THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608080005
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: 93 lines
An avid business reader says he's been waiting, and waiting, to see an improvement in our mutual-fund listings. The stock quotes are so tightly packed that they're virtually unreadable, he said. When are we going to fix them?
Hold on to your portfolio! Wade Wilson, business sections editor, is busy redesigning the market pages - not just the mutuals but others as well. His target date for the change is mid-September. But give him some latitude because a lot of computer reprogramming is needed to redesign the pages, add new type fonts, etc.
Some of the improvements on Wilson's wish list: an easier-to-read typeface, with space between the lines; year-to-date figures; alphabetical headers so the whole page isn't a sea of tiny type, plus a separate listing for the Dow Jones' Top 30 Industrials.
A reader who said he's had dreadlocks for 20 years upbraided us for a reggae-festival caption that said performer Danny Dread is ``named for his swinging braids.'' Said the caller: ``I know you're trying to appeal to the public by using a common term,'' but it's wrong. Can't we clear that up?
Terri Williams, a reporter who covers the city of Suffolk, had a similar complaint - so I'm going to let her do the clearing up.
``As a person who wears braids,'' she said, ``I can tell you there's a BIG difference between dreadlocks and braids.''
Dreadlocks are made, she said, ``when a person twists the hair and allows it to lock or dread, similar to matted hair.'' Also, dreadlocks have a cultural and religious significance to those who are Rastafarians.
Braids are done by separating, and then plaiting, three sections of hair.
A new subscriber posed a question that I hear a lot from old subscribers, too. ``Why,'' he asked, the day after a flurry of new Whitewater stories, ``is the hard news about President Clinton and his problems inside more often than not? Does the president need to go to jail before you will put it on the front page above the fold?''
This query went to Bill Henry, who heads up a team of news wire editors.
Whitewater is ``a long, ongoing story,'' he said, ``with a lot of small steps. We try to keep readers up to date on each development, but we save the front page for when there's a resolution or verdict - some definitive action.''
For example, Whitewater was on A1 when guilty verdicts were reached in the first trial against the Arkansas governor and the Clintons' former business partners.
And it was on the front page again Aug. 2, when two Arkansas bankers were acquitted on four felony counts.
So in answer to the unasked question, there's no Whitewater cover-up going on!
The photo of a 15-year-old pregnant girl, on a recent section front, elicited this question from a reader:
``Do the parents of a teenage mother sign a release before she's featured in the paper like that? I've been wondering, since you ran that series on teenagers and sex, whether you ask the parents before you publish their children's interviews on sensitive topics like sex.''
I asked Teenology editor Lorraine Eaton to answer this, since she works with teenage correspondents and writes about teenagers.
Eaton says there is no set newspaper policy governing parental permission. When students are interviewed at a school, the school usually notifies parents. In other cases, writers and editors make judgments on a case-by-case basis.
``We try to be sensitive,'' Eaton said. ``We know that parents care about what their children say in a newspaper. But we also have to cover the news.''
Photo editor Alex Burrows said the same approach applies with photographers. ``Our mission is not to embarrass but to inform,'' he said.
Had the photo mentioned above been for a story on teenage sex, Burrows said the photographer probably would have sought parental permission. But since it was a feature on shopping, only the subject's OK was sought.
And, finally, a reader bridled at our Celebrations announcements - she doesn't like the wording.
Many of them list a married woman as a maid of honor instead of matron of honor. Why, she asked, don't we word these announcements more correctly?
We don't word them at all. Once upon a time we did, but today they are paid announcements, and brides and grooms can write what they like - within reason, of course.
Personally, I like the current announcements better because they have more personality than some years back, when they were limited to little more than names, dates and places.
Now you can find out a lot more, like what they wore, where they're honeymooning - even sometimes how they met, points out Patty Garrett, who oversees Celebrations.
But that doesn't mean everyone approves. Nanette Emanuel of Norfolk penned this ditty:
Wedding announcements used to be
The symbols of propriety!
But now, alas, they're quite ``one-tracky'' -
Those seen of late one might call ``wacky.''
With this in mind, you'll understand
Why wedding banns just might be banned! MEMO: Call the public editor at 446-2475, or send a computer message to
lynn(AT)infi.net by CNB