Sound Off for Feb. 22, 2009
Reader: I was gratified to see the great program at the Oral Language Festival for grades 4 through 6 on Feb. 12 at our new University Square building. And then I was so disappointed to see the poor coverage in both The Californiannewspaper and on the Web site the next day.
Why did you not put the pictures and names of the winning schools on the front page, and the names of the runners up inside the section, rather than the opposite? Your coverage was disrespectful of the extra efforts made by all of the winners, solo, duo and verse choirs alike.
Instead, you highlighted those not selected as winners. You slighted harder-working kids and their coaches, event organizers and even participating schools by your poor display. Yours was not a good example to our children of how competitive effort should be rewarded.
I contemplated several reasons that you may have acted so professionally deficient:
* Perhaps your editors and writers lack the experience to formulate an article that is faithful to the event;
* Perhaps you consistently bias your articles toward certain races and away from others;
* Perhaps you emphasize public schools at the expense of private ones, as well as minimize the efforts of home schooling.
Perhaps my expectations of The Californianshould be lowered to fit the current reality. I sincerely hope you do not similarly disserve the seventh- through ninth-grade participants in their upcoming performances next week.
— Ron Edwards
Unhappy grandfather
Jenner: Further evidence that no good deed goes unpunished.
None of your theories comes close to the truth. In fact, we went to no small effort to get the photos, story and full results in the paper, and to produce the video posted on Bakersfield.com.
This competition spotlights expressive and talented kids. We hoped to capture their spirit and energy by putting some pictures on the front page of the Local section. We decided to run the list of winners on an inside page. We didn't have room on the cover for all these elements.
Assistant photo editor Michael Fagans took some excellent pictures at the event. He wasn't able to attend the entire program — he had to hurry back to the office to get his pictures in the paper and attend to his other duties as night photo editor.
After he downloaded, selected, cropped, captioned and toned his photos, Fagans turned his attention to narrating, editing and posting the video to our Web site, a task he completed in the wee hours of the morning. His video, by the way, is terrific.
For years, our policy when covering such events has been to publish the best photos. We don't favor one race over another, or kids who attend public schools over those who go to private schools or those who are home-schooled.
The Kern County Superintendent of Schools office does a great job in running these programs and in providing us with the names of the kids and their schools.
I'd love to run the names of not just the winners, but of every last participant. That's not always feasible.
We are happy to celebrate these bright young people and hope to encourage them and others by spotlighting their achievements and hard work. We love putting this kind of "good news" in the paper. And, I might add, you won't find this kind of support and attention anywhere else. There's no TV station, radio station, cable or dish provider, Web site, blogger and certainly no other print product that goes to the lengths we do.
I'm not begging for praise, and I truly do understand your pride in your grandchild's work, talent and success.
I don't understand the attitude.
••
Reader: As a citizen who has a lifetime history of animal rescue AND one who worked on the committee to bring mental health services to my community, I was very frustrated by your recent news report regarding the woman known as Anita Gilbert (animal cruelty).
According to the story, the judge discounted the professional evaluation of her mental health condition and chose to have another evaluation and, if she is found competent, would order a trial. Frankly, I find such an attitude shocking, so wouldn't a third evaluation in such an event be a fair expectation?
Just my opinion, of course, but justice seems to be biased and so does a newspaper that failed to print the name of the judge.
— Nancy E. Copus Williams
Jenner: We should have named the judge (it was Michael Bush). It was an oversight, not a result of bias.
As for what happened in the courtroom, seeking a second opinion on competency is not unusual. Either the defendant or prosecutor will ask for a second opinion (depending on who's on the losing end), and the judge decides.
Again, I'm not sure how you get to your "bias" conclusion. Could it be that the judge wanted to be thorough — or fair?
•••
Reader: OK, this tears it.
I'm referring to Thursday's story on the Hudnall case.
Let's roll everything back to the beginning of this whole mess, shall we? Deputy Hudnall was transferring a minor female prisoner, who was seated next to him in the front seat, and neither passenger in the sheriff's cruiser were wearing their seat belts at the time of the accident — all facts reported in this very newspaper at the time of the initial accident.
But as time has moved along in this case a number of these glaring facts have managed to be looked past by some of the principals in this case, and also, in your reporting on this case.
Why didn't the investigation begin by looking into why a Kern County deputy was transferring a prisoner in his cruiser with them not locked in a caged back seat, which is procedure?
Also why neither of them were wearing their seat belts? Another procedural requirement when operating a county vehicle.
Remember, when you build a house of cards on a weak foundation sooner or LATER, it will fall in on itself. Which is something to think about as this case drags on as it's falling apart here in 2009.
— T.R. Ridlon
Jenner: It's also a good idea to get your facts straight before slinging stones (or opinions).
We've never reported Hudnall's prisoner was in the front seat with him. Nothing in the CHP's accident report suggested she was in the front seat.
We have reported that Deputy Joe Hudnall was not wearing a seat belt. And we've reported that while there are exceptions to the policy requiring their use by deputies, he didn't fall under one of those exceptions when this collision occurred.
By the way, Hudnall isn't on trial here — Daniel Patrick Willsey is. Hudnall may not have been wearing a seat belt, but Willsey is the man who is accused of swerving into Hudnall's lane, causing the head-on collision that took the deputy's life. Thursday's story was about a hearing in the criminal case against Willsey; the case hasn't yet come to trial.
While we try to include some basic background information in stories, we don't rehash every aspect in every story. If we did, we'd quickly use up our space. The rule of thumb is that if the fact is relevant to the development we're reporting, we should include it.
•••
Reader: We had recently moved into our new home, and our yard was in the initial stage of being prepared for landscaping. Our friends drove up with their 4-year-old son who, upon seeing the plot of bare earth, exclaimed gleefully as he grabbed two handfuls of the stuff, "Oh, boy! Dirt!"
I suspect that same emotion went through the little 4-year-old mind of your staff writer when he came across the newswire item about former local resident Ryan Caskey being accused of rape — "Oh, boy! Dirt!"
Maybe it is newsworthy, and if the guy is in fact guilty then he certainly deserves full punishment for his deeds.
I seriously question, however, why the high school he attended some years ago has any relevance to the story. Putting "Garces grad" in the headline is a backhanded swipe at a really fine school, and such a headline has no place in a quality newspaper.
And maybe that answers my question. I've been a subscriber to The Californian since 1963, and I've observed what seems to be a concerted effort on The Californian's part to get me to change to the Fresno Bee for several months now. Maybe the quality of that headline is appropriate for the paper The Californian is trying to become.
— Rich Tucker
Jenner: We goofed. The name of the school had no place in the headline. We shouldn't have let that headline make it into print, and I'm sorry we did.
It was newsworthy that a former resident has been charged with four rapes in San Francisco. And Caskey's ties to the community are what made this a story of local interest.
Reporters don't write the headlines, by the way. The copy editor who did write it was trying to make the point that the man used to live here.
But we should have found another way to say that.
