Otterblog

When I stepped outside this morning with the dog to get the paper, there was a little nip to the air. The dew was heavy. The leaves were rustling. All signs pointed to one undeniable truth: The Dixie Classic Fair is back in town. So today, at least for this post, we’ll forget about journalism per se and I will give you five reasons why I love the fair.

1) The agricultural competitions. Where else do people square off over who has a better sweet potato? One of my most cherished possessions is the ribbon I won in 1994 for a decorated gourd. Not quite the Pulitzer Prize, but it’s up there.

2) The crowds. We all live in a fragmented society. You can spend your whole life in Forsyth County and never get to Walkertown or New Sherwood Forest or anywhere in between. The fair is one of those great seas of humanity, where you get to see how different and alike we all are.

3) The crafts hall. I am always amazed at the talent there. From the kiddie LEGO displays to the incredible carvings and cheesy photographs of waterfalls and sunsets, it is all great.

4) The Midway. The water pistol races, the knock the bottles down tosses, the ball in the bucket game. They’re a testament to American hucksterism and the idea that everybody else is a sucker except us. And where else can you pay $2 and win something that costs $1.

5) The food. You need to pace yourself so you can eat twice. First, a hotdog and some pinto beans at one of the church or community stands, then out into the larger world of sausage, funnel cakes, kettle corn, deep-fried twinkies and cotton candy. Don’t forget the bag of peanuts for the ride home!

Got a fair story? Let me know. Happy Friday.

Every once in a while, it’s worth remembering all the good that the media and particularly newspapers do. If you listen to the Far Right, we are damaging national security and endangering Americans while we gloat under the protection of the First Amendment. The Far Left says we are kowtowing to the powers that be, afraid to stir the pot and ruffle feathers.

So, here’s a story about how journalism makes a difference in your community. We wrote a piece on Sunday on the Johnston family from Granite Quarry, a little town in Rowan County. Cancer—specifically colon cancer—runs in their family, and our story by Janice Gaston was about the incredibly hard decisions this family has made as they’ve come to learn of the disease in their genes. It’s very powerful and moving and courageous.

Since our story ran, several families with histories of cancer have gone to the hospital to get tested, to be informed of their risks, to know what they’re battling. I hope it turns out well for them. We shine all sorts of lights as journalists. Some expose wrongs or call officials to task for their actions. And some simply push people to seek out their own truths. They’re all equally worthy

Good reading: I’m not a huge fan of Time magazine, but their cover story this week by Michael Weisskopf is exceptional. He’s the Time correspondent who lost his hand in Iraq when he tossed an IED out of the Humvee he was riding in.

I took a call today from a thoughtful person who wanted to know why we published the address of Robert Watson in the newspaper (He’s the teacher charged with more than a dozen counts of sex offenses involving students). The caller’s belief was that publishing the address was unfair and hurtful and embarrassing to his family, that it draws unwanted attention to the neighborhood and that it could lead to a vigilante situation, if somebody wanted to take the law into their own hands.

Newspapers have been publishing the addresses of those charged with crime for as long as I’ve been in the business. It’s so accepted that it’s reflexive. We do it because we always do it. And because we can do it, because that information is part of the arrest warrant. But does that make it right?

I think it’s proper for us to publish addresses of local people charged with crimes. First, an address clears up ambiguity about which person was charged. The phone book lists a half-dozen Robert Watsons in Forsyth County.

Second, crime is a serious matter. And sex crimes are among the most serious. People ought to know what their neighbors are up to. That applies in middle/upper class neighborhoods as well as poor neighborhoods. A two-tier system that used an income test or a ZIP code as a decision on whether to publish an address would be unworkable and unfair.

Third, embarassment and notoriety are unfortunate side effects of publication. But trying to gauge it and set policies around it would be impossible. What embarrasses me might not embarrass you and vice versa. This is not to just throw up our hands and say “We’re done with it all.” Just a sense that as a first step we ought to do what we think is right rather than try to guess people’s reaction to what we think is right.

If you’ve been reading the paper, then you know there is a major investigation underway involving a WSFC teacher. The story broke last week when we got hold of a search warrant that asked to search the teacher’s home computer. From there it’s snowballed into much wider and more serious charges.

You’ll also note that a judge sealed an arrest warrant, which is highly unusual. We negotiated to get that order amended, because we believe that there is information on that warrant that doesn’t name the children that is still valuable for the public to know. This would include how many children are involved. One child is one too many, of course. But is it three or five or 10? That’s what we want to know, and what we believe the public ought to know.

Many people think public records and public-records laws apply just to the media. But they don’t. In fact, if you read the law, which is Chapter 132, you’ll note that the word “newspaper” is never mentioned. The operative word is public. They’re your records.

9X9: I am a serious Sudoku freak. It’s a great brainteaser/unscrambler. We’ve got a new online version of it on JournalNow. Here’s the link. Try it. You’ll be hooked

We get all sorts of budget lines every day from the wire services we subscribe to. Here are two from the same news cycle of the LA Times/Washington Post News Service, known as LATWP.

BUSH-POLL—WASHINGTON—President Bush’s approval rating has
reached its highest level for the year, helping to boost the
Republican Party’s image across a broad range of domestic and national
security issues just seven weeks before this year’s mid-term election,
a new Times/Bloomberg poll has found. Developing, by Ronald Brownstein
(Times).

LAURABUSH _ NEW YORK _ Laura Bush has proved to be a popular and
comforting presence during the nearly six years that her husband has
served as president. But her sustained presence at the center of the
world stage this week is unprecedented, which White House aides are
promoting in the belief that her emerging profile can only help
bolster President Bush’s sagging popularity. 1,150 words, by Michael
A. Fletcher (Post).

So which is it? a) reaching its highest level or b) sagging. You decide!

I answer a lot of email every day. Raves. Complaints, Questions, etc. This is one worth sharing, because the question is interesting. It’s in regard to a story we ran last week about black travel clubs. My response is also included. The writer raises some important questions about coverage and why we do what we do. And I’d like to think that my job isn’t to put him or her in his or her place but to explain where the paper is coming from.

JOURNAL EDITORS-

Please, Please help me understand the reasoning of the recent article (9-15-06) on vacation camaraderie. How outraged would the public,specifically the afro-american community be if your paper advertised and promoted a travel club or ski club or WET(White Entertainment Television) ,etc. designed only for white folks! It is so discouraging to read articles about the afro-americans complaining about racism in the workplace and communities and amazingly there are very proud to organize these clubs and organizations designed strictly for their own ethnic group. If we are ever to move past this sensitive subject of racism let’s drop the promotions of these afore mentioned clubs and organizations!
Thanks for listening,

Dear XXX: Your email was forwarded to me. Thanks for writing. I’ve discussed your comments with several editors here, both black and white. These travel clubs that we wrote about exist for several reasons, even when it comes to vacations. Sometimes, black people feel more comfortable doing things—particularly things that white people don’t often identify with black people, such as skiing—in groups. And clubs etc. that we as the majority may feel are open to everybody don’t feel the same way to minorities. 

You’re right that there is no WET, but the reason BET exists is that network TV did a poor job of producing shows that catered to the tastes of black Americans. Minority groups in America—whether racial, ethnic or religious—have always found strength in their own. That’s something that is sometimes hard for people in the majority to understand, particularly in how it relates to the larger goal of building a society where people are judged by what’s inside rather than outside.

Again, thanks for writing and for reading the Journal.
Best,
Ken Otterbourg
Managing Editor

THOUSAND WORDS: There’s an interesting essay about photos and 9/11 worth reading. It’s from the other WSJ, and it explores the assumptions we bring to a photo before we know what the picture is truly about.

We’re bringing back some market reports in Tuesday’s paper. But they’re not from the NYSE or the AMEX. Instead, they’re crop reports for grain and livestock and the like.

We had gotten a lot of complaints about removing them, and they may have gotten lost in our renovations to the business pages during the past few months. So, they’re back. Agriculture isn’t as important to the local economy as it once was, but there are still a lot of people who make some or part of their living on the farm. Does the world end if we don’t publish the prices of hogs in Siler City? Nope. But it’s slightly diminished.

Just look what happened at the Surry County Fair. You remove the ag from your world at your own peril…

We’re continuing to look at ways to improve the amount of financial information we publish, and we hope to have some news in that area in the not-too-distant future.

NASCAR NATION: If you haven’t, you ought to read our series on NASCAR, which began Sunday. It doesn’t matter if you love the sport or think it’s a 500-mile joke, NASCAR is a force to be reckoned with, and it shapes the South and the US as a whole. The third installment runs tomorrow.

Through the years, we’ve had dozens of exceptional interns come through the Journal newsroom. We’ve hired many of them. They’re bright, young journalists, and because they are so bright and eager, we’ve taken some pleasure in the occasional prank. The best goes like this: We call a reporter over to an editor’s desk and tell them that we’ve just gotten a call that a train has hit a liquor store in Yadkinville. They jump out of their seats, and start making phone calls like crazy. It usually takes only a few minutes for them to learn they’ve been had. Yadkin County has no liquor stores. It has no trains. It’s a great prank, and it NEVER got old.

But now, we have to find a new one. Voters in Yadkinville approved ABC stores yesterday in a referendum (Voters in Jonesville turned them down).

I’m not going to get into an argument about the morality of alcohol, but this is the end of an era (and not just for pranksters). Sometimes, change happens so slowly that you can’t see it. But other times, there is a clear dividing line between the past and present. And the sale of liquor in Yadkin County is one such event. It speaks to the county’s evolution into a more suburban county, more firmly tied to Forsyth than in the past. The Yadkin River is not the Berlin Wall that it used to be from a cultural standpoint. It’s just a muddy river with a couple of bridges.

Good Reads: Why is rebuilding so hard? There are two good articles that explore the problems in the complex redevelopments of New Orleans and Ground Zero. The NOLA piece is in Fortune from a couple of weeks back, and it’s by Charles Mann, who wrote 1491 (an exceptional book about pre-Columbian America ...) and the Ground Zero piece was published in the NYT on Monday and is by a reporter named Deborah Sontag. They are exceptional in their depth and breadth and their willingness to explore the intersection of ego, power, suffering and property. And they make clear that Democracy is a messy, messy process when it comes to dealing with such a huge and emotional undertaking. 

drowning.jpg

Last week’s big local story was the death of two young boys from Stokes County, who drowned in the Dan River. First, they were missing. Then, there was the search. Finally, on Friday, the bodies were found. It is a sad story of two lives lost before they really got started.

Our Saturday paper featured a five-column photo of the boy’s grandmother grieving over their death. I’ve attached it as well (click on drowning.jpg) There’s no tiny bodies here, no death. Just pain. It is not an easy photo to look at. The sadness just overwhelms you. We’ve gotten an email and call or two from people who thought we were cruel and invasive to run this photo.

So why do we run it? There are three reasons, to my mind. First, I believe that one of our missions is to support people in times of suffering. The photo --and the story—speak to our shared obligations to look out for each other in good times and bad. Second, the strong emotion of this photo is a reminder for people to pay close attention to young children. Accidents happen and we can’t watch everybody all the time, but maybe this photo will make a difference somewhere. Third, it is a beautifully composed photograph, with different layers, full of life and death and hope. I keep looking at it and finding new details each and every time.

We had the right to run the photo, but that’s secondary in this situation. The fact that we can do something is almost always irrelevant to our decision-making. I think we had the obligation, which is the important thing.

Trent Lott was Senate Minority Leader and wanted to cut taxes. Liddy Dole had announced she would run for Senate. The NAACP was urging a boycott of a downtown hotel called “Adam’s Mark.” The night before, Forsyth Commissioners had approved putting a $150 mm school bond issue on the November ballot.

The day was Sept. 11, 2001, and that was the front page of the Winston-Salem Journal. A typical day in a typical month. It all seems so long ago. That Sunday, we had begun a multi-day series on the leadership problems in Forsyth County.

The front page from that day is instructive. It’s the end of one era and the beginning of another—for our country and for newspapers. But as with most changes, we didn’t know it at the time. The events of 9/11 were the first true Internet disaster. And just as the first Iraq war cemented cable news as the content provider for real-time news, 9/11 changed the rules for media. Yes, the ‘net had been around and used alot prior to 9/11, but its role and purpose, its ability to absorb and digest and create dialogue, discord, and community became clear on 9/11, and it’s never been the same.

Required reading: I rarely put in plugs for books, but I think that everybody—and I mean everybody—ought to read the report of the 9/11 Commission. It is scrupulously fair and balanced, with a heart-stopping narrative of what took place aboard those planes and on the ground. It is an amazing guide to what happened, why it happened and what went wrong. It is an incredible work of history, of writing and of journalism.