Our TRC coverage
Some supporters of the TRC think the News & Record has been dismissive of the hearings, or ignored them, or hasn't taken them seriously or all of the above.
While there are a few things that I wish we had done differently, I think our coverage has been measured and appropriate.
But I understand the proponents' assertion. Complaints like these are not unfamiliar. Citing media coverage as inadequate or biased or inappropriate follows a path well-worn on any number of controversial, red-state/blue-state topics. On divisive issues, passionate people want news coverage that reflects their view of the world. When it doesn't, they point it out, as they should. I say that not to be dismissive of their comments -- we need to hear them because we know we overshoot sometimes. It helps us improve. I say it only to add some perspective.
The fact is we've written thousands of column inches about the commission. We've covered each day of testimony with stories that ran on the front page, often in the No. 1 position. We've posted audio of the hearings online. Our editorial board has been unyielding in its support. We've published at least a dozen Op-Ed columns from all perspectives of the debate.
Could we have done more? Yes, but there are reasons we haven't. Yet.
Here was our thinking:
At the beginning of the process, editors discussed whether to take on the TRC as a project, which is our term for assigning a reporter or several reporters to it fulltime. We decided not to, primarily for two reasons. First, we had, and still have, several other projects in the pipeline. The number of reporters available to step out of the daily news flow for a project is more limited than most people think.
Second, because an independent commission is hearing testimony, we didn't see a pressing need to attempt to scoop the commission or to follow its questions with our own. It wasn't as though light wasn't going to be directed into this dark corner of Greensboro's past. Our plan all along was to cover the commission as it made news. That includes coverage of who was scheduled to speak and coverage of each hearing.
As in all reporting -- particularly reporting testimony that went on for seven hours – some information was left out. I haven't read of vital factual information that was omitted, but I certainly could have missed some. I know that Nelson Johnson's apology for calling Jim Melvin a name didn't make the paper, and I wish it had. But it's not the huge admission that some are making it out to be. I also wish that we had assigned one reporter to attend all six of the hearings to have the depth of knowledge that comes with that. We have a reporter, Margaret Banks, who has listened to the audio of the first four hearings, and she will listen to the final two days, too. She will be writing the bulk of our coverage from here on out.
I've been told that if we would write more we could truly help the city with the process. I've also been told that if we wrote less and stopped publishing the stories on the front page, the city would be better off. The point is that we don't consider it our role to make that judgment. Our role is to report the story. No question that as we report, people who are involved make their own judgments about the coverage. But we have no goal to further or stymie the TRC process.
The commission's work has just begun. to us, coverage of its effort is more of a marathon than a sprint. We aren't finished. If you have suggestions for future stories, we'd like to hear them.
Comments (9)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
If anything, I think the N&R has given T&R to much coverage. The "news" story this past Sunday was also particulary one sided by failing to point out that the CWP also had guns and engaged in gunfire too. The story made it sound like the Klan showed up and started firing and the CWP did nothing but get shot. Both sides are too blame. An uninformed reader would not have known that by reading your story.
Posted on October 3, 2005 8:22 PM
I realized in my haste that I used the words "to" and "too" wrong. I should have switched them. The mind works in strange ways.
Posted on October 3, 2005 8:27 PM
The quality of writing on this story (well not just this story) seems very low, both in the reportage and sytle and the work overall seems like it suffers from minimal review by a competent editor. It's as if only interns work at your paper.
Outside of himself, who cares what Sam Spagnola thinks?
Posted on October 4, 2005 12:42 AM
John, you make a general statement that touches on a fundamental failure over the last twenty years or so of what used to be called the "Fourth Estate." I'm not specifically referencing the N&R's coverage of the GTRC, but since what I've quoted below opens the discussion up beyond the GTRC, I feel compelled to point this out.
"[...] Citing media coverage as inadequate or biased or inappropriate follows a path well-worn on any number of controversial, red-state/blue-state topics. On divisive issues, passionate people want news coverage that reflects their view of the world. When it doesn't, they point it out, as they should. [...]"
This just scratches the surface; you guys should be going far beyond this. It is your (the news media's) responsibility to inform the public of things that those in power are trying to hide; for example, what is the real reason that so many city officials are so dead-set again the Commission? The simplistic explanations provided ("bad for Greensboro's image") not only don't cut it, but they are exactly 180 degrees wrong (the Commission makes Greensboro look GOOD according to my friends from other parts of the country). Or as another example at the national level, why does the news media express no interest in digging up the details on the lies that were used to persuade Congress to go to war with Iraq, lies that the people who told KNEW were lies when they were uttering them?
This shirking of responsibility that was assumed up through the 1970s amazes and confounds me.
Anyway, one thing you guys have done that is outstanding as far as the GTRC is concerned is to make Ed Whitfield's audio recordings of the hearings available online; many thanks for that.
Best regards,
Tony
Posted on October 4, 2005 7:58 AM
I made this comment on another thread that you wrote yesterday but I'll say it again here:
"I found it sad that the opening line for the story touted "racism" as a cause for the shootout when it was between two groups of white people."
This first sentence put me completely off of reading the rest of the article because of it's resounding fallacy. How could the rest of the article have any integrity?
Posted on October 4, 2005 8:46 AM
It is still my contention that if the 5 dead had been Klan members, this "truth commission" would not have been championed by the TRC.
Tony L is completely obsessed with what his friends think of our fair city and the events that transpired as a result (see his past comments on this topic) of the sad actions of two loathsome organizations. Tony, if I were you, I'd get new friends.
The News & Record in their recent article on the TRC hearings pretty much sums up what the vast majority of Greensboro citizens had already concluded......there is nothing new to surface regarding the battle between the Commies and the Nazis in 1979.
One note, The Communist Worker's Party did endeavor to try to get some mileage out this event. While I was living in Cincinnati at that time, the CWP opened up a 'People's Bookstore' to bring new awareness to the masses. Riiiigggghhhhttt. It closed in a very short while.
Posted on October 4, 2005 9:00 AM
No, thanks, John; my friends in other parts of the country are great people, and I will keep them as friends.
All my friends in Greensboro (a few hundred), most of whom, like me, have lived here most of their lives, agree with me, too.
Perhaps *you* should get a new city?
:-)
Isn't it interesting how some interpret any opinion other than their own as "obsession?"
:-D
Best regards,
Tony
Posted on October 4, 2005 9:29 AM
"Outside of himself, who cares what Sam Spagnola thinks?" - Jeff
My wife would agree entirely.
Happy Xmas, War is Over....or is it?
Posted on October 4, 2005 8:53 PM
Mr. Spagnola....Would you mind telling me why you are violating the law by putting your campaign signs out on the right-of-way? They are everywhere and it really looks tacky...Thanks for keeping Guilford County Clean & Green....aren't you an attorney? You would think you would know better...
Posted on March 19, 2006 11:56 AM