For 31 Minnesota families, this day will be anything but joyous.
For those families, this is a holiday with a hole, a day grievously altered by the loss of a son, spouse or parent to the war in Iraq.
As Minnesotans of different political beliefs have contacted me this year, arguing in the strongest terms about which stories on the Iraq war belong on page one, there is one thing that brings them to quick agreement. They feel deeply for these families in their loss and want the state’s largest newspaper to reflect that sentiment. They believe stories about each of these Minnesotans whose lives were cut short should be on page one. I agree.
Many who oppose the war say the newspaper should put these deaths on the front page to make clear the painful toll the war is taking.
Many who support the war say running the stories less prominently than page one dishonors the courage and sacrifice of these soldiers.
When the war started, it was common for deaths of Minnesota soldiers to start on page one, be followed up with a profile and conclude with coverage of the funeral.
Since the first Minnesotan died in Iraq, stories reporting the initial news of 16 of these deaths have appeared on page one, 11 have appeared on the B section cover of Twin Cities and regional news, two appeared on Page A8, one on Page A19 and one on Page B3.
Earlier this year, editors decided we had reached a point in the duration of the war when the stories should mostly appear on the local section cover.
There have been exceptions, such as when several Minnesota soldiers died, or when a reporter developed a particularly rich story of the soldier’s life, said editor Anders Gyllenhaal.
“The real measurement of coverage is the quality of coverage,” he said. “The central question of [whether we are] honoring these soldiers is: Are these complete pictures of this person’s life?”
Whether the story appears on page one or not, Gyllenhaal said, the newspaper tries to make sure the death is at least mentioned there. Whether any story makes page one depends on the other news happening that day, the quality of the writing and how much information has been available from the military and from families, he said.
Sometimes an ongoing story is of such import to the whole community that it should command space on page one with a consistency most newsrooms find difficult because of the vagaries of the daily news.
That happened in Chicago in 1992. The community was shocked when 7-year-old Dantrell Davis was killed by a sniper as he walked to school in the Cabrini-Green housing project.
The Chicago Tribune published the project “Killing Our Children” in 1993, confronting readers with harsh truths about how the community was failing to protect its children. The newspaper vowed to put on page one every murder of a child under the age of 16.
Don Wycliff, my counterpart at the Chicago Tribune as its ombudsman, recalls the newspaper kept that up for two years, along with dozens of stories examining what could be done to prevent child murders.
I believe the Star Tribune should make a similar commitment to Minnesotans about where news of the deaths of our young people in Iraq will appear. Some of the mentions of these deaths on page one have been minuscule. It’s simply not enough.
A page one story doesn’t have to happen on the day the sad news breaks, when details are often scarce. But sometime between the death and the funeral, each of these soldiers’ stories should land on page one.
The readers are sending us a clear message about the sensibilities of Minnesotans, who see in those young faces from all across the state reflections of their own families and imagine the grief they would feel at such a loss. This is news that hits us at our very core. It belongs on page one.
This is something on which Gyllenhaal and I disagree. He said such a formula backs editors into an untenable corner no matter what the day’s events.
“You don’t make news decisions based on some kind of message you want to send,” he said.
Gyllenhaal noted that although the New York Times committed to running brief profiles of every victim of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, it didn’t promise to put them on page one. “People would find their way to them because they were profound,” he said.
After reviewing the coverage, I was impressed with the work of the reporters who are handed these difficult assignments. The portraits of these men are rich with details of their lives and voices of the people they loved. When stories do that, Gyllenhaal said, readers will find them, wherever they appear.
Editors make choices every day guided by news judgment that’s a complex equation of experience, values, emotions and a sense of what interests readers. That’s why news about children being victimized, which violates any rational person’s sensibilities, often lands on page one. The same goes for stories about officials lying or cheating with the public’s money. Or stories about average people who act extraordinarily at a key moment.
Putting these stories on page one sends a signal about who we are and what’s most important to us. It’s a statement worth making about these young Minnesota soldiers.
After talking with so many readers about the war, I feel confident in saying thousands will pause sometime today to think about the families of those soldiers. As fellow Minnesotans, we do what we can to wrap them in the comfort of our thoughts and prayers, hoping time will bring them peace.
