As you read see this column, your friendly neighborhood Listening Post editor will be returning from the Organization of News Ombudsmen’s annual meeting. Which makes this a good time for a reprise of what the Listening Post is all about.
Ever wonder what news ombudsmen talk about when they get together? Ever wonder what a news ombudsman is?
Unless you’ve been reading one of the few newspapers that has one, ombudsman is likely to sound like a foreign word – which it is: Scandinavian in origin, it means “intermediary” in English.
Newspaper ombudsmen address comments and complaints, in the form of telephone calls and letters from readers, on matters of fairness, accuracy and balance in newspaper articles.
We obtain explanations from editors and staff and respond to readers, generally in a column, in about 60 newspapers in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world. The first newspaper ombudsman was appointed in 1967 in Louisville, Ky., to act for readers of The Louisville Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times.
The Organization of News Ombudsmen’s annual meeting provides an opportunity for this small band of abused servants to compare notes, cry on each other’s shoulders and hear from speakers who might enable us to do a better job of helping make our newspapers more accurate, more accessible, more accountable to readers – and, we hope, more credible.
Each newspaper defines the job differently. Some ombudsmen supervise the preparation of corrections. Others write internal newsletters about readers’ views and complaints. Most write weekly columns dealing with complaints of broad general interest or airing the grievance of a particular reader.
In this Listening Post column, which usually appears here each Thursday, the crucial elements, to my thinking, are the reader’s concern and the staff’s response. I get to express my opinion, but I also want to provide the background you need to enable you to form your own.
News ombudsmen should not be confused with management: We function in an advisory, not a disciplinary or policy-setting capacity. Our columns may criticize or explain. Column subjects may range from questions of privacy to social stereotyping, from factual errors to bias. Any editorial material that causes readers to complain is within an ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
Three newspaper ombudsmen are women. In addition to being one of the youngest, I am also the only ONO member of African descent. While most – like me – are a part of their paper’s staff, some ombudsmen are on fixed-term or renewable contracts that can’t be cancelled, which enhance public perception of the ombudsman’s independence.
Our titles also vary: Some papers call their sacrificial lamb the readers’ representative, reader advocate, public editor, public contact editor – or even Listening Post editor. Others have an assistant managing editor or an assistant to a senior editor act as ombudsman.
This year’s ONO meeting, hosted by The Star Tribune, which serves Minneapolis and St. Paul, was to again include colleagues from Madrid to Tel Aviv to Tokyo. Journalism students and professors from Paris to the Netherlands to Seoul were also expected to be on hand to learn about the work we do. Count on a report about the “Oddest correction sweepstakes” conducted by Sacramento Bee ombudsman Art Nauman.
The ONO acronym expresses what some newsroom colleagues have been heard to utter when they see us coming (“Oh no!”).
But as I often say, borrowing a line from one of my ombuddies, “It can be the best job at the paper and the worst job at the paper – all in the same day.”
Charles Bond is an editorial writer for The Palm Beach Post.
