In a time of national crisis, newspaper readers demanded a continuing flow of accurate and timely information. They also wanted a chance to speak out, to let their neighbors know what they believed important and to express how they felt about events. We all wanted to be part of a community and a nation.
The readers I heard from devoured all the news they could find wherever they could find it, so long as the source could be trusted.
Televisions stayed on, newspapers sold out, and car radios were tuned to all-news formats.
According to the readers of The Bee who spoke up, many people believe the newspaper delivered both the information and the public forum they needed. They feel pretty good about the media. For now.
Also, the extraordinary events of the past two weeks may provide some evidence that the continuing debate about “old media” and “new media” is largely irrelevant.
Television delivered live pictures and reports of the horrors of the attacks on American cities, freezing us in front of tubes everywhere.
Newspapers provided details and depth and context in a 24-hour cycle, plus “extra” coverage and ample opportunities for reflection.
The hot new medium of the past decade — the Internet — played a role, too, but was hampered in the early stages by heavy demand and communications disruptions that interfered with access.
Cell phones became the devices for instant direct-news communication. “I am safe,” became the most sought-after news bulletin on the continent.
In the days following the attacks, complaints about The Bee’s performance in delivering the news dropped dramatically. The same thing happened with other newspapers around the country.
It created, one journalist observed during a national conference call discussing the performance of the media, something of a honeymoon for the often-criticized news media. Another described it as the “halo” effect. People were willing to overlook the everyday errors and mistakes in view of the scale of the calamity and generally good performance.
That doesn’t mean the media’s performance was perfect, but the readers who called The Bee’s ombudsman indicated the newspaper and other media were generally appreciated and helpful in the crisis. Most readers focused on the important issues of life and death, not those other issues that we concentrate on when we are comfortable and secure.
The performance rating
Here are a few general observations after listening to Bee readers since the crisis began:
- Many newspaper readers said they appreciated the job done by the Bee staff. Extra pages of news, attention to detail and the obvious long hours and concern were mentioned often. One reader, overwhelmed by the enormity of events, called to say, “Good job.”
- Many people took advantage of the access through letters to the editor to express their loss, anger, mourning and support of national leaders, and they raised important public policy issues the nation will have to decide in the weeks ahead. In the first four days of this week, more than 100 letters to the editor were published expressing a wide range of public opinion and concern. Letters continue to pour in as the community speaks out.
- The daily tracking of developments provided a sense of order within chaos, and gave readers a way to keep up without being totally overwhelmed.
The complaints that arrived here were far less than normal. Two had to do with opinions expressed in the editorial pages with which the readers disagreed or felt were inappropriate. That was true at other newspapers as well. Facts were welcomed. Opinions, contrary to some, were less desirable. In the case of The Bee, some readers objected to the following:
- Peter Schrag’s opinion page column appeared to be criticizing the president at a time when some readers felt any criticism was inappropriate. Those who disagreed strongly wrote letters to the editor, which was the appropriate place to express disagreement.
- One of cartoonist Rex Babin’s post-calamity cartoons offended a few local readers, though other Bee readers approved. Most of the local criticisms were reasonable, and recognized Babin’s right to express his opinion. A lot of the non-local e-mails were generated by two right-wing Websites located outside Sacramento. Several of those messages were obscene or threatening, and appropriately ignored by editors.
- A few readers objected to The Bee’s publication of one photograph that showed a person falling to his or her death from a stricken tower on the first day. Every newspaper that published the photo received similar complaints. The Bee normally would not run such a photograph, but the extraordinary events prompted extraordinary decisions about what to publish.
Good suggestions
Two suggestions that deserve consideration were offered by readers early last week.
Readers were grateful that The Bee’s editors had increased international news coverage in the days after the attack, but encouraged the editors to consider continuing to provide more space for news from other countries. This is a time, they said reasonably, when events in other nations take on life-and-death importance for Americans.
And another reader repeated a request heard almost weekly. The Bee’s guidelines for letter writers should be published frequently and be easy to find on the sacbee.com Website.
I searched for 20 minutes on the Web site and could not find the guidelines without help. There is no simple way, but if you want to try go first to the “Voices” page, then click on the “Send a letter to the editor” link, then look around and find the “Tips and tricks” link. If you are lucky, you will find help there.
The guidelines have been the same for several years. Here’s a short version:
- Keep the letter less than 200 words, briefer is better. Published letters average 150 words.
- Provide The Bee with your real name, address and daytime telephone number.
- Writers must live within The Bee’s home delivery area but do not have to be subscribers.
- Stick to one subject, and make the letter timely, usually within two weeks of an event.
- Writers are limited to no more than one letter per month.
- The sooner the letter arrives at The Bee, and the easier it is to read and process, the more likely it will appear in print. In other words, e-mail is an advantage, though all letters are welcomed.
- And all letters will be edited to make more space for others, but the editors will do their best to maintain the integrity of your ideas.
If you have suggestions about these guidelines, send them to the editor of the editorial pages, David Holwerk, or John Hughes, the letters editor.
