An overwhelming number of large metro newspapers determined that last Sunday’s most compelling front-page news was the worldwide protest against a war in Iraq.
Five front-page examples:
- Boston Globe: A five-column headline, “Millions march against war,” at the top over a four-column picture of the Boston rally.
- Chicago Tribune: A four-column headline at the top over four-column art of the London and New York rallies.
- Los Angeles Times: Story was at the top with a four-column photo of the London rally. The front page of its California section, comparable to the Star Tribune’s Metro/State, highlighted the local rally with four photos.
- New York Times: It combined pictures from New York, Prague and London in a four-column display at the top. A story that began beside the photos continued on an inside page with two additional photos of the New York rally.
- Washington Post: Story with pictures of protests in Berlin, London, New York and Rome.
Not so in the Star Tribune:
More than half of page A1 was occupied by the tale of a family that lives in the Saskatchewan bush.
Star Tribune writer Dennis Anderson and photographer Brian Peterson chronicled how Solomon Carrire, 46, his wife, Rene (her age was missing) and two daughters, ages 11 and 12, live in the wilderness in a one-room cabin.
The narrative and pictures continued across two inside pages in the A section.
The story of the protests against war in Iraq started on the front page at the top of the outside left column, continuing for about 10 inches under the headline, “Millions protest around world,” before going to Page A19 to connect with a column of type and a two-column black-and-white picture of the London rally.
An “Inside” note on Page A1 said coverage of the Minneapolis protest was on Page A15. It ran a column in length with a two-column color picture.
Some reader responses took no prisoners. Rick Schneider said: “I frankly could not give a damn about some guy who’s cold out in the middle of nowhere.”
Wade Luneburg said, “Imagine my surprise on Sunday to see two Canadian guys sitting in a fish house taking up two-thirds of the front page. I cannot believe that 10,000 people marching for peace in the Star Tribune’s hometown got buried on A15.”
Noah Ure said, “I believe it is your duty to allot more significant coverage to a voice that is growing in scope and magnitude, and is directly relevant to the national and world events that day-after-day receive prominent A1 coverage.”
Susan Williams said, “The Saskatchewan story deserved its play on another, less newsy day. It did not belong on center A1 on Sunday. Most of your readers are smart enough to know that.”
Managing Editor Scott Gillespie responded:
“The protest story was in the top news position on Page 1. We discussed giving the story an even larger presence but decided against it in part because the turnout at the Minneapolis march was not as large as we had expected and also because protests are orchestrated events. The choice was not made because of the ‘White Silence’ story, which could have stayed on the page had we chosen to give more space to the protest.
“The more important issue is how we cover the antiwar movement as an ongoing story — not how much space we give to a single day of protest. We’ve had two examples this week: Wednesday’s Variety cover story on protesters and Thursday’s Page A1 story on the St. Paul City Council’s resolution on Iraq.”
Comment: The well-crafted feature story brought variety to the front page. But it was eons away from earning page dominance when valued against the story of millions of people protesting war against Iraq.
That the Minneapolis rally, which had no advance notice in the Star Tribune and still attracted an estimated 7,500 people, wound up on Page A15 wasn’t because of competition for space. The antiwar rallies were a bonanza on a day when there was a news drought.
