THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 22, 1995 TAG: 9501220130
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
SOURCE: Cole C. Campbell, Editor
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Ronald L. Speer is a healer.
A veteran writer, editor and newsroom leader, Ron has strengthened the work of The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star's news operations in Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Norfolk.
Since May 1, he has been the paper's North Carolina editor. Since July 1, he also has been our North Carolina general manager, responsible for news and advertising operations.
He took on these jobs at a time when the North Carolina staff's confidence was shaken, and some in the community wondered whether the newspaper was pursuing its own agenda rather than the community's.
Less than nine months later, Ron has charged up the staff, connected directly with readers through his weekly columns in the Carolina Coast and become part of the Outer Banks community.
But life never quite gets easier.
Friday night, the computer monitor on Ron's desk in our Nags Head office caught fire a few minutes after Ron had left for the day. Doug Remaley, Dare County's fire marshall, spotted the flames and had volunteer firefighters at the scene within minutes.
Ron and his staff watched the battle in shock.
News professionals are a bit like the emergency room physicians portrayed on television's popular new series, ``ER.'' To do our jobs well, journalists and doctors must simultaneously care about whom we serve and remain detached enough to make tough decisions in the face of pain and suffering.
That's hard to do when you must write about a news story so close to home. Yet, to walk through the gutted newsroom, to smell the angry memory of flame seared into charred walls, reminds us of the magnitude of loss behind every fire story and news brief we publish.
On Saturday, staff members returned to the office to begin reclaiming their work, just as they reclaimed their confidence under Ron's leadership. Their resolve was even stronger than their earlier shock.
And the people of the Outer Banks have called Ron with generous offers of storage space, office space, darkroom space and equipment, to help him and his staff get back to the business of covering the community's agenda.
In our society, we're quick to classify fires, accidents and deaths as tragedies. At the same time, we quarrel over whether a personal disaster such as the O.J. Simpson-Nicole Brown Simpson-Ron Goldman story should be described that way.
The word ``tragedy'' was not coined to describe a horrible event in life but to describe a literary form now 2,400 years old.
In tragedy, heroic figures - at first kings and princes, later, even ordinary people - fall because of tragic flaws. Tragedy has gripped audiences from the time of Oedipus Rex to Hamlet and Othello to Willy Loman in ``Death of a Salesman.'' And on to O.J. Simpson's murder trial.
Guilty or innocent, Simpson has tumbled from the lofty perch accorded celebrities in a way that has captivated every story-telling medium - from talk shows to newscasts to tabloid TV to newspapers - and millions of Americans.
That's why, beginning Monday, The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star will cover the trial through our wire services in a very visible way.
We know many people are tired of the story - 84 percent of Americans, according to a recent ABC News poll. But we also know that many people want to learn what the trial will reveal. A Newsweek poll says 82 percent of its respondents expect to pay attention to the trial.
With the issues at stake - from guilt or innocence to allegations of domestic violence and racial persecution - this is a story that cannot be ignored.
It is, in a word, a tragedy. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Speer
by CNB