Post by Moses on Dec 19, 2004 17:44:03 GMT -5
Late-Breaking News
By Michael Getler
Sunday, December 19, 2004; Page B06
Last Monday, a headline on Page A17 of The Post said, "U.S. Troops, Insurgents Battle Across Iraq." Just below that headline, in smaller type, was a line that read: "Eight Marines Killed, Seven Soldiers Injured in Fighting." Not surprisingly, some readers called or e-mailed to ask why that story wasn't on the front page. "Eight dead Marines on A17," one reader wrote. "So if there are four dead will that be on A34? Will it take 32 dead to at least make the front page?" Some other readers compared it with a feature story on Page One that morning about how the sandwich trade was booming in local, chain-operated eating places.
The Post did about as well as most of the other half-dozen or so major papers I look at regularly. The news of the heavy Marine losses broke late Sunday night, with news reports arriving, according to the Foreign news desk here, about 11:30 p.m. There were few details about the fighting other than the numbers of dead and wounded.
But one paper -- the Baltimore Sun -- had a big headline, "Eight Marines Killed in Iraq," at the top of its front page Monday, with the news story, compiled from wire service accounts, underneath it. The front page, in my view, is where that story belonged. The Sun, as it turned out, had an edge on this. Editors say they already had a story about fighting in Iraq in the lead position, so when the higher casualty count came in, they were prepared to beef up the story.
By the yardsticks of this war, eight dead Marines and at least seven wounded soldiers in one day is a lot, and it would seem to be one of the most important news events of the preceding 24 hours, even though not much was known beyond the toll.
I write, of course, subjectively and with the benefit of hindsight. Those at the time who did not move the story to the front could have made a different judgment for other reasons.
Nevertheless, the episode struck me as one of those moments that test news organizations when they least expect it, such as late on a Sunday night when the pulse of a newsroom is a little slower, when the front page is set and most of the top editors are not in the office. Suddenly, an earlier story about a few casualties is now a bigger one. You need to decide whether to act on that, whether to tear up a front page, perhaps moving a feature story off the front that doesn't really fit inside. Or, you beef up the story on A17, leave it there and figure the readers will see it.
It's easy for me to say, but I vote for changing the front page.
Michael Getler is The Post's ombudsman. He can be reached at (202) 334-7582 or by e-mail at ombudsman@washpost.com, or c/o The Washington Post, 1150 15th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20071.
By Michael Getler
Sunday, December 19, 2004; Page B06
Last Monday, a headline on Page A17 of The Post said, "U.S. Troops, Insurgents Battle Across Iraq." Just below that headline, in smaller type, was a line that read: "Eight Marines Killed, Seven Soldiers Injured in Fighting." Not surprisingly, some readers called or e-mailed to ask why that story wasn't on the front page. "Eight dead Marines on A17," one reader wrote. "So if there are four dead will that be on A34? Will it take 32 dead to at least make the front page?" Some other readers compared it with a feature story on Page One that morning about how the sandwich trade was booming in local, chain-operated eating places.
The Post did about as well as most of the other half-dozen or so major papers I look at regularly. The news of the heavy Marine losses broke late Sunday night, with news reports arriving, according to the Foreign news desk here, about 11:30 p.m. There were few details about the fighting other than the numbers of dead and wounded.
But one paper -- the Baltimore Sun -- had a big headline, "Eight Marines Killed in Iraq," at the top of its front page Monday, with the news story, compiled from wire service accounts, underneath it. The front page, in my view, is where that story belonged. The Sun, as it turned out, had an edge on this. Editors say they already had a story about fighting in Iraq in the lead position, so when the higher casualty count came in, they were prepared to beef up the story.
By the yardsticks of this war, eight dead Marines and at least seven wounded soldiers in one day is a lot, and it would seem to be one of the most important news events of the preceding 24 hours, even though not much was known beyond the toll.
I write, of course, subjectively and with the benefit of hindsight. Those at the time who did not move the story to the front could have made a different judgment for other reasons.
Nevertheless, the episode struck me as one of those moments that test news organizations when they least expect it, such as late on a Sunday night when the pulse of a newsroom is a little slower, when the front page is set and most of the top editors are not in the office. Suddenly, an earlier story about a few casualties is now a bigger one. You need to decide whether to act on that, whether to tear up a front page, perhaps moving a feature story off the front that doesn't really fit inside. Or, you beef up the story on A17, leave it there and figure the readers will see it.
It's easy for me to say, but I vote for changing the front page.
Michael Getler is The Post's ombudsman. He can be reached at (202) 334-7582 or by e-mail at ombudsman@washpost.com, or c/o The Washington Post, 1150 15th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20071.