Readers are a skeptical lot.
That’s a good thing, I think, and a virtue they have in common with journalists.
A few recent doubters:
Victoria Charles of Brea called after reading a three-paragraph item May 22 that she could not believe.
The article reported that more than 1,000 “tiny woolly jerseys were specially knitted” to protect Australia’s fairy penguins in case of oil spills.
The item from Reuters news agency quoted a spokeswoman from the Tasmanian Conservation Trust, who explained that the coverings prevent the penguins from preening, thus from ingesting oil.
“I think you’ve been hoaxed,” Charles said.
The wire editor who chose the article said that he had no reason to disbelieve it.
Comment: Well, I could not let the possibility of an international fraud destroy the credibility of the newspaper. I found a Web site for the Tasmanian Conservation Trust (www.tct.org.au) and read all about the nonprofit and the alleged outpouring of support from around the world to the organization’s call for “penguin jumpers.”
An article on the site signed by “Jo Carswell, president, TCT Knitting Club,” contains detailed knitting instructions.
I sent the group an e-mail, which drew a response signed by Carswell, verifying the penguin-protection effort.
I was unsuccessful in my efforts to place an international telephone call. However, I don’t suspect a conspiracy, just the usual mechanical ineptitude on my part.
Charles was surprised when I told her of my efforts. I will not rest until I have a definitive answer.
If this is a hoax, the Web site’s alleged photo of two penguins wearing their jumpers is a nice touch.
Steve Sallors of La Habra is the most recent to suggest that the Local News section Weather Page is, well, off in reporting local temperatures. Sallors suggested that the temperature in his town often is reported in the newspaper incorrectly — “usually 2 to 3 degrees lower than it really is” — when it is reported at all.
Comment: Register science writer Gary Robbins has reported on local weather for years. Scientists have explained to him that temperatures within a city such as Huntington Beach or Costa Mesa can vary 10 degrees or more. The sea breeze and marine layer keep things cooler nearer the water.
Inland, smaller differences might be caused by where a person lives within a city — and where the thermometer is placed. Local temps are provided daily by a volunteer in each city. The lack of a temperature usually indicates that a volunteer did not report.
But the differences readers have noticed are mostly just that: differences, not errors.
Several readers who sail got a chuckle from a story last month chronicling a local skipper’s efforts in the Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race.
The reporter who joined his crew presented a vivid description of the experience but at one point quoted the ketch’s skipper, Walt Gay, as saying: “It was a challenging race. We followed the rum line as much as the wind would let us.”
If an e-mail can chortle and guffaw, this one did: “No wonder Yachtsman Gay had trouble sailing to Ensenada; he tried to steer a rum line. He might have wound up in Hawaii!! He would have been better-served to steer a rhumb line. That rum will get ya!”
Comment: Isn’t rum the main ingredient in grog?
Ahoy, mates, keep those questions coming.
