THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996 TAG: 9610180262
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 24 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: Ronald L. Speer
LENGTH: 79 lines
Newspapering is wonderful work, most of the time, particularly when you publish pieces that will go on refrigerator doors or in scrapbooks or be read aloud by proud parents or admiring offspring.
My favorites stories have always been about ordinary people, especially the people who have never seen their name or their picture in print.
One of my all-time favorite photos was published a few years ago on Page 1, at Hanukkah when we ran a lovely picture of an 85-year-old woman lighting the candles on a menorah to celebrate the beginning of the high holiday.
It was a wonderful photo of the woman, with the flickering candles bringing out of the darkness a face criss-crossed with lines of personality and pain, experience and expectations, sadness and joy.
To the side, reversed in white in the background, we ran a cutline with the woman's name and quoted her comment on what the holiday meant to Jews.
I was delighted and proud of what we had cone - until the woman called early in the morning, crying.
``It is so beautiful, the first time I've ever been in the paper,'' she said, obviously trying unsuccessfully to hold back her tears.
``I was going to send it to my six children and to my all my grandchildren who don't live here anymore, but I can't. That's not my name on the picture. Everything else is so nice, but now I can't send it, not with the wrong name.''
Somehow we had mixed up her name with a friend who had been with her when the photo was taken, and when we wrote the cutline we used the friend's name.
I felt terrible, even after we ran a correction.
What should have been a meaningful tribute turned into a heart-breaking disappointment.
Disasters like that take the fun out of the business, and leave readers dismayed instead of elated.
We had a less-painful but similar experience last Sunday, in my tribute to colleague Lane DeGregory. She's one of my favorites, and well-known to Outer Banks readers in all walks of life.
I wanted to share my opinions of her work, and let readers know that the tiny fire-ball reporter was out of action for a while because she had just given birth to a boy baby.
Lane's proud mother took a picture just hours after the birth, and we ran it with my column.
Because of a technical problem, the picture was wretched. A black square that showed nothing but a shapeless blob.
Fortunately, we can fix that and are doing so today (I say that with my fingers crossed). But many times our errors never get corrected, and we never take the sting out of a publishing foul-up.
Sometimes, unfortunately, nobody even calls to tell us we goofed. That really hurts, because unless we know about mistakes there's no way to correct them or to take steps to prevent them in the future.
And we do unto ourselves as often as we do unto others.
A couple of months ago we ran photos of two new Outer Banks staffers - and mixed up their names.
One of the worst mistakes I've run across happened to Lorraine Eaton, who got her start as a reporter in the Outer Banks and now is back working as the Coast editor while DeGregory is out to tend her baby.
When Lorraine left here and went to Suffolk, her first assignment was covering a school board meeting. She was nervous, but determined to get a strong start by writing a detailed, accurate and fair story.
She filed a report in which among other things said that Suffolk educators were launching a new program designed to help their students maturate.
A copy editor didn't realize that maturate meant grow up and mature, and inserted a couple of letters which changed it to a word rarely seen in the newspaper in those days.
To put it kindly, it is fair to say the educators were not pleased with the paper or with its new education reporter, even though it was not her error.
The goof with the photo of Lane and Ryland doesn't compare, but I thought you'd appreciate seeing what they looked like, anyway.
And the incident is a vivid reminder that one of joys of newspaper remains those stories and those pictures that will go on refrigerator doors - if we get them right. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by Clairssa Thomasson
Reporter Lane DeGregory with her newborn son, Ryland. The proud new
mom says he's cuter than a Page 1 byline. by CNB