« What's news? | Main | We have a winner »
October 14, 2005
Pollyanna?
Although it is a plaint we often hear from readers, it is bad form for the editor to say at a news meeting: “Hey, how about putting some good news in the paper?” But I did say that one day this week as we were critiquing the previous day’s A-section content.
We try to give people a balance of news, reflecting what’s going right in the world and in our community as well as what’s going wrong. And our editors work hard to find world and national stories that will brighten a reader’s day.
But the news lately has been relentlessly grim. It’s not just the aftermath of Katrina or the endless sequence of death and chaos in Iraq. It’s 20,000 to 40,000 dead in an earthquake in Pakistan. It’s Guatemalan officials, after Hurricane Rick, abandoning buried communities and declaring them graveyards. It’s rising fear of an avian flu pandemic. And, in our own back yard, it’s a downpour that destroyed lives and property.
This last story hit close to home. On its much smaller scale, it was more shocking than Katrina. New Orleans is below sea level, its vulnerability to hurricanes a mystery to no one. But anyone who has driven the back roads of southwestern New Hampshire knows how permanent the dwellings and the landscape there seem. Or seemed. The roadside streams do rush and foam in April, but by mid-summer they have dropped off into a long, still nap. That they might run wild, sweeping away houses, crumbling roads and taking lives, was unthinkable until Sunday.
The floodwaters in New Hampshire compounded the idea that nature was somehow mocking human efforts to bring order to the world. A war gone amok, gas prices soaring, taxes sure to rise, bigger deficits looming, higher inflation a certainty, a run of natural disasters – I guess it is no wonder the news in the front section of the paper this past week seemed especially depressing.
It’s the Monitor’s job to cover these events and developments fully, but our readers’ lives are not all gloom and doom. Far from it. That’s why I don’t think asking our editors to make room for stories on the lighter side makes me a Pollyanna. Even in hard times – maybe especially in hard times – newspapers should show readers the big picture and provide them with some relief.
Posted by Mike Pride at October 14, 2005 04:12 PM
Comments
here, here!
well-written and to-the-point....disaster, unhappiness, and destruction are swirling around us, and yet there are wonderful people who do kind and unselfish deeds for others day-in-day-out. Giving space and attention to the many fine people and related good "events" are as much as responsibility of a newspaper to report as the grim stories. It's not about wearing blinders, it's about seeing our world for all that it is...good, bad, and indifferent. A happy story is always heartening to me, and lifts my spirits after hearing of another casualty in the Iraqi war.
Thanks.
MG Sumner
Posted by: MG Sumner at October 16, 2005 11:52 AM
Doom and Gloom, Doom and Gloom. That seems to be the Concord Monitors look at all the current news these days. I've yet to see a political cartoon or article showing what the good news is in our state and our country. A little more digging will help the reporters and editor find out there is some good news out there. A Support our Troops Rally held at our State House, attended by Approx. 150 people, the mother of a soldier killed in action speaking and supporting our troops not demoralizing them, not one word or picture published in the Concord Monitor. New schools, hospitals and help for victims of the Butcher of Baghdad being constructed in Iraq and still no word from the Washing Post North also known as the Concord Monitor. My advice would be to have your staff open their right eyes not just their left ones and report "Fair and Balanced"
Posted by: M Cox at October 21, 2005 09:13 AM
As long as you make sure not to gloss over or ignore the very worst news, you should feel free to report about the "sunshine," too.
Are you making enough of an effort?
How complicated and shady _is_ TRMPAC, Abramoff, and the rest?
Posted by: JS Narins at November 1, 2005 07:40 PM
I have just returned from a two week deployment to Baton Rouge LA as a Red Cross Disaster Relief Mental Health worker. I left Gilford just after the floods here in NH. What an amazing, life changing experience. Doom & Gloom? Disaster & destruction? You bet...that is the ongoing reality that thousands of people are living with everyday right here in this country. Still living in shelters, still missing loved ones and on and on. But also endless personal stories of resiliance and survival. Red Cross volunteers themselves are making huge personal and financial sacrifices to lend a hand. Their individual stories are powerful and moving as well. If you are interested in a first hand account of both the good news and bad news from Katrina/Rita disaster relief efforts, let me know. I would be more than happy to share my personal experience if it would serve to keep the ongoing nature of this disaster on the radar screen of your readers.
Posted by: KC Weaver at November 6, 2005 03:45 PM