news-record.com

Skip to the site menu
Skip to search

BLOGS

The Editor's Log

The death of an officer

I have heard from several people dismayed that we have not been publishing stories about the shooting and now death of the Winston-Salem police officer on our newspaper front page.

One man wrote me: I find it very sad and most disturbing that the story about the death of Officer Hutchens of the WS Police Dept was not found until page four in the “local briefs” section, while the “Laramie Project” story was on page two with the large headline and accompanying photo. You have indicated to me that local news is now the “niche” of the N and R. I do not know what could have possibly been more headline-worthy (front page in my estimation) than that of Officer Hutchens’ death.

I know this will disturb the Triadistas among us, but we don't consider Winston-Salem local. We don't sell papers there, we don't have a reporter there, and we don't cover news there with any routine. Mostly, we write about events in Forsyth County on the front page when they have a greater impact on Guilford County. The Dell closing is the most recent example.

Still, I understand that "local" extends further than geography. Consequently, we have published wire stories about the shooting since it occurred, as we should have. (The announcement of the officer's death came close to our deadline which restricted our ability to display the story more prominently, but it would have remained on an inside page.)

Our coverage is not intended as a sign of disrespect to the officers. We mourn whenever an officer is killed in the line of duty. Had the shooting occurred in Greensboro, our coverage would have been vastly different. .
Posted by John Robinson on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 8:57 am

Other Recent Entries

Comments

View Comments

This article has been closed to new comments. Comments are generally closed after 14 days. However, comments may be closed earlier at the discretion of the News & Record.

Inappropriate content? Please report abuse.

Advertisement | Advertise with Us

Soccer Mom

October 13, 2009 - 9:43 am EDT

Yes, but you have a number of people in your readership area who work in Forsyth County and your online readership extends well beyond the walls of Greensboro's city limits. This should've been a local front story -- even if below the fold -- and I'm more than certain that officers here in Greensboro will attend Sgt. Hutchens services.

John Robinson

October 13, 2009 - 12:40 pm EDT

Thanks. I will point out that the story is on the "front page" of the Web site in a prominent spot.

Interested

October 13, 2009 - 11:11 am EDT

I understand the paper's thought on the matter. But coming from a small community, I have to side with the W-S community. While you consider yourself a Greensboro paper, there are many outside communities that consider the Greensboro paper their primary paper. While we understand that our news will seldom be front-page worthy, I do believe this story would be the exception. For example, the Randolph county Courier-Tribune is primarily an Asheboro/Randolph County paper, it understands that it has a large readership in nearby Montgomery County. When a news story from that county merits it, it receives front page coverage. While this does not occur frequently, it does occur. I see it as a sign of respect for its customer base. Perhaps a viewpoint for you to consider should something of this import occur again. To relegate this story to page four was disrespectful to the officer's family and colleagues as well as to your readership at large in their community.

John Robinson

October 13, 2009 - 12:44 pm EDT

I don't disagree, Interested. If this had occurred in Randolph, Rockingham or Alamance counties -- God forbid -- our coverage decisions would be different. But we don't have a large readership in Forsyth County, and even fewer in Winston. (We don't deliver there and have few, if any, single copy boxes.)

In effect, I think you're saying that it should have been on the front page for our Guilford County readers, which is fine. I just want to make sure that I understand your point clearly.

Interested

October 13, 2009 - 2:42 pm EDT

Yes, my point was that this story probably should have received front page coverage, even if below the fold. It has been twenty years since I lived in W-S, and I only lived there for one year, so I don't know how prominent the N-R is in the area. But I've always felt like the N-R was THE paper of the Triad. Knowing how infrequently officers are killed in the line of duty, but understanding the tremendous impact their death carries, I do feel like it would have been appropriate.

John Robinson

October 13, 2009 - 3:48 pm EDT

Got it. That's helpful. Thanks.

histrion

October 13, 2009 - 11:32 am EDT

I've got to agree. There's "locally focused," and then there's "isolationist". Our sister city's only 20 minutes away from us. I don't particularly care to hear about every decision their city council makes, but I think this kind of story rises to the level of locally pertinent and front-page worthy.

John Robinson

October 13, 2009 - 1:17 pm EDT

Just FYI:
Our primary wire source for news out of Winston, the AP, sent us a 4-inch long story at 10:14 p.m. and a 7-inch long story at 11:42 p.m.

Soccer Mom

October 13, 2009 - 6:02 pm EDT

A compelling human interest story in our area (whether it was a G'boro officer or not) warrants good planning and even better anticipation of follow-ups. To only rely on wire copy for updates on this story was a disservice to your readers. It's this type of story that deserved the extra effort on the front end.

kraf6652@bellsouth.net

October 14, 2009 - 11:30 am EDT

Excuses, Excuses, and more Excuses as to why we CANNOT show compassion for a family whose husband, father, brother, uncle, nephew has been brutally shot down by a street thug that has never done anything for his community but commit crime. I'm so fed up with excuses over and over as to why we CANNOT do something right for a change. I ask why is it so hard to just reach out and say something about someone that did great things for his community on the FRONT PAGE OF and yes, A LOCAL NEWSPAPER. This is absurd and we the people of Greensboro should stand up and boycott the Greensboro News and Record for absolutely and utterly disrespecting Sgt Hutchens and his family. I'm disgraced once again by your newspaper and you not having the heart to honor this man on the front page of the N&R. What a total disgrace you are to our community. This isn't about N&R not being in W-S, this is about a human life that was taken from us by a common street thug. There are people that work in Greensboro that live in W-S. Sgt Hutchens if ever needed to come to YOUR aid in GREENSBORO, he surely would not have listed reasons why he could not help you he would have just been there. You should be embarrassed by your comments. But it doesn't surprise me in the least. The News and Record would support special interest before honoring a fallen officer in a neighboring city. If this situation had been a white thug that shot down a black 27 yr veteran you would have it all over the front page. You disgust me. How can you sleep at night.…?

Andrew Brod

October 14, 2009 - 12:25 pm EDT

Disgusted? Let's get some perspective here. We all agree that the officer's death is horrible, and we should all thank the police and sheriff's officers who protect us, something I'd guess that few of us actually do. But reporting the news isn't tantamount to respect or disrespect. It would appear from kraf6652's long post that he/she knows a good deal about the shooting, even without the N&R devoting more column-inches to the story.

John, it's clear that what kraf6652 and the other angry ones are telling you is that what happens over in Winston is news over here, at least when it's big. What's unclear is how you do that. The angry ones aren't satisfied with wire copy, but it isn't cost-effective to put a reporter over there because as you note, you sell virtually no newspapers in Winston. And I doubt the Journal would agree to an arrangement under which you'd run their locally reported stories as "special to the N&R" (and vice versa).

In a perfect world, perhaps the N&R would indeed do more reporting of stories like this. But given the constraints newspapers operate under these days, it may be that the only way for this to happen is for folks to pay more for their newspaper. I'll bet the angry ones aren't up for that.

In any case, if we're going to be compassionate people (and I think we should be), it's hard to square that with the anger exhibited on this blog entry.

Andrew Brod

October 14, 2009 - 12:27 pm EDT

To be fair, I suppose it's only kraf6652 who's angry. The others have their disagreements with John, but they're civil.

Interested

October 14, 2009 - 3:08 pm EDT

kraf6652 - While I clearly (as per my posts) do think it would have been appropriate to make this a front page story, your anger seems way out of proportion.

kraf6652@bellsouth.net

October 14, 2009 - 5:29 pm EDT

"anger seems way out of proportion", so tell me a human life only deserves some anger? How do you measure anger and when it is too much or too little when it comes to a human life. I don't understand what you mean by this comment. Please elaborate.

Interested

October 14, 2009 - 7:10 pm EDT

I understand your anger concerning this senseless death. I was actually referring to the anger concerning the story not being on the front page. Disappointment, surprise, disgrace - these feelings I could understand. But you seem to be almost as angry with the N-R as you are with the man who shot Officer Hutchens.

kraf6652@bellsouth.net

October 14, 2009 - 5:18 pm EDT

Here is my perspective Mr. Brod, the shooting death of Sgt. Hutchens did in fact make our News and Record; however, the editor felt his life was only worth page 4 and a couple of inches.

By the way, I got my information from Fox News channel. And by your accounting of how much I know about what happen means that I don’t need to buy the News and Record anymore. Because they don’t report stories as well as Fox News.

I ask you how you can put a price on Mr. Hutchens’ life and a page number. I just hope and pray for you and your family that you are not this inconsiderate toward others.

John Robinson

October 14, 2009 - 6:06 pm EDT

I understand your anger. We disagree on where the story should have been played in the newspaper. That happens with readers every day. The one point of clarification I want to make is that we did not make a judgment about the officer's life. We made a judgment based on what we considered the news value of the story. There's a huge difference.

kraf6652@bellsouth.net

October 14, 2009 - 7:33 pm EDT

Mr. Robinson, with all due respect this isn't about a page number and it should not have even been a "judgment".
Once again, you are still measuring Sgt. Hutchens' life "to the value of the story". I ask you if a Hollywood star (3000 miles away) was killed would the story be on the front page of the N&R? More than likely, yes. Why, because it sells and the bottom line here is all about money not about a human life.

Grow a heart Mr. Robinson! I hope that some common street thug with a gun doesn't gun down one of your family members and that the local newspaper in the neighboring city feels the "value of the story" is more important than your family member you just buried.

John Robinson

October 14, 2009 - 7:52 pm EDT

I agree with you that this isn't about a page number. I never wanted to make it about a page number. I only brought it up because some people seemed to think that the only important page number is A1 and anything else is disrespectful and demeans Sgt. Hutchens' life. I don't. (Many Hollywood stars are killed and don't make the front page of the N&R.

In fact, putting Sgt. Hutchens on the front page WOULD have sold papers. Not putting it on the front page doesn't sell papers.

I'm not sure how to respond to your statement that I think the "value of the story" is more important than Sgt. Hutchens. I can't think of any story that is more important than the life of a person. But then, we don't ever judge the two against each other in the way you're suggesting we do. We decide what stories we think our readers are interested in, which ones are important to them, and which ones we can deliver that they can't get on television.

I appreciate your disagreement with that judgment, but suggesting that it is based on an idea that we don't respect the job that Sgt. Hutchens or the way he lived his life is simple wrong.

kraf6652@bellsouth.net

October 14, 2009 - 8:14 pm EDT

Well, needless to say, I do believe that you've been beaten up pretty badly by your readers for this really bad judgment call and I hope you have learned a valuable lesson. I wish you a graceful recovery from this mistake and in the future will use this as an example when you make your "judgment" calls. News of this caliber should always be first priority, always first, front and center no matter what.

John Robinson

October 14, 2009 - 8:34 pm EDT

Well, let me ask you this: When you say "news of this caliber" what caliber do you mean? Whenever a police officer is killed in the line of duty in a nearby city? How near or far? Winston, yes, but what about, say, Charlotte? Or Southern Pines? Would you put the death of a soldier from, say Mt. Airy or Winston on the front page? Or a firefighter? Is it any public servant? Like, if it were a council member in Winston? City manager? And is it just the death? (I didn't hear from anyone that the story belonged on the front page until Sgt. Hutchens died.)

I ask these questions in complete seriousness. These are the sorts of things we must weigh because they are judgments calls.

kraf6652@bellsouth.net

October 14, 2009 - 9:58 pm EDT

Mr. Robinson, it is only fair to you that I share with you, I am a wife of a city police officer, but not for Winston Salem. As for your question about "news of this caliber" and that you said it does sell newspapers, sure it should be reported front and center. I expected more from the News and Record.
We refer to our area as the triad area, W-S, GSO and HP. It is important that all of our local newspapers report about "news of this caliber" as priority and it should not be a judgment call or even a question. This is serious business. When someone that has given 27 years of his/her life to a community why would we not want to report on it front and center? As far as a soldier, firefighter, or a council member of our triad area, yes I would expect that my local paper would want me to know about it first thing. I hope this helps.

that_cant_be_right

October 15, 2009 - 4:07 pm EDT

"As far as a soldier, firefighter, or a council member of our triad area, yes I would expect that my local paper would want me to know about it first thing. I hope this helps."

That did leave part of John's question unanswered. Are those the only 4 lines of work that make the front? Because once any line is crossed by the paper, they can be held accountable in the future. I understand that you are the wife of an officer, and I think everyone here can agree that officers do a service that cannot be measured, but there are other professions that can be just as vital.

kraf6652@bellsouth.net

October 16, 2009 - 8:18 am EDT

I apologize to you because what I meant to say was "yes," (to the question) that all of those folks deserve to be first priority front and center. Any life should be first priority. After I re-read how I wrote my comment I realized that I had implied the wrong meaning as to what my point was about. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Sorry for the confusion.

kraf6652@bellsouth.net

October 14, 2009 - 5:24 pm EDT

Yes, I'm outraged that our local paper did report the story; however, the editor felt that Sgt Hutchens' life did not deserve front page cover. I'm sorry, but we are talking about a human life and for Sgt Hutchens' life to be taken so tragically should not be "tantamount" to selling papers.

John Robinson

October 14, 2009 - 1:17 pm EDT

Thanks, Andy.

I'm still learning about when readers expect to see a story on the front page out of respect versus when it is news to them.

Given television's coverage of the crime and death, we certainly weren't going to tell readers anything that they didn't already know. So, like Sen. Kennedy's death, some people think it belonged on the front page to honor the service of the fallen. I understand that. I just wasn't aware that sentiment reached to someone in another city whom they probably weren't aware of until the shooting. I do now.

eMail Updates

Learn More
Advertisement | Advertise with Us

Featured Ads

Search

Advertisement | Advertise with Us
Advertisement | Advertise with Us
Advertisement | Advertise with Us

News & Record Network Sites

User Tools

  • Social Networking
  • RSS
  • Share
  • Sign in to MyNR

Search