THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9606010015
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: 104 lines
Friday is Teenology day on the Daily Break front, and a May 24 story-photo feature, ``Prom prelude,'' was timely and appropriate. But about a half-dozen readers were disturbed by a detail in one photo.
It showed a teenage couple, all decked out in formal clothes, ready to drive off to their prom. Visible in the car was a wine glass.
Our callers felt the photo was sending the wrong message to teenagers about drinking and driving. ``For the paper to show it so matter-of-factly is perhaps the wrong way to go,'' said a Virginia Beach mother.
Nor did she retract her criticism when told that the engraved glass was a Kempsville High prom memento. Why, wondered the caller, was a school giving out wine glasses?
Tiffany Yankus, the student featured in the story, said she had originally asked the same question. Last year's seniors also got wine glasses, she said, but they had a candle in them so they couldn't be used.
Tiffany said she learned that the '96 wine glasses weren't what had been ordered, but it had been too late to change them.
She and her mother, Debbie McKenna, were surprised that readers had even noticed the glass in the photo. More important to her as a parent, said McKenna, was that the school was providing an alcohol-free prom.
Teenology editor Lorraine Eaton had her own thoughts. ``A wine glass is a symbol of celebration,'' she said. ``Look at graduation cards, with champagne bottles popping.''
Well, I'm not a public editor for the greeting-card industry - thank goodness. But I'm glad people are concerned about drinking and driving. In this case, we could at least have explained in the caption that the glass, empty, was a memento.
Perhaps it was the cold, soggy weather early in the week but readers had a wide variety of gripes. They included:
Tawdry 'toon. An editorial cartoon in last Sunday's Currents, the Portsmouth community news section, shows a worried mother reading the headline ``Navy moves ships to Portsmouth'' - and then imagining a groping sailor.
Cdr. John Tull, public-affairs officer for Commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, found the cartoon ``stereotypical, inappropriate and in poor taste. It does a great disservice to our sailors.''
I've given a lot of latitude to editorial cartoons in the past but I'm inclined to agree with Tull on this one, not because sailors are faultless but because of the timing. It was 10 days after Adm. Mike Boorda's death and it was Memorial Day weekend.
Toeing the line. An anonymous caller didn't like a photo that appeared in the Saturday, May 25, MetroNews section. It showed a woman getting her toenails painted during a high-school baseball playoff. ``Nailing the game on a holiday weekend,'' was the punny overline.
``As much good news as there is in the schools,'' said the caller, ``surely you all can find a better picture than someone getting her toenails painted.''
Hey, it's the weekend, time to have a little fun. We run lots, and lots, of serious stories about our schools and education. Last Sunday's lead A1 story - about some local schools with poor students making great strides - got a good bit of positive feedback.
We can afford a little frivolity now and then.
A Dilbert-less Tuesday. Therese Loew of Portsmouth was the only reader to ask what happened to the comic strip ``Dilbert'' last Tuesday, but I'll bet she wasn't the only reader who wondered about it.
Because Monday was a holiday, Memorial Day, and the stock market was closed, the Tuesday business news - usually a separate section - was a single page on the back of the Sports section. And the comic strip ``Dilbert,'' which usually runs inside the Business section, was left out.
If you ask Loew and other readers, they'd probably prefer for us to leave out a story rather than the wacky, spoofy comic strip that graces many a company bulletin board (unless the bosses shred it).
Anyway, two ``Dilberts'' ran on Wednesday.
Sexist headline. A MetroNews story Tuesday profiled a Virginia scientist who won the prestigious Presidential Faculty Fellows Award. Impressive, to say the least.
But a Norfolk lawyer and mother thought the headline was sexist. It said: ``Mother, scientist, teacher.''
``If this had been a man,'' she said, ``it would have really highlighted that he was an outstanding professor, teacher and father - it never would have had father first.
``But instead, the newspaper always points to mother, which, in this society, brings it down. She's a scientist, she's had major achievements, and I think that's what should be highlighted.''
Generally, I'm not sensitive to minor sexist slights, but I think there's a point here. When have you EVER seen a headline that says, ``Father, scientist, teacher''?
And while we're on the subject: A male staffer at The Pilot noticed a typo on the cover of Ms. magazine. The headline says, ``Mothers and Daughters: Honest talk about feminisim & real life.'' Quite a ms-take, ms-spelling feminism!
Bad timing on Sunday. We often hear from sports fans when a game time, locally or on TV, is wrong. But last weekend we heard from fans of the Sunday morning news show ``This Week With David Brinkley.''
Because these shows try to be timely, they wait until late in the week to schedule their guests - too late for our preprinted weekend television schedules. So The Pilot runs Sunday news shows, times and guests, on a news page, A2. And last weekend, the Brinkley show time was wrong by a half-hour.
Unfortunately, the topic was of particular interest locally - the problems of the Navy, in the wake of Admiral Boorda's suicide. And our callers were angry, especially when Monday's front-page story, quoting Navy Secretary John Lehman, came from a part of the show they missed.
I'd be angry, too.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Charlie Meads/Staff
Some readers balked at this prom souvenir glass. by CNB