“Put it on the editorial page.”
Many of you readers hate it when our columnists meander out of their chosen territory: A business columnist writes about sports. A sports columnist writes about business.
“That’s opinion,” you charge. “It doesn’t belong in that section.”
Your wrath illustrates a newspaper failing: We play by rules we too rarely explain.
Here’s Rule One: Columnists in every section of the paper are allowed to have opinions and voice them. The best do it strongly, clearly, with passion. So how can a reader know whether it’s opinion or straight reporting?
The column’s design will tell you. Sure signs are a photograph of the writer, a name in large type or a column title. Most columns appear on the left column of the section fronts. But even this spot isn’t a constant.
C.W. Gusewelle’s column appears across the bottom of the Metropolitan section front some days and on the second page of the section other days. James J. Fisher and Lewis W. Diuguid appear on both the left column on the Metropolitan front and inside on its second page each week. I’m here on Page A-2 on Sundays. Sometimes special columns run across the top of a section front.
The Business and Sports sections run columnists on the section front and inside their sections. FYI runs columnists inside.
These voices are free to break the bounds of just-the-facts, straight reporting. They add a different touch, one that further differentiates a newspaper from the bullets of broadcast news. Praising, castigating, questioning — it’s all in this province.
Columnists represent themselves, expressing personal opinions. They are chosen with the hope they will write on subjects that hit home with readers. A general interest publication strives for a variety of voices.
These personal viewpoints are the exceptions for their sections.
The rest of the stories aim for balance and fairness. You catch the shortcomings on this aim regularly. But the bias you see in columns is intentional and fair play, by our rule book.
Some neighborhood-section columnists now appear with the authors’ photos, large-type names and a description: “Commentary.” This is intended to help identify these pieces as opinion.
Many of the community columnists are also reporters pulling double duty. To emphasize when they have left the reporter role for opinion territory, the “Commentary” descriptor is attached.
The Editorial section is an exception. It operates apart from news sections and reports directly to the publisher. Its whole section is devoted to opinion. The unsigned editorials represent the “official voice” of the newspaper. The signed pieces represent the opinions of the named writers. The section offers a mix of staff and outside columnists. This mix is fodder for complaints: too liberal, too conservative. Many readers don’t want to hear opinions different from their own. They prefer the comfort of echoes.
In news, business and sports, the ire of readers escalates most when a columnist decides to comment outside the section’s topic.
“What does Jason Whitlock know about the prosecution’s ability in the O.J. Simpson trial?” demanded one reader. “This doesn’t belong in sports.”
Simpson is a former sports figure. And columnists may tackle other subjects, on occasion, under our game rules. Readers scream penalty. Editors say it’s OK.
Remember, too, that opinions don’t require agreement. We don’t agree with one another inside these walls. It’s perfectly fair to despise one columnist’s take on the symphony, another’s view of the Simpson trial or a third’s spin on a troubled school district.
Just remember, the opinions don’t break our rules. For these writers, opinions are the rule. And, you get to be the judge and jury.
Read and respond. Write, call, fax, e-mail. There are always invitations for reactions. Use them.
