Tom Marquardt’s “Editor's desk” is perhaps the most refreshing and worthy change to come to our local daily in years. For those of you who may not know, he is the executive editor who took over from Ed Casey some years ago. And if that does not jog your memory, he writes the wine (that's w-i-n-e not w-h-i-n-e column.) Consider this selection which appeared in Sunday, January 28:
"Mistakes left an impression of bias in joblessness story
Editors often wonder why readers think news stories are biased. Reporters struggle to keep their opinions out of stories and make sure all sides are represented. But sometimes a run of mistakes can reverse the most earnest attempts to avoid any appearance of bias.Take a recent Business section story on the jobless rate in Anne Arundel County (The Sunday Capital, Jan. 14). Our critics faulted it as a terribly skewed presentation of an obviously positive story - and they were on target.The story reported that unemployment in the county was 3.4 percent - which is full employment, by most standards. To give some human dimensions to what otherwise promised to be a dull recitation of statistics, the reporter talked to an unemployed professional who was having difficulty making ends meet.Such well-intentioned anecdotal leads often backfire because they appear to telegraph the reporter's sympathies. In this case, a story about an exceptionally strong employment picture would have been better served by an interview with someone who was happily employed.The headline was "Nearly 10,000 jobless in Anne Arundel." Sounds bleak, doesn't it? The right headline would have been: "Anne Arundel jobless rate at five-year low."Finally, there was the graph on unemployment rates, which showed the progression of years from right to left - an unorthodox setup, as we're all used to reading English from left to right. Instead of clearly showing Maryland's jobless rate declining from a high of 4.5 percent in 2002 to a low of 3.9 percent in 2006, the graph could easily be misread as showing joblessness going up.Wrote a Severna Park reader (The Capital, Jan. 17), "I congratulate you for your ability to use graphics to bend facts to fit a story. … I would never have realized that one could make it appear, despite actual numbers to the contrary, that county unemployment is rising rapidly."Wrote another reader, "The graph plots time backward, something that is never done. Was it done this way so as to mislead the casual reader into thinking that, under a Republican governor, the unemployment rate increased? I am not one to imagine monsters in the dark, or see things in a jaundiced way, but why in heaven's name would one plot the x-axis in reverse?"We were sloppy on this one. My apologies.”
What a welcome breath of fresh air--admitting they were sloppy and apologizing for it. Annapolis and AA county folks who love to bash The Capital will do well to follow the various changes Marquardt has brought to the paper over the years and to read his weekly “desk” piece. Now, if only we could get rid of Smith and Gross….
Bay Daily on Hiatus
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Congratulations to Bay Daily creator, Tom Pelton, who has accepted a
position with another organization working to make the world a better
place. In his ab...
10 years ago
4 Comments:
I love my job, ASSHOLE.
Well, Joe, who would not love your job? You can write whatever you want, without any regard to facts and without any accountability and you get paid for it! We the readers of The Capital, have suffered your vapid and inane writings, and along comes a fellow who publishes a blog (without pay, mind you), and you finally get to tell readers what you have really thought of us for all these years. Way to go, Joe.
I love the statement "avoid any appearance of bias." Of course this is one of the most important aspects of maintaining their "Integrity" as a local purveyor of the social cajoling apparatus that the for-profit media has become. Now, if they earnestly avoided slanting issues to uphold the "appearance" that this walk over defenseless people for profit-imperialist-fake democracy rogue nation is so determined to maintain. True news is reported by independents (and bloggers), not the beholden-to-capital-interests press. And yes, it has a slant, and honest reporting doesn't need to "appear" as if it doesn't. Now, if the public would only stop subscribing to rags that only publish what the government-approved media wanted, their capital would control the media, but since America's schools have failed so miserably to educate the public enough that they realize they must figure out for themselves what real news is, all we have is a populace that prefers to be spoon-fed propaganda instead of researching the real news. Thank you.
Big Willie: Well, thanks for making use of the free blogosphere to comment--and for the critique of the hegemonic, mass media culture, a la shades of Marcuse, Marx, Frankfurt School, Baltzell, Bagdikian, Chomsky etc., etc. Of course, the use of the terms Capital Punishment, The Capital, capital and Das Kapital has not been lost. I don't completely agree with your analysis, but we cannot forget the wealth and power connections of former Capital owner and publisher, Phil Merrill, who killed himself last year while sailing (and followed by a massive, taxpayer funded search. if it had been me or you, they might have sent out Gilliagn in a rubber boat..). Keep on reading, writing and speaking truth to power. Blows against the empire! Fight the machine! Down with Yankee imperialist dogs and...oh yeah, please, don't forget to patronize our greedy advertisers who make this all possible.
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