The reader was serious, but his telephone message gave me pause. He said it was time to move on. The San Diego Union-Tribune had covered the fires, but now he wanted to read about other things that were going on in the world.
It was obvious to me he was not one of the thousands of San Diegans who had lost homes in the fires that pushed other events off the front page. No one in the county came away unscathed by the fires. We all lost a piece of what makes this area home. Many of those slices of nature that enhance life in the county have vanished; it probably will be decades before the habitat and wildlife return to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park and other backcountry areas.
But, I sympathize with the reader. Like many, he was suffering from what some call “news fatigue.” During the fires, there was a barrage of reporting about loss, destruction and death. You couldn’t get away from it. You couldn’t escape, even if you weren’t waiting to find out if your home survived, if you turned off your television or radio or did not read the Union-Tribune or go to SignOnSanDiego, the newspaper’s Web site. You could smell the smoke in the air, taste the ashes.
Because of the magnitude of what took place here, media coverage is far from over. In fact, there is no end in sight. Everyone in the newsroom knows it. Journalists, still exhausted from the nonstop days and nights of covering the fires, are not immune to the same kind of news fatigue suffered by readers. It’s nothing like the fatigue suffered by firefighters, of course, but it’s there.
Union-Tribune journalists know there’s more to say, more to learn about an event so significant that it changed the fabric of the county. While in the weeks ahead the photos may not be as dramatic and the fires’ aftermath may not always be the top story on the front page, there are many more stories to tell and issues to examine. Not to do so would be irresponsible.
Union-Tribune Editor Karin Winner has appointed assistant metro editor Karen Clark to be the director of ongoing fire coverage. “In a way, our task becomes even greater as we look ahead,” Winner said in a note to the newsroom.
“There are many questions to be answered. We need to take the lead in looking at the resource, growth and development, (archaic) regulatory and jurisdictional issues while at the same time not losing sight of the human side of the story,” Winner said.
What happens next hinges on public policy. How will taxpayers’ money be spent? What resources will be available for the next conflagration? Because as sure as apple pie in Julian, fire in San Diego County is inevitable. Where and when are the only questions.
Coverage of the fires’ aftermath will involve all departments of the newspaper, Winner said. It will be Clark’s role to coordinate coverage to avoid duplication. She also will coordinate the collection and updating of “all pertinent data regarding the fires.”
It has been 33 years since the Laguna fire that burned 175,425 acres, 382 homes and caused anywhere from five to eight deaths depending on whose statistics you use. Newspaper clippings refer to eight deaths; state statistics put the number at five. It’s not clear why there’s a discrepancy. It may be because some bodies were discovered months after the fire was contained, and may not have been counted in the figures used by state officials. But keeping data on the latest fires in one place for all in the newsroom to use will be the Union-Tribune’s way of being consistent and accurate in its reporting and not leaving puzzles of what’s right and what’s wrong for future journalists.
In looking at old articles about the Laguna fire, I came across a story that predicted the Cedar fire that burned more acres than any other wildfire in the history of California.
In a 1980 article on the 10th anniversary of the Laguna fire, the county’s largest wildfire until last month, then-Tribune staff writer Robert Dietrich wrote: “Firefighters today say it could happen again. And if it did, they say, the toll could be even higher.”
Fire danger is part of the culture of San Diego County. On Oct. 25, the same day the Cedar fire was believed to have been ignited by a lost hunter, the Union-Tribune carried a story by Irene McCormack Jackson. A fire in the De Luz area near Fallbrook had already burned 4,100 acres.
“The weather triumvirate that firefighters fear high temperatures, gusty winds and dry air should overtake much of the county early today, causing concern that crews could be stretched thin if more fires start,” Jackson wrote.
Stories like this one in the past have resulted in complaints from readers who said they were unnecessarily frightening. But were they?
Not one person complained about Jackson’s article. Like Dietrich, Jackson was reporting what firefighters already knew.
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Gina Lubrano’s column commenting on the media appears Mondays. It is the policy of The San Diego Union-Tribune to correct all errors. To discuss accuracy or fairness in the news, please write to Gina Lubrano, readers representative, Box 120191, San Diego, CA 92112-0191, or telephone (619) 293-1525. Send e-mail to:
readers.rep@uniontrib.com.
