Sunday, October 11, 2009
From the Newsroom: Placement of pictures easy as ABC
From the newsroom
Michael Stowe, managing editor
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A reader sent me an e-mail recently accusing the newsroom of political bias in our coverage.
He pointed out how Democrat Creigh Deeds' photo ran above Republican Bob McDonnell's photo in a front-page story detailing the gubernatorial candidates plans for improving schools. Because of that placement, only Deeds' photo could be seen when the paper was folded in newspaper racks.
"You see, your liberal slant on everything makes all of us think that something as simple as this has a political reason," he wrote. "My entire Hardee's biscuit and coffee group this morning thought so."
He's right that only Deeds' mugshot -- a newspaper term for a small photo inset in a story -- was visible above the fold.
He's wrong about why it happened. That decision on which candidate's photo to place on top was made based on the candidates last names, not their political leanings.
Here's one of the election coverage guidelines we ask editors to follow when putting the newspaper together: If candidate mugshots are to accompany a story, include photos of all candidates for the race in question and run them in alphabetical order, top to bottom or left to right. All the photos should be the same size and have the same room to write mugshot information.
That also explains why Republican John McCain's photo sometimes ran above Democrat Barack Obama's photo during last year's presidential campaign.
We strive to be fair in our political coverage. Over the course of an entire campaign, we work to devote equal space telling readers about each major party candidate's background, campaign finance, position on issues, etc. The amount of coverage each candidate gets can vary day to day, however, based on the news candidates make by what they do or say.
That reader's e-mail reminded me that our efforts at impartiality -- or at least the rationale for how we make the decisions we do -- aren't always transparent.
Our coverage plans for this year's statewide elections were developed in partnership with our sister paper in Norfolk, The Virginian-Pilot. For the past five Sundays we've published front-page stories on issues important to voters -- K-12 education, higher education, the environment, transportation and managing the state budget. In Monday's paper we'll report the candidates' voting records on social issues, including guns, gay rights, the death penalty and abortion rights.
I hope you've already read reporter Michael Sluss' profile of Deeds that starts on today's front page. As our Richmond reporter, Sluss has covered Deeds closely over the past nine years. In the past several months he's spent countless hours on the campaign trail with the Bath County politician to produce a story that details how Deeds' rural background shaped his career and how it might affect his administration if he's elected governor.
On next Sunday's front page, reporter Julian Walker will profile McDonnell. Walker is the Richmond reporter for The Virginian-Pilot. There were multiple planning meetings to make sure these profiles were given equal treatment in print and online: the same length, the same tone, the same number of pictures.
We talked about running them side by side on the same day but decided that was too much content for one day and that it was better to run them on consecutive Sundays. We started today so that neither one published too close to Election Day on Nov. 3.
How did we decide which candidate to profile first?
You guessed it: alphabetical.
Another chance to vote
It's not too late to vote online to help determine the Ultimate Hokie Fan. Go to roanoke.com/contest to watch the 19 video entries. As reporter Neil Harvey wrote in Friday's paper, they feature singing triplets, a cyborg Hokie Bird, ESPN sportscaster John Anderson, cheerleading toddlers, the ghost of Spartan King Leonidas and lots of orange and maroon. Add your vote to the more than 4,100 that have already been cast.
