Can we dispel this urban myth?…

Today’s rather sad and twisted tale began last March when the Star published a feature about plans to settle hundreds of African refugees in smaller Canadian cities.

It was a simple story: Canada and the United Nations were flying asylum-seekers from a Somali refugee camp to new lives in centres such as Hamilton.

As immigration/diversity reporter Nicholas Keung wrote, immigration officials hope to encourage (but not force) refugees to make new lives outside the magnet cities of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

“We hope by relocating them all together and resettling them as a whole to …

Anger management

By Stephen James
Sacramento News & Review

Here today, gone tomorrow: “Some people thought it was on the mark,” said Tony Marcano of his ombudsman column, “and some people thought I was completely out in left field.”

It’s a job with a strange title and duties that inevitably invite animosity and conflict. Ombudsmen handle customer complaints and scrutinize the business that employs them. In the newspaper industry, that often translates into bluntly criticizing the work of reporters, editors and managers, all in plain view of several hundred thousand readers. “Journalists are remarkably defensive people,” explained Jeffrey Dvorkin, National Public Radio …

Helping guide readers to the news…

It was wrong. For months, the heading on Page A2 of The San Diego Union-Tribune announced to readers that stories on the page were “IN WAR’S AFTERMATH.” Even with that heading, on that very page, day after day, was a list of U.S. casualties that has reached more than 1,200 since hostilities began in March 2003.

On Nov. 12, the Page A2 rail journalism jargon for the single column at the left edge of the page that goes from the top to the bottom carried a listing of 11 Marines and soldiers who died …

Red light…

The Central Bank intervened in Banco Santos on Friday, Nov. 12. According to the drawing that Folha reproduced, the first time that the Central Bank pointed out problems about the financial health of the bank was on Oct. 15 and “on the day of Nov. 5 the red light was turned on.”

According to one of the lawyers for the bank, Ricardo Tepedino, “the BC (Central Bank) performed ostensible and indiscreet oversight (of the bank’s situation). Rumors led to a wave of unusual withdrawals. It was 700 million reals (US $196 at the …

Technically speaking, is it a ‘fetus’ or is it an ‘unborn ch…

“Scott Peterson guilty of killing wife, fetus.”

That was the headline at the bottom of Page 1 Saturday. It provoked a call from a reader, Eileen Dolehide of Darien, who wanted to know whether it is Tribune policy to refer to a child in utero as a fetus until it has been born.

“Now Conner [the name Laci Peterson is said to have decided on for her child] is eight months along in pregnancy,” said Mrs. Dolehide. “He should at least be termed an unborn child rather than a medical term called a fetus.”

Some …

The inappropriate announcement…

Enrico, one year and eight months old, is the person on the front page of Folha’s supplement for children, Folhinha, on Nov. 6. He is photographed sitting still, with his eyes looking upward, watching the movement of a comb and scissors which were trimming his locks. The photo illustrates the main story in the section: “How will I get my hair done? New hairstyles attract children to salons with lots of fun.”

On the same front page, on the lower part, is an advertisement. A woman lying down on her side without a …

Achieving balance on the op-ed page…

“What is the criteria that op-ed articles meet in order to appear in the Other Opinions category?

Are your editors trying to achieve a balanced mix of op-eds to inform the reader or are they trying to unduly influence the reader with an overweighting of articles with a liberal bias?

It seems the questioner pretty much knows the answer, doesnt it? He was talking about the op-ed page or the one opposite the editorial page.

Indeed, Chuck Lilley of Franklin, a frequent caller, posed his question in an e-mail to the newspaper:

By my count there …

What happened to the youth vote?…

To some of us who watched as the apolitical young adults we knew turned into voters, The Courant’s post-election spin on the youth vote was puzzling.

One set of headlines cheered the entire American electorate for the “strongest turnout in three decades” as others slammed the under-30s because “the 17 percent turnout was the same as in the 2000 election.” The youth vote had let us down. The impact of the under-30 vote was minimal. They did not deliver as promised.

But underplayed in a couple of stories and simply ignored in another was the …

Journalists truly care, so don’t write us off…

Consider this a parting gift:

For four years many of you have been calling on me to acknowledge that the newspaper is incapable of fairness because it is staffed and edited by liberals.

Yes, we have plenty of liberals at work here, but they are entirely capable of being fair. The issues you have with them probably have more to do with their being journalists than being liberals.

Journalists share some traits that are rightly or wrongly associated with liberal ideology. Among other things, when they see something bad happening an injustice to someone, a …

Putting sports news on the front page…

To some readers, Sports news does not belong on the front page, whether it’s The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Detroit Free Press or The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky. Ombudsmen across the country report reader complaints when a sports photo or story is displayed on Page One. In San Diego, I expect a few complaints whenever the Chargers or the Padres are featured on the front page. Those who object represent a minority of readers, but they are insistent.

On Nov. 1, the day before the presidential election, forensic dentist Norman D. Sperber was annoyed …