I need help with this one.
Since speaking a week ago to a mass communications class studying journalism ethics at Virginia Commonwealth University, I’ve been searching for an analogy. None has come to mind.
During the class question period, I was asked about the relationship between the editorial and news departments. Perhaps someone in the business world can tell me another business that within its company has two departments with a relationship similar to that between editorial and news.
You likely will scoff — most everyone does — at the response given to the class that, at The Times- Dispatch, as well as at other major daily newspapers across the nation, the two departments have no relationship. Each operates absolutely independently of the other.
A few years ago, I wrote a column about a grizzled handyman in Kentucky named Tom Payne. In addition to whacking weeds or helping strip tobacco, he was the Pleasant Valley “corresponder” for a newspaper in Carlisle, Ky.
His column was a rutted country road of misspellings and creative grammar that gave his reporting a down-home charm. However, he certified his observations by asserting, “Tom Payne know that are true” or “Tom Payne don’t know whare it is true or not.”
For example: “Henry Jolley had some steel traps set for musk rats and he catch a cat fish that it wayed 8 pounds. That are true.”
Conversely: “Some body told Tom Payne that a man stood in the sun so long that when he moved he left his shader still standen still. I dont know whare it is true or not.”
As for the independent status of editorial and news, Jerry Finch know that are true. Or in those famous two little words, Trust Me.
Editorial and news may cross swords, but they don’t cross paths. A virtual fire wall separates the departments, which have offices on different floors at 300 E. Franklin St. Editorial reports to the newspaper’s publisher, J. Stewart Bryan III. News reports to the executive editor, William H. Millsaps Jr.
In my previous service in the newsroom, all 36 years of it, I never knew the current publisher nor his predecessor and father, D. Tennant Bryan, to assert his influence on the news department other than to support decisions made by a news editor.
The two departments maintain hands-off roles on how each decides what and how to deal with its assignment — covering the news or expressing opinion.
In their non-relationship, members of the two departments do not socialize (or at least I’ve not been invited) and might even regard each other as adversaries.
Asked why editorials frequently pinned derisive labels on news reporters as a class, a former editorial writer with a painful glance and in an injured tone told me: “You should hear what they say about us!”
The VCU students, majoring in print or broadcast journalism, advertising and public relations, had questions also about the news ombudsman’s role:
How do you decide what to write about in your column? Does it depend on the number of complaints you get on an issue?
When readers express a concern, a complaint or simply a question that I believe will interest others, I will try to focus a column on that topic. Fifty readers might raise an issue, but sometimes only one caller’s inquiry will lead to a column.
Occasionally I’ll address a development in journalism that I believe is important for the public to know. I’m a reader, too, and I might write on a subject that simply arouses my own interest, as was the case with Tom Payne or the recent column on pool shark Fast Eddie Parker.
Does The Times-Dispatch have a written ethics code?
Sort of. The newspaper has a statement titled “Times-Dispatch Guidelines for Professional Conduct” that is published now and then on the NewsViews page (this page) in the Commentary section.
The guidelines cover such principles as handling “off the record” requests, not manipulating news photographs, avoiding conflicts of interest and declining “freebies.” Ethical standards also are spelled out in other company and corporate policy statements.
How do you get the information for your column?
Two principal ways: through basic reporting and from personal experience.
An ombudsman, like any reporter, goes to the primary sources and experts through direct interviews, coverage of an event and by checking records and documents.
For a column on courtesy titles, I sought expert input from Judith Pearlman Martin (Miss Manners). She answered her phone in Washington and chatted for such a long time I finally had to terminate the call. Courteously, of course.
Bringing personal experience from many years of working in different capacities on daily newspapers is an asset in performing ombudsman duties. Added value comes from having a nationwide — even worldwide — network of fellow ombudsmen and newspaper editors available to help find answers.
How do you put up with all those complainers?
Most folks who reach me by phone, e-mail or U.S. mail are reasonable people with legitimate questions who are most appreciative to find someone who will lend an ear or give them a reply.
Very few are hostile, and even those often will calm down eventually and say, “Thanks for your time.” Others may be unreasonable and accuse the newspaper of evil deeds it didn’t commit.
That’s when I have to remember the sign on the desk of an ombudsman in California. The message:
“Shut up and listen.”
