THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 9, 1996 TAG: 9606080016
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: 95 lines
There are two topics certain to get the public editor's phone ringing; one is gay couples, the other is welfare moms - that is, if those topics are handled with any degree of sympathy. And this week, The Virginian-Pilot served up both.
First, Elizabeth Simpson wrote her weekly MetroNews column last Sunday on a lesbian couple who exchanged wedding vows - ``another step in affirming their values: Commitment. Faithfulness. Love.''
And Thursday, Charlise Lyles wrote about an unknown woman seen stealing baby formula from a store. ``So who is this suspect?'' she wrote. ``Perhaps a welfare mother whose monthly check from Aid to Families with Dependent Children ran out.''
A quick aside: It always puzzles me when readers get steamed up over columns, as opposed to news stories. Columns reflect the opinions of the writer, whose face is right there with the text. I don't expect to agree with our columnists all the time. Sometimes, if I'm feeling hostile or indifferent to the topic, I don't even read them!
But our readers don't flinch. They read the columns, get angry, roll up their sleeves - and fight back. I have to respect that, too. And it livens things up.
Anyway, more than a dozen readers complained about the column on the same-sex marriage.
``I know we live in a day where individual standards of decency and morality are being downgraded to the point of minority status,'' e-mailed a Norfolk resident, who felt the newspaper was condoning ``this type of perverse behavior.''
Others said they didn't want their children seeing such a story and that it didn't belong on the front of the MetroNews section. We should have put it in with the obituaries, they said, or the want ads.
On Thursday, callers were equally outspoken about Lyles' column, headlined ``Conditions that led woman to steal baby formula are a crime too.'' One reader found it insightful; the rest felt it endorsed theft or welfare abuse or both. ``Bleeding-heart liberalism,'' was one verdict.
``I work myself to death,'' said an irate woman, ``but she (the suspect who stole the formula) should be able to go into a store and grab what she needs. I, on the other hand, have to work and pay for it and then my taxes have to pay more for her welfare because it's not enough. . . This is just an outrage.''
Another reader thought it ironic that Lyles' column - ``giving people carte blanche to steal baby formula'' - was directly below a story about teaching children to value morals. Among the morals: Respect, fairness, responsibility - not the sort of attributes associated with stealing baby formula or anything else.
I'm not going to defend our columnists - they can do that themselves. I'll just reiterate that they are columnists, that the points of view they express are their own, and that they probably like to write about provocative or interesting subjects to get readers thinking.
On the other hand, they carry a responsibility to use this privilege wisely, and they have editors and readers to give them perspective. Sometimes it seems readers do the job with more enthusiasm.
Guy Friddell has been writing columns for 33 years and has been, in his own words, ``heavily scarred with verbal flak'' - especially when he delves into politics. How does he feel about reader wrath?
``I don't ever feel upset when people object to my columns,'' he said. ``It's a part of a dialogue. They're expressing their views.''
Friddell said he looks on other viewpoints, especially controversial ones, as enlightening - ``because they stimulate, frequently, my thinking, and Lord knows, this fool needs all the guidance those around him offer.''
Don't we all. But I'll let a reader have the last word - actually, it's an opinion I hear quite often.
Stephen Ping of Norfolk called to complain about Lyles' column - but, perhaps more importantly, to say he doesn't believe that opinion pieces belong on a news page.
In the case of Lyles' article, ``I recognize it as a column,'' he said, ``but others may not.''
Navy bashing? One of the big stories of the week was the conviction and sentencing of Billy Joe Brown in the murder trial of Jennifer L. Evans. And Thursday's banner headline, ``SEAL trainee convicted of murder,'' angered some readers.
It was just another example, they said, of picking on the Navy.
``I'm getting sick and tired of seeing `SEAL trainee' on there,'' said a Navy man named Glen. ``The guy was not a SEAL. . . He may have been a trainee, but who cares if he was in the Navy or worked at The Virginian-Pilot or if he worked at McDonald's.''
I'm usually wary of labels, but I don't see how the newspaper can ignore - in headlines or otherwise - the rigorous military vocation that brought both Brown and the second defendant, Dustin A. Turner, to this area.
And, yes, had it been a newspaper writer in Brown's place, an appropriate headline would have been, ``Reporter convicted of murder.'' If we had shied away from that, we would have been open to criticism.
Surprisingly, not a single caller questioned the huge headline over the masthead that day saying ``FESTIVAL WEEKEND,'' in dark block letters that obscured the names of the festivals.
That was an error. It looked one way on the computer screen, another in the paper. The festival announcement was supposed to have been in a delicate, translucent and festive yellow.
by CNB