They don’t call. They don’t write.
With Election Day only nine days off, the usual charges aren’t being heard in the news ombudsman’s office.
Autumn always was a season of discontent in past years. Political partisans would barrage the ombudsman, editors and reporters with heated complaints of bias and distortion in the coverage of candidates.
Not so this fall.
This is the time for my annual column relating how party advocates have cried foul and accused The Times-Dispatch of imbalance in picture presentations of the candidates, of coloring stories with loaded adjectives, of favoring one candidate with more coverage in the news columns.
Last week I had only two polite inquiries about election coverage, both prompted by publication last Sunday of profiles of the Democratic candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.
“Is the paper planning to do the same for the Republicans?” asked one man. I pointed out that a Page One advisory last Sunday said the Republican candidates would be profiled in today’s paper. “Okay, thanks,” he replied.
A Hanover County resident said he hadn’t seen profiles of the two Libertarian Party candidates. Interviews for profiles of both had already been scheduled before his call.
If complaints weren’t being heard by the ombudsman, were they going directly to political reporters now that their phone numbers and e-mail addresses are being published as footnotes to their articles?
Those reporters, it turned out, weren’t hearing from disgruntled readers,either. Jeff Schapiro said he receives quite a few messages about political coverage but very few complaints. Mostly, he said, “readers raise questions rather than offer criticism.”
Similarly, Pamela Stallsmith said most of her calls come from readers who want to share their opinions of events, not complain about the coverage.
Michael Hardy said his main complaint came from a candidate who argued that heavy coverage of the gubernatorial campaigns was overshadowing the “down-ticket races.”
Tyler Whitley said he believes the lack of complaints “is an indication of lack of interest.”
Said Schapiro: “Remember: The campaign was blacked out for the two weeks immediately following the terrorist attacks and briefly went dark a second time following the start of the air war in Afghanistan.”
Public interest in the election is being measured in this fall’s second The Times-Dispatch/NBC12 political poll now in the research stage and scheduled for publication next Sunday. (The previous poll appeared Sept. 21.)
A question being put now to registered voters statewide asks, “In light of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, how much attention are you paying to the upcoming Virginia elections compared to past Virginia elections?”
The events of Sept. 11 and beyond may well have diminished the public’s interest in this election. However, with emotions still teetering between fragile and fervent, it may be that many readers believe complaining, even about politics as usual, should be set aside for now.
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So what comments or complaints have been coming to the ombudsman lately? Tappy August, the newspaper’s president and general manager, sought me out last week to ask was I getting calls and e-mails about the T-D reporting of terrorist actions? The bombing campaign in Afghanistan? The concern over anthrax?
Not at all, I had to reply. The most recurring question put to me over the last four weeks was the same one posed last week by William Hutton of Hanover County:
“What’s happened to my old favorite, ‘Click and Clack’?”
Each person asking got a reply, but some readers still may be wondering whence went the witty advice column on car repair by Tom and Ray Magliozzi. The column has been a Weekend section feature since March 1991.
As announced last month by the Weekend editor, Melanie Irvin Solaimani, “Click & Clack” was moved out of Weekend – newly redesigned to increase its appeal to younger readers – to a new home inside the Classified automotive section on Fridays.
“Click & Clack,” a weekly column distributed by King Features Syndicate, appears now in a different format that more resembles a display advertisement than a news article. The format also sets up the column in large print, certainly appealing to us older readers.
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The Diversity Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists, has published guidelines aimed at steering journalists away from religious and ethnic profiling in covering news on terrorism.
Among a dozen recommendations developed Oct. 6 at SPJ’s national convention in Seattle:
- “Do not represent Arab-Americans and Muslims as monolithic groups. Avoid conveying the impression that all Arab-Americans and Muslims wear traditional clothing.
- “Avoid using word combinations such as ‘Islamic terrorist’ or ‘Muslim extremist’ that are misleading because they link whole religions to criminal activity. Be specific [such as] ‘Al Qaeda terrorists’ . . .
- “Consult the Library of Congress guide for transliteration of Arabic names and Muslim or Arab words to the Roman alphabet. Use spellings preferred by the American Muslim Council, including ‘Muhammad,’ ‘Quran’ and ‘Makkah.’”
The preferred Muslim council spellings would replace “Mohammed,” “Koran” and “Mecca.”
The T-D’s managing editor, Louise Seals, said this newspaper will continue to follow spelling in the Associated Press Stylebook, which includes “Muhammad” and “Quran” but, so far, not “Makkah.”
