An MDTA Tribune story by Matthew D. LaPlante about the death of a fourth airman from Hill Air Force Base brought this response from a reader:
“You shouldn’t do these stories until the name is released and all family members are informed. We have a son in the Air Force, now in Iraq, who is stationed at Hill. I am hoping and praying that if it was him we would have been informed by now, which we probably would have.
“I can handle the worry, but I hate to see my wife or daughter-in-law have to sweat this out. This story shows no consideration for the families of servicemen serving our country.
“Don’t print these stories until the name is released and family members are informed.”
The people of The Salt Lake Tribune are all human beings as well as journalists. Our parents die, children are injured, hopes are sometimes dashed. We can empathize. And, we worry about the families of U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.
As LaPlante pointed out in his reply:
“At the time we did the first story the family members of the dead airman had already been informed. I probably could have done a better job at making it clear that was the case so that other families didn’t need to worry.
“The reality, of course, is that we report on things of tragic nature all the time – shootings, plane crashes – in which we must report long before the injured, dead and dying are identified.”
Creative reader: A delivered newspaper is not just for wrapping fish any more. One clever reader of The Tribune sent this e-mail and I sent it along to the circulation department:
“A few years ago we discovered a very resourceful use for the bags that our Salt Lake Tribune comes in. Let’s just say that they are perfect for when we walk our dogs each day.
“During the summer we deplete our supply of bags that we have accumulated over the winter, when it is more common to receive the newspaper in a bag.
“We were wondering if the company that supplies the bags would sell some to us. We know that there are companies that sell bags for this very purpose but they are very short and not nearly as . . . user friendly.”
A circulation supervisor at MediaOne of Utah (the company that sells the ads, prints and distributes both The Tribune and the Deseret Morning News) sent the reader the following reply:
“Thank you for being a resourceful reader of The Salt Lake Tribune! I know exactly what you are talking about, and how useful these poly bags are when it comes to following up behind the dog!
“Our poly bags are not very expensive, but for you to go to our supplier they may be, based on lack of volume. So, I would like to offer you a header (100 bags per) at the same cost we sell them to our carriers (approximately $1.70 per header).”
Cruel comments? One woman wrote this e-mail to the staff at www.sltrib.com:
“My husband was one of the upstanding soldiers deployed yesterday and I can’t believe the horrific comments The Tribune has allowed to remain on the site! ‘Hmmmm fresh meat for the Iraqi meat grinder . . .’ What has happened to this country’s patriotism!
“How could you support such horrible comments? . . . My husband didn’t ask for this war, nor did he ask to go to Iraq. But it is his duty and he will serve his country proudly! . . . Please take down those horrible comments.”
As our Web site administrator explained:
“We do not filter comments before they are posted. Each user is responsible for their own comments. There is no way we could patrol the thousands of comments on hundreds of stories that are online every day, nor do we feel that it would be appropriate to do so.
“When a user complains about a comment, we will take a look at it and if it goes beyond the boundaries spelled out in the user guidelines we will take it down. I should caution you, however, that being insensitive or expressing an unpopular opinion is not necessarily grounds for a comment’s removal.”
I have empathy for this woman and the hundreds like her, but we must allow even angry and sardonic readers to have their say.
