Newspapers do not heed the adage that one should not discuss religion or politics. The San Diego Union-Tribune does that every day, whether it’s a story about criticism of President Bush for spending about $800,000 to land on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, or whether it’s about the just-completed mission in San Diego by evangelical preacher Billy Graham.
No one complained to me because the Union-Tribune covered the carrier landing and the fallout, but some were displeased by the May 4 eight-page section about Graham’s four-day visit.
Those who complained plainly were not planning to attend the event. If they were, they would have said thanks for the section that included a two-page graphic with the schedule and facts about the mission that organizers said would attract 260,000 people.
There was grumbling, some in the newsroom, that the newspaper had no business promoting a religious event. Where were the newspaper’s ethics, one newsroom wag asked.
Chris Lavin, senior editor for special sections, said the idea of a separate section devoted to the Graham visit was his.
“Frankly, to me it was a no-brainer,” Lavin said. “When you may have a quarter of a million people involved in an activity with the kind of impact that it can have on a community, the obligation of a newspaper is to inform the public what an event like that entails and to spread the word about the logistical information needed to attend it or to avoid it.”
Lavin, who has worked in two communities that hosted Graham missions, knew them to be massive events with high public interest. That was what drove the decision to cover the mission in a special section. In Lavin’s view, it was a service to the community.
“No one can satisfy the need for comprehensive, easily accessible information the way a newspaper can, and when you see such a nexus between large numbers of people and information, a good newspaper acts regardless of the religious or political sensitivities. We walk in those delicate areas daily around here.
“The politics or the religious nature of it never really entered my mind,” Lavin said.
I understand why some people were uneasy about a section devoted to an event aimed at promoting Christianity. But at the same time, I think subsequent coverage leading to the mission had the right tone and struck a balance. A front-page story Thursday took a look at whether it’s right to try to convert people of other faiths, and Currents looked at four other faiths and what their leaders think about attempts to convert them.
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The reader was annoyed. “I’ve called about this before,” he said. He was agitated because, he claimed, the newspaper consistently misspells the name of the Tijuana River. It’s the “Tia Juana” River, he said.
He reminded me of another caller who, in the past, has complained repeatedly, claiming the newspaper carries the wrong dateline, the city where the story originates, for Rosarito Beach. It’s Rosarito, he has insisted. He was pleased when last month, an article on the city failed to carry “Beach” as part of the dateline.
That dateline and both readers are wrong. The correct name is Tijuana River and the correct dateline is Rosarito Beach.
The name “Tia Juana” existed as a place name in the border area beginning in the late 1800s, but today, the name only remains locally as the small Tia Juana Valley County Water District in the South Bay. The name of the river is Tijuana. The name of the area is the Tijuana River Valley (although this newspaper has been known to erroneously refer to it as the “Tia Juana River Valley”).
Questions about “Tia Juana,” surface occasionally, said John Panter, San Diego Historical Society archivist. At one time, there were developments called Tia Juana City and Tia Juana Heights on the U.S. side of the border, but those place names have disappeared along with Oneonta and Barbers Station.
Panter said the Tijuana River was listed as the “Tia Juana River” on U.S. Geographic Survey maps until 1967 when it was informally changed to “Tijuana River.” In the early 1980s, the name “Tijuana River” was formally adopted by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names.
How did Americans get Tia Juana from Tijuana? San Diego State University geographer Barbara Fredrich explains in the upcoming 4th edition of “San Diego: An Introduction to the Region” edited by Phil Pryde that some “Americans think the town was named for a popular Sonoran cook, “Aunt Jane,” but this in unlikely.”
Questions about Rosarito Beach are easier to settle. In 1995, when the Baja California legislature formally approved the creating of a city, they named it Playas de Rosarito, or Rosarito Beach. News stories are not incorrect in referring to the city simply as Rosarito in second references, but the accurate dateline is Rosarito Beach.
l l lina Lubrano’s column commenting on the media appears Mondays. It is the policy of The San Diego Union-Tribune to correct all errors. To discuss accuracy or fairness in the news, please write to Gina Lubrano, readers representative, Box 120191, San Diego, CA 92112-0191, or telephone (619) 293-1525. Send e-mail to: readers.rep@uniontrib.com.
