I long for the good old days when Salt Lake Tribune readers were more concerned about questionable headlines, a new comic and the nomadic life of the obituaries. For me, the good old days were that period before Sept. 11.
Today, Tribune readers are calling and writing about all manners of anxieties, suspicions and conspiracies. For example, one anxious reader cited fears about Halloween and urged the paper to tell parents not to allow their children to go out for trick-or-treat.
“It’s too dangerous . . . They should keep them at home,” said the caller, identifying himself as 78-year-old.
Another expressed suspicion about contaminated ink in supermarket tabloids and wanted the paper to launch an immediate investigation. And, yes, there is the daily onslaught of conspiracies sent via the Internet, ranging from stolen rental trucks loaded with explosives to anthrax-spiked letters and packages. These are indeed trying times.
Alas, it is understandable that several readers were a little upset when they did not find anything in the paper about the police’s barricades around a Salt Lake City shopping area, near 2100 South and 1300 East, on Wednesday evening. Motorists in the area were caught in a horrific traffic jam and — given everything that’s going on now — they expected to learn exactly what had happened in Thursday’s paper.
There was no story in The Tribune because the situation turned out to be a false alarm. In fact, Salt Lake City Police Department’s daily update of significant activity also did not say anything about the bomb scare.
Still, Tribune editors and reporters are well aware of heightened public concern. If it had been an actual life-threatening situation, editors say, they would have reported it. But given the range of anxieties today — real and imagined — they must consider such incidents on a case-by-case basis.
Should a newspaper deem it “news” every time law enforcement officials respond to a false alarm? Should the newspaper report whenever a bomb threat is made — something that’s occurring much too frequently these days?
One of the tenets of good journalism is to minimize harm. This means that undue publicity about a bomb scare (often a hoax) would result in even more paranoia and overreaction — and perhaps copycats — instead of “informing” the community. I stand with editors on this issue, it is best to err on the side of caution. One thing all of us must do during these trying times is maintain something akin to a vigilant calm.
This means if you have questions, need advice or an update on a specific situation, you should contact your local law enforcement agency.
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Nomadic obituaries: Although I have addressed this issue several times in this space, I continue to hear from readers who wonder why obituaries sometimes are placed in the Sports section.
Based on a newspaper’s daily layout/design formula that is too complex to explain here, The Tribune, like other newspapers, sets aside a certain number of column inches in the local section for obituaries. When the number of obituaries fit the reserved space, this is where that day’s obituaries are placed. On days when there are fewer obits, the newspaper uses the extra column inches for news stories that otherwise would not have been in the paper.
The question is this: What does the paper do when there are more obituaries that the space set aside for them? They are moved to a section of the paper where there is available space. Sometimes, the space is in the A-section, which is devoted primarily to national and international news and editorials. Sometimes the available space is in the Sports section.
When the obituaries are placed in the section primarily devoted to Sports, I get a half-dozen or so calls from readers taking umbrage to the placement. For these individuals, obituaries are not sports and therefore it is disrespectful or even sacrilegious to place them in that section of the newspaper.
It’s true, obituaries are not sports. That is why no matter where in the paper they are placed, the heading still says “Obituaries.”
