Report to Readers by Susan LoTempio

You can't make that stuff up

   Apparently, we hit some nerves with two recent stories.  One was written by our religion reporter, Jay Tokasz, about a lawsuit filed in California that claimed the Buffalo Diocese sent a pedophile priest to San Diego in the late 1970s.

   The other was a two-part series, written by reporter Stephen T. Watson, which explained how prostitution has been changed by the Web and other high-tech advancements. Sunday's Part 1 can be found at this link. And Part 2, which was published Monday, can be found at this link.

If there is a theme to the reader complaints, it would be this: Don't write about such unpleasant things, and they won't exist.

Huh?

Seriously, one person who knew the priest that was the focus of Tokasz's story didn't believe a word of it. She felt he was a fine priest, so we must have made the story up. Maybe the National Enquirer makes things up, but real newspapers don't. Tokasz's report was thoroughly researched, reported and carefully written. And it was based in reality.

As for the prostitution stories, readers complained that by publishing such stories, "we [The News] are part of the problem." And, "the paper has sunk to a new low." And, the stories were just "free advertising" for prostitutes. And, how could we publish "such disgusting stories."

Well, our job is to report what's happening in our community, no matter how upsetting or unpleasant the topic. We write such stories carefully, knowing some readers may be disturbed by the subject matter.

Still, it is our obligation to inform the public of such things. Certainly, ignoring them won't make them go away. It would only make matters worse.

Covering the Prince of Wales

   One reader - who may or may not only read the Sunday News - is wondering why there wasn't a story in Sunday's Sports section about the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie.

It was shameful, he said, that there was no coverage on Sunday, the day of the prestigious race.

Well, Friday, there was an advance story by Sports reporter Robert J. Summers leading up to the race.

And, Saturday, Summers wrote his The Happy Handicapper column about the race.

Monday Sports, of course, featured extensive coverage of the race with two stories.

By Sunday, assuming those interested in the race had already read our coverage, the event was listed in the horse racing round-up.

Where are the weddings and other hot topics

Readers are asking what happened to the wedding and engagement announcements in the Life & Arts section.

  First of all, they have not been dropped. Rather, they were moved in January to a new feature called Celebrations, which runs Sunday in the Spotlight section.

Traditionally in the first quarter of the year, there are very few weddings. The reason? Weather and the season of Lent.

Wedding and engagement announcements are a paid service now, but we've checked our records and there have been about the same number of announcements published so far this year compared to last year. In other words, there weren't many either year.

From May to October, the big wedding season, you will see the many happy faces of local brides and grooms on our pages.

Now, back to that other pressing issue:  Sabres commemorative medallions: We will be getting more albums, and you will be able to order them with the same coupon used for ordering the medallions that local stores ran out of. The coupon will be published in The News on April 18 and April 19.

Also: Thanks to Libby56 for the comments she made on this blog. She's right, I do take a lot of complaints, criticism and angry comments each day, not just on the blog but also on The News' Reader Hotline. And they don't pay me enough!

As for Libby56's question about the steps required to sign in for blog comments, most Web sites require some type of registration. It helps cut down on spam and offers other necessary protections.

We'd like to see more comments on all The News' blogs, and we're hoping that registering won't inhibit people from commenting.

   

Headlinese

A thoughtful reader wondered about a headline he bumped into on Page D3 of the March 3 Buffalo News.
  Actually, the headline stopped him in his tracks.
  The story was about an incident between two students at Clarence High School prompted, according to authorities, by an alleged racial remark. One student was white, the other black, and whatever the alleged remark was, it was apparently made before Christmas, though the incident took place in early March.
When the story was written, the black student had been suspended for five days because he did the hitting. The white student was not suspended because, according to school officials, he did not hit back. But, the school district said it would investigate allegations that it was the white student who   made the racial remark, and if true, would lead to discipline for that student, too.
OK, that's the background of the story. The caller, however, was more upset by the headline, which said: "Black student suspended after incident at high school/District to investigate alleged racial remark."
  Why, the caller wanted to know, did the headline have to say "Black student"?
It implies that "black kids are trouble no matter where they are," he added.
  Instead, couldn't the headline have said, "Student suspended for incident at high school following alleged racial remark." At least that wording would not imply black is obviously guilty.
I'd bet the headline writer (who, by the way is not the same person who writes the story) chose those words because the suspension was the newsiest angle of the story. And often at the crush of deadline, the broader implications of headline wording can be overlooked.
Do I wish it had been written more carefully? Yes, because newspapers should be very careful not to  reinforce stereotypes.
There's also the issues of fairness and accuracy because the headline squarely puts the blame on one student, even though there were two students involved. When the investigation is complete, they both may be equally at fault.