Readers met with the Star’s top editors and decision makers last month to suggest ways the Star can ensure that its Mideast coverage is fair and unbiased.
The round table organized by the Star caps a six-month, in-house analysis of stories, photos, phone calls, e-mail and letters.
More than a dozen community members were asked to suggest names of people who read the Star and might be willing to help editors view the Star’s Mideast coverage through their eyes.
Eight readers agreed to be part of the roundtable: Daniel Asia, Michael Berdine, Donna Beyer, Rula Khalidi, Noah Haiduc-Dale, Yizhar Hess, Maryam Mir and Hal Ossman.
They first focused on the strengths of the Star’s Mideast coverage, then suggested improvements.
In the room were the Star’s decision makers – the people who select the stories, choose the photos, supervise the editing and approve the headlines, as well as Editor and Publisher Jane Amari.
Star representatives were asked to talk as little as possible; they were there to listen to the roundtable participants, not to voice their views.
Amari and Managing Editor Bobbie Jo Buel are instituting the following based on what they heard from the roundtable participants.
The Star will:
- Begin a 30-day trial of Reuters, a wire service known for its foreign news coverage and used throughout Europe and in larger American cities. Wire services currently purchased by the Star are The Associated Press, Knight-Ridder/Tribune, Scripps Howard, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. All of these wire services make available a portion of their stories. The Reuters trial is designed to see if depth can be added to the Star’s foreign news report and will include access to stories, photos and graphics. At the end of the trial, a decision will be made on whether to purchase the service.
- Publish guidelines for Guest Columns for the Star’s Opinion pages. These guidelines will appear in the paper and online at www.azstarnet.com under “Contact Us.” This is an effort to encourage local experts to share their opinions on topical issues and bring a local voice to international events.
- Create a Mideast site online at www.azstarnet.com, the online version of the paper. Analysis, historical background and other non-breaking news stories will be added to this site after they appear in print. The site, www.azstarnet.com/mideast, also includes links to newspapers such as the Daily Star of Lebanon, the Guardian, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post and the Jordan Times.
- Continue to evaluate news coverage to find stories and photos that humanize the conflict and add a human dimension to the day’s events.
- Be mindful of characterizations of people, of actions and of consequences in stories and to edit stories in such a way as to make sure those labels are accurate and supported in the context of the story.
- Continue to discuss photos and stories so that each day’s coverage is never decided by just one person. Every photo and story considered will be viewed by at least two sets of eyes and the different approaches to the day’s news will be discussed.
- Write headlines in such a way that a second news element is included in secondary headlines and in headlines with the story continuation from the front page.
- Continue to talk about how the Star reports news from the Mideast and about the Mideast and continue to listen to readers.
“The sober comments from these panelists reminded us that readers carefully examine everything we do – from story and photo selection right down to details like writing photo captions and subheads,” Buel said.
“Even with the pressure of nightly deadlines, we’re trying to keep that in mind. Every decision – big or small – plays into readers’ judgments about whether we’re fair.”
