THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 23, 1994 TAG: 9410220028
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
``Teen sentenced to 53 years,'' said the Metro headline Tuesday. But when, asked a reader, is he eligible for parole?
The story was about a 16-year-old, Curtis Brandon, sentenced for the shooting of a pizza delivery man.
The story gave details of the sentence but not a parole date. ``I think what the public wants to know is just how much time this guy. . . will really serve,'' said the caller. ``Why doesn't the newspaper start including that information?''
Usually it does. In fact, an editorial the next day noted that Brandon would be parole-eligible in 14 years.
But parole dates don't mean what they used to, at least not for defendants convicted of violent crimes in Virginia.
Bill Burke, criminal-justice team editor, points out that in recent months, parole has been granted in fewer than 10 percent of all cases, down from about 40 percent. When Gov. Allen's new law goes into effect Jan. 1, there will be no parole, period.
And, as the editorial noted, Brandon would have been eligible for parole in 14 years except that he was subsequently sentenced to 30 years for another robbery and faces a third trial.
It's probably still a good idea for stories to include parole eligibility dates.
``But,'' added Burke, ``we also need to let people know that under the current policy of the new parole board, a person serving time for a violent crime is much less likely to be granted parole than in the past.''
Needling a story. Does it matter if a car had a digital speedometer instead of a regular one? It does if a story about a fatal wreck has statements like ``the twitching speedometer needle inched still higher'' to heighten dramatic effect.
The lone survivor of the tragic accident, which killed three young men, stumbled over that detail and a few others when he read them in the Pilot on Oct. 7. The story was a powerful, disturbing telling of the accident, based on the survivor's account to police and the reporter's retracing the path of the accident.
But the twitching needle? That erroneous detail came from a general description of that model car. Without first-hand or police verification, it did not belong in the newspaper.
North at the Eastern Shore. Even a week after it ran, I was still hearing about the Oct. 6 story we ran about Oliver North appearing at a harvest festival, ``3,200 turn out to hobnob with North on Eastern Shore.''
``People did not come to the festival to hobnob with North, but to eat seafood,'' said Joan Martin of Accomac, who helped at one of the festival tents. ``Tickets were sold out in advance of the notice that North would be there.''
Thomas Kerwin drove up to the festival from Norfolk and he, too, objected to the political angle. ``We were there for three hours and didn't know North was there,'' he said. ``His appearance was purely incidental.''
I don't have any problem with reporters following a Senate candidate to a seafood festival. But I'll agree the headline is wrong. A better variation: ``North hobnobs with 3,200 seafood lovers on Eastern Shore.''
Tai score. Whom would you rather see on the front page - Tai Collins or Kenzaburo Oe?
Two readers resoundingly voted against Collins, the beauty queen once linked to Chuck Robb. Her photo was page one on Oct. 13 with a story about North's ad campaign.
That same day, stories ran inside the Pilot and Ledger about Oe, a Japanese novelist, and other Nobel prize winners.
Queried one of the callers: ``How can we push, as parents, for our children to do well at school when the top prizes for major achievements in academic fields are relegated to a small, back column. . . ?''
Our readers, two of them anyway, have spoken.
Franklin memories. E.T. Ricks was born in Franklin in 1919 and has lived there most of his life. So I listened when he said an Oct. 13 story erred in saying that Franklin ``didn't get its first movie theater until June 1989.''
``I went to movies here in the 1930s,'' wrote Ricks. ``Known as the Franklin Theater, owned by Hal Lyons. He also opened another in the 1940s known as Lyons State. The Franklin was closed by 1945 and Lyons State was closed later.''
Thanks for the memories, Mr. Ricks!
Parole question: MEMO: Call the public editor at 446-2475, or send a computer message to
lynn(AT)infi.net. by CNB