A record book deal for former President Clinton received minimal coverage last week in the Times-Union.
The advance payment is expected to pass the $8.5 million paid to Pope John Paul II for his memoirs. A reader questioned the three-paragraph item last Tuesday, wondering if this was due to the newspaper’s Republican leanings. Actually, critics of the president might have wanted more coverage of that story. It provided grist for a William Buckley column last Thursday.
In any case, I wondered how other newspapers covered it, so I put out a message to newspapers with ombudsmen.
Of 21 newspapers surveyed, 11 ran the story on the front page: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk), Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Oregonian (Portland), Star Tribune (Minneapolis), Arizona Republic (Phoenix), Detroit Free Press and Orange County Register (California).
Another four newspapers promoted the story on A-1 and ran it inside (Palm Beach Post, Kansas City Star, USA Today and News-Journal in Wilmington (Del.).
Other newspapers ran the story inside, but gave it some length, like the 12 inches used by The Salt Lake City Tribune. The Chicago Tribune, for instance, made it the lead story of a national news page on A-7. Only the Tennessean in Nashville ran the story as an inside brief, like the Times-Union did.
My comments. I have suggested that future stories on this issue deserve more space, perhaps when the advance amount becomes official.
Meanwhile, some readers continue to perceive bias in coverage.
* A reader said that coverage of President Bush is excessive, with large headlines inside the paper. My comments: On the day the reader called, Tuesday, there was no story on the president. And the previous day, the only story on the president reported he was going to be taking a four-week vacation. Hardly excessive.
* Two weeks ago, a reader said there wasn’t enough coverage of Bush during his European trip. Could this be due to Democrat leanings of the Times-Union? If Clinton had been president, this reader said, there would have been front-page stories every day. Well, during the week of July 22 through 28, there were three front-page stories on the president. After further discussion, it became clear that what the reader really wanted was large photographs.
Finding syndicated columns
The Times-Union does not include syndicated columns or most wire stories in the archives on its Web site. Readers sometimes seek help in finding them. Here are a few tips.
* For the Ann Landers column, go to the Web site of Creators Syndicate: www.creators.com. Click on Lifestyle Features, then on Landers. You will find recent columns there. Click on Opinion and you can read previous columns of Mona Charen, Don Feder, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell and Michelle Malkin.
* Many columnists have home-base papers. For instance, you can find the columns of William Raspberry, George Will and David Broder on The Washington Post Web site (www.washingtonpost.com).
* For other syndicated columns, one quick way to find them is to start with this Web site: www.drudgereport.com.
