For reporter Ray Huard, it’s stories about roads needing repair that elicit the strongest reaction from readers. Huard covers San Diego City Hall; he writes about recall elections, the budget, sewer rates and other thorny issues. But without fail, it’s the pothole stories that get reader response. “People really, really get mad over potholes, as mundane though they may be,” Huard said.
He touched on something reporters know but sometimes forget: People react to the commonplace. In San Diego, most of us have been irritated by potholes at one time or another; that’s why he gets such a response.
As ombudsman, I usually hear from readers who are upset about the content of articles. Yet, I know most readers look forward to the Union-Tribune. They look to the newspaper not just to inform them, but to move them, to amuse them, to entertain them and to validate them.
With that in mind, I asked reporters about stories that have elicited heartfelt response from readers.
“Other than tragedies, it’s people readers really respond to,” said Susan Gembrowski, recalling reaction to a story she wrote about James Edward Brown Sr. of Logan Heights the day before he celebrated his 107th birthday. The World War I veteran and businessman died in June.
Cheryl Clark remembers a story she wrote about Jose Batalia, a gardener who became a hero when he went into a burning garage and saved a family from disaster. He suffered smoke inhalation and got a hospital bill for $17,000.
“People just poured their hearts out over this terrible thing,” Clark said. “An anonymous donor paid the bill, and someone else gave him money so he could buy his own health insurance.”
North County editor Jim Okerblom nominated animal stories; other staff members agreed. “Our stories about Escondido’s library cat provoked a tremendous response,” Okerblom said. “Also, the stories about the Escondido Humane Society fire, which killed 100 animals, caused a great reaction.”
There wasn’t much good news in March, the month that San Diego County residents saw shootings at two of its schools. But on March 25, a Sunday, the front page carried a story about Rancho Bernardo High School students who used their brains, grit and spirit to get a classmate who has cerebral palsy to the top of Twin Peaks mountain.
When I saw the front-page story by Jenifer Hanrahan, I cheered; so did readers who let us know they were moved to see positive coverage about ordinary teen-agers.
“It was a simple, sweet, spontaneous gesture by those young people,” Hanrahan recalled. “It was the kind of story that makes me really happy to be a journalist, that I had the chance to highlight and publicize something so genuine.”
Another article about triumph of the spirit was Samuel Autman’s story in May on Cupcake Brown, the San Diego native who graduated from law school after once having been an addict, a trash can junkie. “I got more reaction on that than anything I’ve written in 12 years,” Autman said.
“People like teachers and coaches who go the extra mile,” said Tom Shanahan. Articles that have had a positive reader response include Shanahan’s stories on Morse High School football coach John Shacklett who inspires his students to go on to college and graduate and Monte Vista High School track coach Renee Ross who explained it’s her love of kids, not the money, that inspires her to take on the extra work involved in coaching.
And sometimes, it’s not an outpouring, but a note from a single reader that validates the impact of a story. Sandi Dolbee remembers interviewing Rabbi Wayne Dosick, an ethicist who writes books on how to deal with life. Dolbee spoke with him in the ruins of the home he lost in the 1996 Harmony Grove fire.
“He talked and talked about the grief, the sorrow, the ‘why’ of it all. His clothes were stained with soot; so many things he loved were now ashes. Books, diplomas, family photographs. A baseball signed by Babe Ruth. Gone.
“The day that the story appeared, I received a voice mail message from a man who said he’d spent the night at the bedside of his dying wife. When the newspaper came, he got it and brought it back into the bedroom. He read the story, twice, he said. It helped him to deal with his own tragedy — the loss of his wife.
“He thanked me — and most of all the rabbi — for sharing,” Dolbee recalled.
“A journalist’s story is only as good as the people she or he interviews,” Dolbee said. “It’s their stories, really, that move others. And each time a person trusts me enough to share a story, I remember that someone could be waiting for the newspaper to arrive.”
