An obit for a dog

This is a first for us. An obituary submitted for a dog. As much as I love dogs, our obituary section in the Tracy Press is reserved for people. However, I sense that this was one very special bassett hound whose family is grieving. So here's his obit here, written by his family in Tracy.

Steve Warn
Sept. 1, 1994 - Oct. 6, 2005
Steve Warn passed away at home surrounded by the family that loved him. He was a best friend to Aaron Taylor, Mike, Kathy and Daisy. He loved peanut butter toast, short walks to roll in smelly things and having his belly rubbed. He will be missed and never forgotten.

Imagine this mistake

I just read that a Gannett newspaper in Wisconsin is being sued over a mistake it made in a banner headline that read: "Former gas station owner may have been 9/11 plotter." Actually, he was only an "applauder," according to federal officials.
Before I make a smug comment, though, I must remind myself that we've made some bloopers in the Tracy Press, too.

We're human. We goof up, and when we find out about it, we run a correction.
Sometimes we're not sure how we made the mistake. Maybe we got the wrong information from a source, or in a hurry to make deadline, we misstated or misrepresented something.
Our most recent correction was this: "Concerning a Page 4 story in Thursday’s Tracy Press titled, 'Trustees dress for success in front of cameras,' Tracy Unified Board Trustee James Vaughn disputed the assertion that he has worn sweat suits to board meetings."
The story was about how appearances mattered during the first school board meeting to be aired on cable Channel 26. The reporter mentioned that the school board member has worn sweatsuits to board meetings in the past but that he was sharply dressed in a button-down shirt and necktie for the first televised meeting.
When the story ran in Friday's TP, Vaughn called and demanded a correction, saying he has never worn anything so casual to a board meeting since he was elected last November. He said that we could ask anyone if they've ever seen him wear sweatsuits to a board meeting.
We did, and they hadn't.
We stand corrected.

Multi-tasking media maniacs

Do find yourself reading a newspaper at the same time that you're watching TV and listening to tunes on your iPod? Or talking on your cell phone while checking your e-mail on your laptop and listening to talk radio?
A recent study out of Ball State University shows that you're not the only one. Consuming media is now the No. 1 activity in America. We spend more time watching TV, talking on the phone, reading magazines and newspapers and surfing the Internet than anything else. And a third of "media time" involves multiple media feeds.
I'm really happy that newspapers are in the mix.

Metaphor of mucking stalls

Here's how I'm learning how to be a good blogger. My son's e-mail just traveled across the country to tell me this:

"About the your editor's blog. It's been four days since you last wrote something. I think you should write something (one, two, three para's) at least every other day. Think of it as a fun chore. The comments can be as off-the-wall as you want, remember. I know you're busy, but even a few sentences will do. And don't think too hard about it. Write whatever comes to mind. Just plop it down. Like mucking stalls, it might be annoying/tedious at first, but
you'll start to see the tedium as calming and even enjoyable. Catharsis is what blogs are truly about."

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Posted by: Tom Benigno at October 12, 2005 06:42 AM

Hooray for you for including a blog in the updates to your website, it is looking much nicer. I agree with your son, blog something every day or two, at least!
:)

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If it wasn't for our children we might never succeed.

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Calling foul on the sport of cussing

Editor's Notes

I promised to take a cursory look today at cussing in the newspaper.

It all started with a story we ran recently about three high school football players. We wanted to write a slice of their life, let them use their own words to describe what they do in their free time. We didn’t want to censor them. We didn’t want to be stodgy.

We let them swear in print.

Before and after we published the story, we discussed among our editing ranks whether to include conversation that contained a four-letter word used by George Carlin. You remember his “Seven Dirty Words” comic monologue and the words he said would infect your soul, curve your spine and keep the country from winning the war?

Those seven words were from 1973, of course, and this is now, when we would argue that the range of acceptable vocabulary has stretched just as the rules of polite society and forbidden speech have blurred.

Shouldn’t we thus embrace the youth with their verbal vulgarity?

Editors who have mentored me for years said no, in no uncertain terms. Not by quoting them verbatim.

And so did readers. One wrote me a letter to say the whole story was tasteless.

“These boys deserve nothing less than a public apology.”

Another said that the newspaper should have taken the high road when quoting them.

“Kids will say things that aren’t always appropriate, but as the adult present, the Press should realize what should and shouldn’t be put in the paper.”

Even if the story had been about an adult, several callers and e-mailers agreed, the crude expressions added nothing. They should have been paraphrased or, better yet, zapped.

Suffice it to say that I was wrong to allow a story to run that had so much potential to offend readers of all sensibilities, from the mother of one of the boys, to the boys’ coach and athletic director, to the superintendent of schools.

After several sit-down discussions, our editorial policy, from this day forward, will be to err on the side of caution when it comes to language. We’re putting a lid on those seven dirty words and other polluters.

That doesn’t mean that we are going to shy away from accurate reporting or edit in euphemisms. We’ll simply weigh the newsworthiness of expletives against concerns about community standards.

And in the future, when reporters raise red flags about the intemperate remarks of their sources, teen or grownup, we’ll remind them of the story of the three young football players — and of our cursory look at cussing that led to a policy about dirty words.

Posted by cmatthews at October 1, 2005 05:03 PM

Hi Cheri,

I am not so sure it was a mistake to run the article - while I understand the feelings of the parents, maybe there wasn't anything else to print from the interview - unfortunately, it didn't sound like the boys had anything intelligent to say. I think that the parents need to talk to their sons about the language they chose to use in an interview, and not blame the Tracy Press for printing it.

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