An urgan legend invades Sports section…

Sports editor Chuck Scott is ready. He knows if Santa were to leave a stocking for the Sports department on Christmas morning, it probably would include a very large lump of coal. And it would be well-deserved.

The reason for the lump? A story Thursday on Page 2 in Gallery, a daily feature compiled from news services, carried a bogus story. It came from www.hoosiergazette.com, but instead of citing the fledgling Web site or the writer, the credit below the headline said it came from “Union-Tribune News Services.” It did not.

The bogus story …

Ruling on broadcast ads affects papers, too…

On Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as McCain-Feingold.

Although it mostly pertains to restrictions on campaign donations by large groups, there’s an aspect of McCain-Feingold that controls the media.

The law prohibits companies, organizations and unions from purchasing political TV and radio advertisements 30 days before a primary, and 60 days before federal elections.

Why is it important for newspaper readers to take note? This may have an effect on the number of political advertisements you see in The Star. It also may have wider, future …

Lack of investigation…

Lack of investigation

By Bernardo Ajzenberg

December 14, 2003

Besides having an extraordinarily explosive potential for politics, a return to the so-called Santo Andr case (involving the kidnap and assassination of Celso Daniel, mayor of that city outside So Paulo) poses an important question for journalism.

It harkens back to the case of P.C. Farias, campaign treasurer and close aide to former President Fernando Collor de Mello (who resigned under threat of removal in 1992).

As you remember, P.C. was found dead in a house in 1996. The official conclusion: He was murdered …

Plenty of candidates, limited space…

In the weeks leading to the primary election in March, some candidates will receive more coverage in The San Diego Union-Tribune than others. There’s no question that attempts will be made to keep coverage evenhanded. However, evenhanded does not translate to equal.

That means that not all candidates will get the same amount of space in the newspaper. And to be fair to readers, they shouldn’t, said Union-Tribune politics editor Michael Smolens. The newspaper owes it to readers to allocate its limited space to the candidates who have a chance to win. They are …

So near, so far away…

So near, so far away

By Bernardo Ajzenberg

December 7, 2003

President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva is making a sensitive trip to Arab nations. Newspapers reopened the dispute with new revelations about Operation Anaconda (a corruption scandal involving law enforcement and judges). With the formal accusation against a businessman, the Santo Andr case (the kidnap and murder of Mayor Celso Daniel) enters a new phase.

Despite these topics during the week, with undeniable general interest, what grabbed my attention most in Folha was two letters published Thursday in the Letters to the …

Care needed in naming juvenile suspects…

An Overland Park reader raised an interesting question recently. He wrote:

Recently you ran a story in Johnson County about two youths that had been setting fire to cars in an apartment complex. While I in no way condone the behavior of these boys, if they did what the story said, I was very surprised that The Star printed their names, since they are 15 years old and still considered juveniles. Please explain to me why their names were printed and what The Star’s policy is on printing names of juveniles that are arrested …

Readers criticize border rape coverage…

Charges against Tijuana police officers stemming from the rape of a tourist from the United States should have been played prominently in The San Diego Union-Tribune instead of inside the local section, some readers complained Thursday.

A story about the alleged rape of the woman and extortion of her family as they were walking back to San Diego from Tijuana appeared on Page 4 of the local section on Thursday but only in some editions. The only way readers in the East and North County would have been aware of the story Thursday would …

Opinion and news…

Opinion and news

By Bernardo Ajzenberg

November 23, 2003

The newspapers stance expressed in editorials for this or that side in debates about controversial topics should not contaminate the news nor direct the choice of opinion pieces. These two elements, to the contrary, require pluralism and balance to allow readers to form their own opinions.

While rereading what was published about whether or not to lower the age of adulthood for prosecution after the killings of Liana Friedenbach and Felipe Caff, I arrived at the conclusion that in recent days Folha has made …

Comics and Crypto fans are a loyal, outspoken bunch…

Welcome now to the adventures of Connie Coyne, reader advocate, who fights for the rights of the common reader, champions truth, justice and the American way, and has not been able to leap tall buildings with a single bound since she was 10.

Think of her, dear reader, as a temporary substitute for the likes of “Mary Worth” and “Judge Parker” — who were banished from the comic pages of The Salt Lake Tribune on Monday. (Excuse me while I don my super cape, which is impervious to the slings and verbal arrows of …

Cleaning up details from the fires…

When Jerry Canning, a former firefighter, read the Union-Tribune’s Nov. 2 summary of the October fires, an error jumped out at him. The article that began on the front page said air tankers made drops on the Cedar fire for the first time on Oct. 27 two days after the fire began.

Not true, Canning wrote in an angry letter. He and neighbors stood on his Poway street the day before and watched California Department of Forestry air tankers make “repeated fire retardant drops on our portion of the Cedar fire.”

If you’ve listened …