Had some readers had a say, a story about four New York police officers indicted for killing an unarmed African immigrant in a hail of 41 bullets would have been front-page news. Instead, it appeared on Page A-2 of the April 1 Union-Tribune.
However, more than half of the 50 or so readers who participated in an exercise to select articles for Page One thought the story should have been on the front page.
“It’s still an ugly, racist world out there and readers need to know about this,” wrote John Lalley of the incident that led to months of protests and examination of police tactics and race relations in the Big Apple.
“(The) story has national implications,” wrote Edward F. Kolker. “(There is) much concern about killings by police officers.” However, Michael Cain, editor of the Daily Catholic, disagreed. He said the story is “not of interest to San Diegans per se and should be inside” as a brief story.
The New York story was among 11 articles considered for the April 1 front page. On April 5, I listed the stories and asked readers to tell me their top five picks for Page One.
There is nothing scientific about these results, but readers gave high marks to four of the five stories that appeared on the front page April 1 belonged there.
The top story for editors and most of the readers was about the three U.S. soldiers captured by the Serbs. That story broke late in the evening, and it was only the City and Street Final editions that carried the photographs of the three men although earlier editions carried information that they were missing.
Most readers would have selected the capture story as the centerpiece for the front page. “The Kosovo crisis is of major importance throughout the world,” wrote reader Harold L. Mensch.
In fact, the story about the missing soldiers was twinned as the centerpiece with a look at NATO involvement in Yugoslavia through the eyes of local college students, Vietnam veterans and people who either fought or lived through World War II. The generational story was selected for Page One by slightly more than half of the readers who participated and scored fifth among stories selected for the front page.
Lalley said the story about the soldiers was important for a number of reasons, particularly because “it has broad political implications and the human drama is compelling.”
He and others liked the story about the three generations because it placed perspective on the issues in Yugoslavia, which was what editors had in mind.
Readers gave the second highest number of votes to the story about the City Council’s unanimous approval of the Padres baseball park proposal. “I don’t care for the Padres, and I didn’t vote in favor of their stupid, expensive ballpark,” wrote Gail Duffey, “but as long as my money seems destined to pay for it, I want to be updated.”
The story about the New York City police officers received the third highest number of votes. Fourth was the story about small contractors losing out to large companies on contracts for construction and repair work that was part of the $1.51 billion voted in Proposition MM. “This article is important to all small businesses trying to survive in San Diego and needs attention,” wrote Debbie Calahan.
Interestingly, the story that got the fewest reader votes — four — was selected by editors for the front page. It was a story about a Major League Baseball proposal to sell advertising space on the sleeves of players’ uniforms.
“(It) seems like a good Sports section centerpiece,” wrote Patrick McLaughlin. He said the story would be of interest to baseball fans but “of little or no interest to others . . . ” “Two baseball stories are too much,” wrote Galadriel Frond. “Too frivolous for Page One,” wrote Mensch.
News editor Lora Cicalo said the exercise shows that selecting stories for the front page is not an exact science. “If you ask 10 people which stories they think should be on the front page on any given day, you’re likely to get 10 answers,” she said. “The same goes for editors. There is often a great deal of healthy discussion behind the selection of A1 stories and photos.”
Some readers rejected some stories for the front page because they contained opinion which, they said, does not belong in news stories. That reasoning told me that some readers may not understand that it is appropriate for news stories to contain the views and opinions (even if disagreeable) of people interviewed.
I think most readers understand that because this is a column, I have the option of giving my opinion. It is acceptable for me to say that I agree with readers; that the story about the police officers should have been on the front page. However, were I writing a news story, I could write about the opinion of the readers — or people I interviewed — but I could not say what I thought.
Of the five remaining stories proposed for Page One, all appeared in the newspaper although one, which ranked next to last in the number of votes, was reduced to three paragraphs on Page A-9. It was the story about the sentencing of the Rev. Henry Lyons to prison for swindling more than $4 million while president of one of the nation’s most influential black religious denominations.
The story about Kenneth Starr’s investigation becoming one of the most expensive in history ranked ninth; the story about the senior NATO general and decisions leading to the attack on Serb forces was eighth; the story about how words such as “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” are being used to justify the strikes on Serbs ranked seventh, and the story on the federal government’s fix of computers for the year 2000 ranked sixth.
