My taking on a few more responsibilities at The Post– writing more general-interest columns and editorials and editing the letters to the editor — has contributed to readers seeing fewer Listening Post columns these past few months. Many of you have said you’d like to hear more from me in my Listening Post editor, or ombudsman, role.
The Post’s management still considers the Listening Post column a valuable forum for airing readers’ concerns. We’d still like to hear your comments, corrections and suggestions, and until further notice, I’ll be writing about many of them.
I’m happy to report, however, that increasingly your phone calls and letters are going directly to the editors or writers in the various departments responsible for the way items appear in the paper. More folks who call to browbeat poor, innocent me about the paper’s “abusive use of the’ who’ clause,” to give a recent example, can go directly to the culprit — or to the editor who failed to save a writer from the readers’ wrath.
The paper’s updated telephone listing, which appears daily at the bottom of Page 2A, has been a great help. Not only is my Listening Post extension listed, but readers can more easily reach the paper’s various news, features and other departments.
But readers can still refer unresolved problems with the paper’s coverage — particularly issues that cannot be addressed in the Page 2A correction box — for discussion in this forum. I’m also glad to report that in the past, many such items have been referred here by staff members who care about fairness and accuracy and recognize our responsibility to the public.
On to today’s comments:
Rosalind Homer of West Palm Beach called Monday to question whether it was “the paper’s policy to completely discount a candidate or a candidate’s campaign.”
She was speaking of Sunday’s West Palm Beach City Commission endorsement editorial, which failed to mention District 1 candidate Ann Simpson. Ms. Simpson, it turned out, led her opponents with 36.9 percent of the vote.
The answer is that there was no set policy. Generally, all candidates in a particular election are mentioned in the paper’s endorsement editorials, but not always. Space is part of the equation. Sunday’s three editorials, for example, covered a lot a ground, discussing issues and making recommendations on the Palm Beach County Charter Amendment and the presidential primary, as well as the three City Commission races.
But the Sunday editorials didn’t cover quite enough territory. Editorial Page Editor Randy Schultz acknowledged that the city election editorial should have mentioned Ms. Simpson, even though the paper viewed her two competitors to be better candidates. “We should list everyone,” he said, “just for the record.”
* Fred Lott of Riviera Beach questioned the caption beneath the Page One photo March 5 depicting demonstrators at a Hialeah rally for President Bush. Why, Mr. Lott asked, “did the paper identify one side in the protest as ‘ Haitian protesters’ (rather than Haitian-Americans), then call the other side `Cuban-Americans’ “?
News Editor Fred Zipp responded: “How to identify members of groups who are in the news because of their interest in or ties to other countries is a continuing problem. We thought we made the right decision here, but obviously there’s a distinction drawn between the two groups that might trouble some.
“We should have been more precise: `Opponents of Bush administration policy on Haiti scuffled with supporters of Bush’s hard line against Castro Thursday at a campaign appearance in Milander Park in Hialeah.’ ”
* A Palm City reader (whose signature could not be deciphered) is right, said Opinion columnist Jac Wilder Versteeg, in correcting Friday’s Virginia Slims commentary. Philip Morris Companies Inc. is the parent company of Kraft General Foods, not vice versa.
