THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 25, 1994 TAG: 9412240010
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
TO: The newspaper staff
FROM: Your readers
Hello again, Mr. and Ms. Editor. If you recall, last year around this time we, your readers, had a list of holiday wishes for 1994. They were based on the ``gripes, grumbles and great ideas'' that we made all year.
You did pretty well. We asked you for stock quotations that can be read without a magnifying glass. Most of the time now they're pretty legible.
You also gave us more lottery numbers and the Jumble puzzle in the Pilot. Thanks for those. But you STILL haven't taken a new photo of Guy Friddell, like we asked. There were a couple of other oversights, too.
So here's a new wish list for 1995, based on another year's worth of calls to the public editor's office:
Don't victimize victims. It's bad enough being mugged or mauled or losing a loved one, but there are times when the press adds to the pain. Don't run stories about past tragedies without warning the families. Protect the identities of young crime victims. Leave out the gory details.
Give us the facts, let us draw conclusions. There's too much opinion on your news pages. This was on last year's list and it remained one of our big gripes, especially during the elections. Leave the editorials for the editorial pages.
Put news on the front page. We want real news on A1, not some hearts-and-flowers feature story. Or an editorial masquerading as a news story. Or some fluff about computers or sex or the Jackson-Presley marriage.
Proofread your newspaper. You're still giving us too many typos, headline errors, misspellings and other bloopers. We know most are minor, but they're annoying. And they make us wonder - are you messing up the facts as well?
Give us upbeat stories. It's inspiring to read about people with problems who fight back or make their lives better. Give us more stories like ``Tina's Heart,'' about the 16-year-old girl who got a heart transplant, and ``10 Seconds Can Change a Life,'' about the guy who turned a tragedy into a positive situation.
In Sports, we want it all - great coverage of football, basketball, NASCAR, hockey, wrestling, soccer, gymnastics; girls and boys teams; pro and college; high-school and community leagues. Give us everything about the Redskins but don't utter a bad word about 'em. What's that you say - you'd need the entire newspaper for all that?
Bring back our old favorite comic - ``B.C.'' or ``Funky Winkerbean'' or ``Hagar.'' We miss those strips you dropped this year when the Pilot and Ledger comic pages were combined. And for gosh sake, get rid of that dreadful new strip you added, ``Mixed Media.''
Don't run brutal photos - especially not on the front page where my children might see them. Same goes for explicit photos, like those (blush) pictures from the local nudist park. And spare us mug shots of public figures caught mid-sneeze.
Learn the difference between a sailor and a soldier. In fact, get all your military terminology right. You guys don't seem to know fore from aft. Why not hire one of us retired military people as a consultant?
Reflect the community, editorially, and give us a conservative point of view. Some of us just want your editorial pages to be moderate and well balanced. I guess most of us can live with that.
Play fair with letters to the editor. The limit is one letter per person every six months, but that just isn't enough. We know you get more letters than you can run. Can't you make more room for us to speak out?
Stop moving things around. You told us you were moving obits to page B4 in MetroNews, but it seems like every day we find them on a different page. Check the index, you say? Half the time we can't find it. And please, in your green sheet, don't chop up and hide TV Sports.
Answer your phones. We call you a lot about newspaper delivery or for classified ads. What really irks us is getting busy signals or no answer at all. Voice mail is almost as bad. It's annoying to call and call. . .
Keep up the good work. No, we're not being sarcastic. Even with all our gripes and grumbles, we think you're doing a lot of things well. And we care about the newspaper. If we didn't, would we bother complaining? MEMO: HAPPY HOLIDAYS from the public editor's office! by CNB