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N&R: Skewing conservative

As noted, we did not publish much more than a mention of Sen. Kennedy's death on our front page this morning. That caused one reader to send me this note:

The N&R is really just a right-wing rag. Admit it.

Not coincidentally, my friend Steve Buttry, all the way over in Iowa, predicted that reaction when he said via Twitter: Decision not to put Kennedy death on front page will be read as political, not just decision based on timing.

Politics didn't have anything to do with the decision, and to me, being called conservative isn't an insult. But I object to anyone calling us a rag.

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Tags: politics, News judgment

Posted by John Robinson on Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 9:37 am

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Gerald Witt

August 27, 2009 - 9:59 am EDT

A rag? Seriously. Newsprint isn't that absorbent.

Mike Fuchs

August 27, 2009 - 11:11 am EDT

But your government stories? Very absorbing.

brian444

August 27, 2009 - 12:29 pm EDT

Well, I'd disagree with the conservative part, but not necessarily with the rag part. You put Michael Jackson on the front page and offered a frameable print of him. Kennedy, arguably the most important senator of the last half century, gets sent elsewhere. The message: you're trending toward Entertainment Weekly, not the National Review. As a marketing question, maybe you did the right thing. As a question of hard news, bad call, whatever the lack of a local angle.

John Robinson

August 27, 2009 - 1:35 pm EDT

Thanks, Brian. Michael Jackson died "on our cycle." That is, it was about 6:30 p.m. Kennedy died at such a time that it would be 30 hours before we could publish the first word in the paper. There was plenty of time for people to watch the coverage on television so that I wonder at the "hard news" you refer to. (I suspect that more people around here were emotionally affected by Jackson's death than Kennedy's but that's arguable. They certainly were more surprised, given that anyone who cared knew that Kennedy's days were numbered.)

That said, what kind of story about him did you want to read on the front page?

brian444

August 27, 2009 - 11:13 pm EDT

In response to your comment below and to this, a standard retrospective would be fine. And no, I don't really want to read the story: I've formed my opinion about Kennedy a long time ago, and I doubt I'd learn much new. And, yes, I use "hard news" incorrectly above.

Still, even when it's off-cycle, even when the event is expected, even when there's little new to say, even if the Thrillerphilics don't care, the death of a major politician should be on the front page. It's a matter of priorities. Kennedy has his fingers all over modern America (civil rights, OSHA, No Child, Bork, etc.), and a newspaper should, IMO, register that publicly. Your argument, so far as I can tell, is that people wanted to read about Michael Jackson, but not so much about Kennedy: hence their respective placement and presence/absence of frameable keepsakes. (On the affect issue, who cares? More people are "emotionally affected" by the latest episode of American Idol than anything happening in Raleigh or DC.) Now, as you indicated at the time, you were a little squeamish about your MJ coverage, but in the end, we saw a lot of it. Similarly, your story on the loop will be as true and timely tomorrow as today (unless you're in a mad dash with the Rhino to break the story), but Ted Kennedy will only die once.

John Robinson

August 28, 2009 - 8:50 am EDT

Thanks. All interesting points. The only one quibble I'd make is on Michael Jackson. I wouldn't compare the two myself because they are so different. It's more than timeliness on Kennedy. His death was imminent; MJ's was a surprise. Jackson's death was suspicious; Kennedy's wasn't. Emotional impact is an important consideration, too. Finally, I don't think we did more on Jackson in the first issue that we did on Kennedy yesterday, except that we published it on the front page.

Doug Johnson

August 27, 2009 - 12:34 pm EDT

Calling you a conservative is a insult to me as a conservative.
Makes me wonder out loud if they have ever read this paper.
May be this person is drinking his corn, rather than eating it!

Dogwood

August 27, 2009 - 3:41 pm EDT

Senator Kennedy came to North Carolina over 18 months ago for surgery to remove a death tumor. He chose Duke. He knew his prognosis and sought out the best compassionate and caring physician in the nation. No one survives his diagnosis long. Medical science is trying hard to stop this terrible life sentence.
Front page middle-page rag conservative liberal bird cage filler is blather not to worry about.

Beachwalk

August 27, 2009 - 6:41 pm EDT

" Senator Kennedy came to North Carolina over 18 months ago for surgery to remove a death tumor. He chose Duke. He knew his prognosis and sought out the best compassionate and caring physician in the nation."

He chose....
Something we will not have the opportunity to do under obamacare.

John Robinson

August 27, 2009 - 6:43 pm EDT

Not true, Beachwalk.

PWS24

August 27, 2009 - 8:18 pm EDT

Guess it depends on one's definition of news. The stories that made the front page instead of Kennedy's death were worthy, but I didn't hear any of them brought up in discussion at my workplace or among a group of friends I ate lunch with today. Kennedy's death was mentioned several times -- for whatever that is worth in determining "widespread interest."

I agree running a straight news story on the front page would have been rehashing an "old" story. A feature-type or analysis would have been worthy, though, IMO.

John Robinson

August 27, 2009 - 9:58 pm EDT

This may mean nothing, but I'm struck that in all the comments on this post and the previous one, while people have said that they think the story belongs on the front page, no one has said that they actually wanted to "read" a story about Ted Kennedy on the front page.