THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 2, 1995 TAG: 9507010001
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
A common complaint from readers is, ``There's too much in the newspaper about crime and violence. Give us upbeat stories.''
So what happens when the newspaper runs an upbeat story on the front page? More than a dozen readers call in to say it's frivolous, and where's the real news?
I'm talking about Monday's A1 story, ``I do? Wedding day catches groom by surprise.'' I'll admit it's not your standard front-page fare. But then, it's not every day that the best man at a wedding ends up being the groom.
A number of callers objected because, seven paragraphs into the story, you learn that the bride and groom had been living together for nearly nine years and have a 4-year-old son.
``I encourage our children to read the newspaper,'' said one woman. ``Then, when they're reading stories like this, we're teaching them that this is cute, this is nice. . . . I'm really upset.''
Other callers thought it was a cute story. But they felt it belonged in MetroNews or The Daily Break or one of the community sections; anywhere but the front page.
``Chief Justice Burger dies and he gets a teeny-tiny photo and this couple gets a big splash,'' said another caller. Other readers echoed her sentiment: The late Warren Burger didn't deserve to be overshadowed by a local wedding, even if he did get the banner headline.
I understand reader sentiments; it wasn't your average wedding story. In fact, it would have made a great script for a TV sitcom. And I sure wish it explained whether the ceremony was legal - I mean, did the couple have a wedding license?
(They got it the next day, the bride said.)
But I'll also admit that I read every word of it, even before I read about the death of the former chief justice and about Governor Allen's aide and about DNA testing of criminals - the serious stories on the front page.
The wedding story was a ``change of pace,'' said a colonel's wife, ``especially when you turn the page and see the Israelis and Palestinians are shooting at each other, and the Bosnians and the Serbs. You get tired of reading about bad things.''
For the bride and groom, Monday's front-page story brought out the well-wishers.
Everywhere they went - the supermarket, the courthouse - ``people said, `Oh my God, you're the people who were on the front page,' '' said Karen Braman. ``That was such a great story . . . the spirit was so contagious.''
She's convinced people need a dose of good news to offset the bad.
Sure, readers want - and deserve - dignity and depth on a front page. But I'd rather have the occasional offbeat wedding than see the sort of headline that followed two days later: ``Missing woman found dead in Newport News.''
SHIPPING NEWS. W.T. Sawyer of Virginia Beach points out that we flunked Sailing 101 on Monday. A caption with the MetroNews photo of a tall ship said a member of the Simon Bolivar crew ``adjusts a mast at the front of the ship Sunday.''
Well, you don't have to be a sailor or a Patrick O'Brian fan to know that the canvas the sailor held in his hand wasn't a mast but a sail.
``More accurately, he's adjusting the Bolivar's jib, a triangular sail rigged all the way forward,'' wrote Ed Walshe of Norfolk.
Walshe, a retired Navy man, and Sawyer, a merchant mariner, also skewered us for referring to the ``front'' of the ship.
Hey, lubbers, that's the bow.
SKIRTING THE ISSUE. Jeb Raitt of Norfolk charged that the newspaper twice recently ``disrespected'' the male Scottish national costume by referring to it as a skirt - in a story about the movie ``Braveheart'' and in a Real Life section column.
``I suspect that it is the headline writer alone that is to blame for the use of this egregious misnomer,'' wrote Raitt (Clan MacRae), whose great-great-grandfather emigrated from Scotland, ``because the text of the column and the article used the correct terminology.
``I cannot state too emphatically that a KILT IS NOT A SKIRT! Any resemblance between the two garments is entirely superficial.''
Raitt said he has ``only rarely been subjected to any harassment while kilted. . . . It amazes me how many people think nothing of asking what is worn beneath the kilt.'' The answer is - well, ask any Scot. MEMO: Call the public editor at 446-2475, or send a computer message to
lynn(AT)infi.net
by CNB