O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
Those words from Robert Burns’ 1789 poem “To a Louse,” written after he spied a bloodsucking insect on the bonnet of a lady in front of him in church, bring two thoughts to mind:
* A spellchecker could have saved the national poet of Scotland future embarrassment.
* Seeing ourselves through others’ eyes can prove valuable.
Focusing on that potential benefit, the Sentinel asked a panel of experts Monday night to critique the newspaper’s reporting on Central Florida’s largest industry: tourism.
They complied, complimenting the newspaper’s day-to-day tourism coverage but faulting what they saw as:
* Opinion injected into enterprise reporting.
* Sensational headlines.
* Lack of depth in key areas.
The panel members graciously had agreed to peruse reprints of two recent series — one about a void of local leadership and the other about tourism’s cost to the community — along with several relevant articles, then to spend nearly two hours discussing their impressions. The session was part of the Associated Press Managing Editors’ National Credibility Roundtable project.
Wanting to hold the discussion at a neutral site, the Sentinel asked WESH-Channel 2 television to host the session, which the station agreed to do — largely because it, too, hoped to benefit from the panelists’ observations. News anchor Jim Payne served as the facilitator.
The panelists represented a variety of interests involved in, or affected by, tourism, including attractions both big and small, hotels, restaurants, conventions, sports, law enforcement, higher education, economic development, transportation, parents and teachers.
Told that their comments would not be quoted in print, they doffed their gloves and swung away, in particular, at the series from late last year measuring the price Central Florida pays for the myriad benefits of tourism. It compared the Orlando area with the 10 next-largest and 10 next-smallest cities in a variety of objective, quality-of-life categories — and found the area near the bottom of the desirable scales and at or near the top of those that are less so.
The Sentinel for years has given prominent display to new attractions, hotels and conventions, but several panelists felt that last year’s series lacked fairness and balance because it focused primarily on the costs, rather than the benefits, of tourism.
Sentinel Editor Tim Franklin anticipated much of what he heard.
“I wasn’t surprised to hear that they haven’t liked everything that we’ve published,” he said. “I think there’s bound to be some occasional tension between the dominant industry in a community and a newspaper that is aggressively serving its watchdog function on community issues.”
But he valued the criticism.
“I heard good suggestions about the benefits of some additional training and development for our reporters and editors,” Franklin said. “And I think both the industry and the newspaper could benefit from continued open and candid discussions like Monday’s.”
No question about that. The ultimate test, though, will come in how the Sentinel uses what it heard to improve its coverage.
Manning Pynn can be reached at Public@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6410.
