The Reader Advocate at a newspaper is like a bridge over sometimes troubled waters.
But be warned: This bridge does not allow nuts, bolts, screws, bigots, hotheads, the terminally bored or the constantly disgruntled across the span.
If someone in your family has been busted for running a methamphetamine lab and The Salt Lake Tribune ran his or her name, don’t call me. Call a good defense lawyer.
But, if we ran a photograph or story that deals with your family or company or community and we made a mistake or were insensitive, please call me so we can craft a correction or discuss the matter.
If you have so much time on your hands that you are able to read every sentence in The Salt Lake Tribune three or four times looking for grammatical errors or imperfect spelling, get a hobby. We know that stuff gets by us. Believe me, there is plenty of peer humiliation in the newsroom when the hordes laugh about a bad headline or a poorly crafted sentence. If and when we need some outside critics, we know whom to contact.
But, if we seem to ignore your community — be it geographic, ethnic, religious, nonreligious, cultural, age grouping or other — call me. A good regional newspaper gives a cumulative reflection of the area where it circulates. We want to go beyond the usual suspects when we get opinions from groups representing minorities, be they ethnic, cultural, economic or marital status. If you have suggestions of people who might well represent your group, call and give us their names and telephone numbers.
If you wake up one morning full of vitriol and see some story that you feel underscores your heated and prejudiced belief in UFOs, government conspiracies or the inherent evil of some religion, don’t call me. Call your mother or father or some other relative; your family always has to listen to you.
But, if we ran a photograph or story that you feel misrepresents a subject you know well or offended you, call me so we can discuss what you found offensive.
In the ideal. parents should feel completely comfortable allowing their children to read a daily newspaper. News is not just for the middle-aged and the senior citizens. It should be challenging, but tasteful. The vibrancy of a free society depends upon the access its people have to news. We would like to feel that Utah is a vibrant society.
At The Salt Lake Tribune, the reader advocate also takes the first look at letters to the editor. Here are a few tips on getting your thoughts in the Public Forum:
- Keep your letters short. We do edit them for both content and length, so if you edit your own length, you have a better chance.
- Each letter writer has a chance to get an opinion in once a month, so pick your best shot.
- Don’t bother sending letters that are nothing more than a slanderous excoriation of an individual. Fair comment and criticism of public officials and public figures is fair; ad hominem attacks are not.
Am I Qualified?
Apparently, some folks at The Salt Lake Tribune figure I am qualified to do this job, since they appointed me to the position. What makes me believe I can do it? Several things. First, I clean up fairly well, so they can send me out in public.
In the reume department, I have done everything in a newsroom (except sports) at a number of newspapers over a period of more than three decades. Starting as a reporter, I moved to editor positions in features, news, national and international news and I headed the weekend coverage here at The Tribune for almost eight years.
Several decades ago, I was co-founder of a crisis intervention hot line in Fort Lauderdale, so I am skilled at dealing with people — be they mildly disturbed or suicidal.
And, finally, I love newspapers. The smell of ink and paper still inspires me. I adore what newspapers are at their best — a living first draft of history with some context and background mixed in. While we are not as immediate as television and radio, we usually are quick and agile enough to give readers a good daily look at what’s happening on the streets of Salt Lake, in the mountains and valleys of Utah, across the broad expanse of the United States and in the smallest countries and largest continents of the world.
