one that I, too, had been ready to pack away in some small corner of my being. But it was not to be, especially last week.

First, The Salt Lake Tribune received three letters saying the news media’s focus on McVeigh’s execution — as was the case with the O.J. trial, Elian Gonzales and other high-profile events — has been overkill. One reader who believed McVeigh’s execution made him a martyr …

Una tica ms all del derecho…

Llam la atencin de una lectora un ttulo publicado en “La Vanguardia” el pasado 22 de mayo (pgina 11 de “Vivir”). Reza as: “Los medios de EE.UU. pueden reproducir grabaciones ilegales”.

En el texto de aquella informacin de la agencia Efe se explica que el Tribunal Supremo de Estados Unidos ha dictado una sentencia favorable a que una emisora de radio pueda emitir una conversacin grabada sin el consentimiento de una de sus partes.

“Cmo es posible que un tribunal acepte esta barbaridad?”, me pregunta la lectora en la conversacin mantenida por telfono. Ms …