I wasnt going to go here, not after skipping the column last week. But then I heard from another reader, spanking us for allegedly dissin actor Ossie Davis while playing up ex-boxer Max Schmeling.
Davis and Schmeling died recently. Davis, who was black, was esteemed for promoting racial justice on stage, screen and in real life. Schmeling, the German heavyweight on whose shoulders the Nazi regimes racial superiority claims rested unwelcomely, is best remembered for his surprising 1936 victory over Joe Louis and for his crushing 1938 loss to Louis.
So how come Schmeling got a long, above-the-fold, front-page story Feb. 5 (Nazi regimes emblematic boxing star dies at 99) while Davis was relegated to The Daily Break? asked Georgia Allen, head of the Virginia Beach chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Allen noted that the Davis obit (A crusader for racial justice) was down in the bottom corner of the page, a double atrocity, in her mind, considering that Davis was an American and Schmeling was not.
I find that extremely disturbing, she said in a telephone message.
Allen wasnt impressed with the two-column promo on the bottom of the front page referring readers to Davis obit.
And while she was glad to see The Daily Break centerpiece Feb. 9 (ACT I: Civil Rights/Longtime entertainer put quest for equality above acting career), with a huge color photo of Davis, she wasnt mollified.
A couple of readers, in passing, questioned the juxtaposition of the two stories, but they didnt make a big deal of it. When an 11-paragraph story about Davis funeral (Hollywood and Harlem bid Davis adieu) ran on the back of the first part of last Sundays Nation & World section, a reader e-mailed to complain about our original treatment of Davis death and noted: once again on the very back page, a very small mention of his funeral.
Is your bias deliberate or was this just an oversight (yeah right) on the editors part? the reader asked.
I think the Schmeling story deserved front-page treatment. His two fights with The Brown Bomber were historically important. Louis was the pride of black America and much of white America, even though, as the story noted, blacks were being lynched in parts of the country at the time.
The Daily Break section got to break the story of Davis death meaning that it carried our first mention of the news. And there was that bottom front-page promo.
But once placed on The Daily Break front, whose section has an earlier deadline, it was difficult to move the obit elsewhere late in the day even if it was then decided that it should be on A1. Features editor Michele Vernon-Chesley had checked earlier that morning to see if editors wanted the Davis obit for the A section. She was told she could take it. So she did, thinking she might be saving it from inside-A play.
Later in the slow-news day, the Schmeling obit/story was being eyed as a Page One centerpiece, coupled with a photo of the 1936 fight of Louis on the canvas and Schmelings arms raised in triumph, and a smaller one of Louis and Schmeling with their hands clasped.
After much discussion, the story was bumped from centerpiece consideration. And an equally sized photo of Louis 1938 win over Schmeling was added to the package.
But the Davis obituary could have been should have been played on the front, too. The Schmeling story was relegated to a few single-column inches on the left side of the front page, with most of A14 taken up with the jump. Below it was a single-column wire story out of Durango, Colo., about two teenage girls who were ordered to pay $900 in medical bills for a neighbor whom they surprised with homemade cookies late one night.
Davis obit could have and should have gone there.
TELL ME MORE: Often good stories excellent ones, even can be improved by filling in holes that lead to questions. A couple of examples.
A story on the Hampton Roads cover Feb. 7 (The killing of ‘perfect son leaves family bewildered) told of how family and friends were taking the unsolved death of Anthony L. Butler, 33, whose body was discovered by his best friend Jan. 11 on the floor of Butlers apartment.
Police are still investigating the killing, the story said.
But readers werent told how he died or the cause of death. Butler was apparently fatally shot, according to staff writer John-Henry Doucette, who said full details of Butlers death were not available at the time.
An excellent front-page story Feb. 4 (Freebie Frenzy) informed readers that gifts snatched up by delegates and senators in 2004 grew 52 percent over the previous year. The data, as noted, came from the Virginia Public Access Project.
But readers werent told anything about the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1997 to fill a critical hole in the states regulation of campaign contributions, to quote VPAPs Web site.
