Preachy stuff banged around in my head late Tuesday night.
That morning, terrorists had seared America and the world with incomprehensible destruction in attacks on New York City and Washington.
Now the Star-Telegram’s news operations were at full force in an effort to provide readers with a 24-page special report. The downtown newsroom was packed with staff members working their hearts out. Many had sacrificed vacations, a day off and other simple comforts to help with a monumental task that earlier in the day had required publishing not one but two 12-page extras.
A newsroom so hard at work is an awesome sight. It causes preachy things to come to mind:
Journalism exists because people need news and information … America needs an informed populace … terrorists emerge from the pits of hatred … hatred thrives in the darkness of ignorance. Everyone needs to know what happened on this day …
Any decent American with the least bit of horse sense would know these things. Wouldn’t they? Clearly, everyone can see how only a few drops of pure, demonic hatred can poison the entire world with fear and anger. Quit the hatred. Quit the greed.
Perhaps this is what it takes for our self-absorbed culture of hedonism and “attitude” to be slammed into the arms of an ancient virtue: humility, chief characteristic of great saints and warriors …
Those thoughts were trampled early Wednesday morning in phone calls and e-mails from readers who were furious about two things.
Most readers were angered by the photograph on Page 10A of a man falling from the North Tower of the World Trade Center. They understood that the photograph captured a key aspect of the tragedy in New York City, but it was too disturbing for them to look at such horrible reality. They worried about how the picture would affect the man’s family and the children who would look at it.
They bristled with decency.
Then there was the other group of readers with the other issue.
They were furious because the Star-Telegram had devoted just one of the 24 pages in the special report to Spanish-language readers.
Perhaps because the rants followed so closely such senseless displays of disregard for humanity and decency, they stung deeply.
News in Spanish was an outrage, they said.
The Star-Telegram was creating false hope that English was unnecessary.
Don’t ever print another word in Spanish.
For the record, here’s why we’ve included Spanish-language reports:
Juan Antonio Ramos, editor of La Estrella, the Star-Telegram’s Spanish-language publication: “We wanted to reach as many readers as possible. La Estrella publishes Tuesday and Friday. We felt that, because of the magnitude of this tragedy, it was important to include this information in Spanish as a community service to those Spanish-speakers who wanted to find out more about these terrorist attacks.”
Vice President/Executive Editor Jim Witt: “Hispanics, especially in the city of Fort Worth, are a significant percentage of our county’s population, and many of them only speak Spanish. This attack on America is the biggest event of our lifetime, and to reach as many people as we can, the Star-Telegram decided to offer some news in Spanish each day during this trying time.”
Me: It was the right thing for an American newspaper to do.
Denying anyone a news report unnecessarily would be an unthinkable sin.
Quit the hatred. Care for each other. Pray that we never live in darkness.
Amen.
