Reading the Charlotte Sun Newspaper

The expression is “a boon for all mankind.” And what’s with the sexism? Women don’t count?

The Sun-Herald’s own Lang Capasso, a “general manager,” (not a reporter trained in the ethics of journalism) wrote last Thursday that a neighborhood pizza parlor “now serves beer and wine to wash down the pizza. Owner Yvonne Haulunen tells me that it was something they have been trying to get for along time.”

Today’s correction: The eatery “is not serving beer or wine” and Capasso did not speak to Haulunen for his column.

This little experiment — of firing real reporters and ordering area circulation and sales managers with no journalism training (any college writing experience?) to write weekly business columns — has been fraught with danger. The gang of five consistently produces silly, error riddled (let’s not forget plagiarized) and vacuous lists of address changes, boosterism, and service announcements that violate the ethical separation of reporting and editorializing.

There’s an important place on our local business pages for tid-bit news and short announcements. But, just because it’s a one-liner doesn’t mean it’s easy to produce or exempt from journalism’s standards. A sales manager cannot be counted on to know these standards. When a publisher assigns even short roundups to the untrained, he has saved salary by trivilizing his paper, his sources, his readers and his profession.

And one more thing:

In the same column, the writer leads off by announcing a local spa’s new service “called the Raindrop Technique. It was developed to simulate water falling. This cleanses the body and is a 45-minute session.”

Old Word Wolf calls this a long shower!

The Sun-Herald’s own Lang Capasso, a “general manager,” (not a reporter trained in the ethics of journalism) wrote last Thursday that a neighborhood pizza parlor “now serves beer and wine to wash down the pizza. Owner Yvonne Haulunen tells me that it was something they have been trying to get for along time.”

Today’s correction: The eatery “is not serving beer or wine” and Capasso did not speak to Haulunen for his column.

This little experiment — of firing real reporters and ordering area circulation and sales managers with no journalism training (any college writing experience?) to write weekly business columns — has been fraught with danger. The gang of five consistently produces silly, error riddled (let’s not forget plagiarized) and vacuous lists of address changes, boosterism, and service announcements that violate the ethical separation of reporting and editorializing.

There’s an important place on our local business pages for tid-bit news and short announcements. But, just because it’s a one-liner doesn’t mean it’s easy to produce or exempt from journalism’s standards. A sales manager cannot be counted on to know these standards. When a publisher assigns even short roundups to the untrained, he has saved salary by trivilizing his paper, his sources, his readers and his profession.

And one more thing:

In the same column, the writer leads off by announcing a local spa’s new service “called the Raindrop Technique. It was developed to simulate water falling. This cleanses the body and is a 45-minute session.”

Old Word Wolf calls this a long shower!

This seems almost too elementary to bring up: Every reporter learns on day one of journalism school that newspapers don’t print a single-source story, copied from a corporate Web site, “written” by a salesperson who wants to expand her business and present it to readers as if it’s regional news. You’re supposed to draw a big black border around it and insert a 9-point flag that says “ADVERTISEMENT” and bill the writer for a one-time insertion.

When Cindy DeWeese, “area captain” for Take Off Pounds Sensibly showed up at the newsroom’s front desk earlier this week to drop off her copy touting “real success” (as opposed to the not-real kind?) the staff failed to tell her to go buy an ad. Maybe they know something we don’t.

Running the copy as if it’s news prompts readers to wonder what Cindy’s real relationship is to the editor or publisher. Why does she (and not Jenny Craig, Curves, Weight Watchers, and Slimfast) get to use DeSoto Sun’s Regional News page to promote her business? After all, she’s not a big advertiser, so there must be some other connection the editors would rather not disclose to their community of readers — by which I mean that folks who belong to the same clubs, churches, lodges, Rotary, etc., as the editors seem to have an “in” when it comes to publicizing their causes. That’s an improper relationship, in journalism’s ethics. Good news, free news for one’s buddies? No.

This seems almost too elementary to bring up: Every reporter learns on day one of journalism school that newspapers don’t print a single-source story, copied from a corporate Web site, “written” by a salesperson who wants to expand her business and present it to readers as if it’s regional news. You’re supposed to draw a big black border around it and insert a 9-point flag that says “ADVERTISEMENT” and bill the writer for a one-time insertion.

When Cindy DeWeese, “area captain” for Take Off Pounds Sensibly showed up at the newsroom’s front desk earlier this week to drop off her copy touting “real success” (as opposed to the not-real kind?) the staff failed to tell her to go buy an ad. Maybe they know something we don’t.

Running the copy as if it’s news prompts readers to wonder what Cindy’s real relationship is to the editor or publisher. Why does she (and not Jenny Craig, Curves, Weight Watchers, and Slimfast) get to use DeSoto Sun’s Regional News page to promote her business? After all, she’s not a big advertiser, so there must be some other connection the editors would rather not disclose to their community of readers — by which I mean that folks who belong to the same clubs, churches, lodges, Rotary, etc., as the editors seem to have an “in” when it comes to publicizing their causes. That’s an improper relationship, in journalism’s ethics. Good news, free news for one’s buddies? No.

The combination of miles of paper, a paid subscriber base, buckets of ink, and high-speed presses combine to breed a special kind of egotism in newsmen and women. It’s an egotism that’s too often expressed upon peering into the mirror one morning and thinking, “Wow! That’s a good subject for a column!”

Sun-Herald columnist Steve Baumann is the latest at the Daily Excuse to succumb to the temptation of imagining his readers will better understand their little town if they first read a history of his mustache and sideburns.

Give him credit: he doesn’t hide his topic: “Let’s talk about my face.”
No, Steve. Let’s not. Next time you are looking for a subject, try one of these:

• We in Arcadia need to know what’s up with the rural transportation initiative.
• We need to know if the local high school’s drop out numbers are down or up.
• How about telling us how the state-level budget cuts will affect local school resources?
• We need to know what the property appraiser is doing to assessed home values in a time of falling market prices.
• We need to know if a proposed 25-acre animal drop-off facility is everything its promoters say it is – and what county permits have been issued.
• We need to know why DeSoto County commissioners refuse to institute a can-and-glass recycling program (or create an inter-local agreement so Arcadians can use Charlotte County’s drop-off facility).
• We need to know if the teen pregnancy rate is still the highest in the state and what initiatives are taken to keep young women in school.
• We need to know the outcome of the investigation into the policeman who shot a citrus worker during a traffic stop.
• Whatever happened to those eight high-powered rifles stolen from the local pawn shop?
• What are the jail conditions that were evaluated by the feds last month?

There is so much more … taxpayers, families, and job holders in Arcadia need to know. And, Steve, your goatee is not on the list. <

The combination of miles of paper, a paid subscriber base, buckets of ink, and high-speed presses combine to breed a special kind of egotism in newsmen and women. It’s an egotism that’s too often expressed upon peering into the mirror one morning and thinking, “Wow! That’s a good subject for a column!”

Sun-Herald columnist Steve Baumann is the latest at the Daily Excuse to succumb to the temptation of imagining his readers will better understand their little town if they first read a history of his mustache and sideburns.

Give him credit: he doesn’t hide his topic: “Let’s talk about my face.”
No, Steve. Let’s not. Next time you are looking for a subject, try one of these:

• We in Arcadia need to know what’s up with the rural transportation initiative.
• We need to know if the local high school’s drop out numbers are down or up.
• How about telling us how the state-level budget cuts will affect local school resources?
• We need to know what the property appraiser is doing to assessed home values in a time of falling market prices.
• We need to know if a proposed 25-acre animal drop-off facility is everything its promoters say it is – and what county permits have been issued.
• We need to know why DeSoto County commissioners refuse to institute a can-and-glass recycling program (or create an inter-local agreement so Arcadians can use Charlotte County’s drop-off facility).
• We need to know if the teen pregnancy rate is still the highest in the state and what initiatives are taken to keep young women in school.
• We need to know the outcome of the investigation into the policeman who shot a citrus worker during a traffic stop.
• Whatever happened to those eight high-powered rifles stolen from the local pawn shop?
• What are the jail conditions that were evaluated by the feds last month?

There is so much more … taxpayers, families, and job holders in Arcadia need to know. And, Steve, your goatee is not on the list. <

Headlines lead readers to expect a story will deliver particular facts. Yesterday’s Big Story dominated the front page: “Casualties of war: How one Marine’s death is prompting a closer look at PTSD.”

The headline and art made Old Word Wolf expect the long feature story might describe how a recent tragedy – the accidental death of a traumatized marine — might shed light on a national problem.

The article fails to deliver. Despite the writer’s claim the tragedy is provoking national attention, he presents no evidence that this marine’s death prompted anything national or more than a family’s vague desire to “help others.”

Here’s what is offered instead:

In 70 paragraphs, OWW finds a flawed recap of the life and death of an Indiana native who visited relatives in southwest Florida earlier this year as part of his effort to recover from the trauma of military service in Iraq.

The reporting flaws begin on the first page: The reporter — an “assistant editor” — says 20 percent, or “120,000,” of 800,000 returning soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq since 2002 have been diagnosed with a mental-health condition. His math error is picked up and featured in a box on jump — but there’s not one mention of how the man’s death is causing people to look closely at the PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder).

The first and only expert the reporter quotes is Ira Katz, Veterans Administration deputy chief patient care services officer, saying “Any number is high, but we expect we can manage it with the funding available.” So Katz is not the one taking the “closer look” at the system because of this marine’s death, as the writer/editor promises.

Turning to the jump, the inside headline reiterates: “Eric Hall case prompts a closer look at PTSD.” But instead of addressing that promise, the reporter tells readers the marine’s hometown is “quaint,” while offering no evidence for this assessment. (A quick trip to the town’s historic-preservation committee Web site finds phrases like “architectural indifference is not hard to find downtown,” and longish descriptions of a riverfront town struggling to preserve its past.)

The second “expert” interviewed is identified only as Charlie Shaughnessy, a Vietnam vet. No city, no middle initial, no age, no address, nothing but a diminutive nickname. Is he local? What’s his area of expertise? Was this character made up? readers might well ask.

Ok, this is getting tedious. The punch line is that somewhere south of the 65th paragraph, readers learn the marine’s mother “does not want to see the same thing happen to other young men.” The news on which the headlines seem to be based is:

[She] is in the process of establishing the Eric Hall Memorial Fund to help veterans and their families. Although tentative, the fund would provide money for returning soldiers to assist with their transition home. It would push for tougher legislation to increase the decompression phase to a minimum of 60 days, and allow family members to be present so they can better understand the issues [...] Hall also wants to enact legislation so every soldier is registered with the VA for any present or future combat related illness.

The initiative is already receiving national support. Locally, two major fund raising events are scheduled for the summer and fall.

Sorry, that’s not enough. Everything is “tentative.” Most important, the reporter gives no evidence to support his assertion that the “initiative” is receiving “national support.” There is not one substantial connection in the whole story to tie the local death to a national examination of PTSD afflicted veterans.

This Charlotte Sun feature is big on promises but Assistant Editor Jason Witz fails to deliver. In that failure, he and the paper conspire to exploit a man’s death for not much.