News-Record.com

Ah-ha, just as I suspected:
"INSERT THE DAY'S BIAS" sits aquarely in the middle of the process! :)

Yeah, but with all the complaining, planning food outings, and surfing the Internet, how do we have enough time to worry about inserting bias? ;-)

And personally, I love calling reporters late at night for the fun of it -- they're always so chipper! ;-)

But jaycee, it doesn't say bias in favor of what! :)

What I'd like to know is why you can't report the facts without the bias. Why not report what canditates have voted on, all bills they supported or voted against, rather than endorsements that are based on political ideology or opinion. Then coverage wouldn't be biased and the people who read your paper would have the facts rather than your interpretation of them.

It would help to have some specifics about bias, But in general those are two different issues, Ginger. Profiles of candidates and races do touch on issues, but to list all the bills supported or opposed would be confusing and less helpful than you might think. Editorials -- which don't involve the news reporters -- are supposed to be opinion and they are based on voting records and political ideology.

What I'd like to know is why you can't report the facts without the bias. Why not report what candidates have voted on, all bills they supported or voted against, rather than endorsements that are based on political ideology or opinion.

I think you're looking at the box to the right of "Design paper" for the answer to that, matey.

I think Ginger thinks he/she may have stumbled onto a real newsroom flowchart. What's a blog, anyway????? ;)

If this were proportionate, like the Peters Projection world map,

>

then the box marked "Get Coffee" would be the size of South America.

True, Chicago, and "Flirt with new staffer" would be up there, too.

...and just how many of you in the comment section found this item by reading Romenesko?

Totally hysterical.

Where is the part when we have birthday cake? And where is "forget about visuals until last minute?"

Andy Rhinehart, webmaster for GoUpstate and the commissioner of the Manly Football League for 16 years, commented that the diagram was inaccurate because it left out the "build fantasy football dynasty" box...

You forgot to add: 10 a.m. -- Newsroom publishing system breaks down and IT is called to reboot. 2:30 p.m. Newsroom publishing system breaks down and paginators are forced to rebuild lost pages. 5 p.m. Newsroom publishing system crashes for the third time and page designers for a second time are forced to rebuild their work.
The lack of investment by owners of newspapers is causing journalists to re-do work every day, multiple times a day.

CLopez: Perhaps you work at a cheap newspaper with an antiquated, crash-prone system. I don't, and most of my friends don't. Sure, there's the stuff you expect from any computer, but three widespread crashes a day?

Don't project your paper's problems on the entire industry.

The "write stories" box needs to be a couple of different boxes.

You're forgetting:

mentally prepare yourself to talk with a source you find annoying.

Try, in vain, to think of a new lede for the 27th story on a particular subject.

Re: Insert the day's bias

Lighten up, folks, it's a joke.

Remember jokes?

Those things that we all used to laugh about before we started only listening to/watching/hearing that which confirms our *own* biases.

So sad.

-- neil

PS: From what I see your newsroom is less dysfunctional than those where I've worked. I'm jealous.

There's another missing entry: Take phone call from aggrieved reader who insists that reference to "blue jeans" is a liberal code for a bias against red states.

(Are you listening, Ginger?)

Yikes folks, I mean, just yikes: It's a spoof. "Insert the day's bias" is a joke. Get it? The whole thing is a gag. Get it yet?

Hilarious. Where is "Joke with co-worker about story detail/source"? (And count me among those who linked to this from Romanesko.)

BobH -- where on earth do you work? It must be a "real" newspaper, like the NY Times or Chicago Tribune! The vast majority of reporters are still working their way up the ladder (or out of the business eventually, due to frustration at poverty-level wages and management incompetence and apathy) at small and/or crappy papers with one IT guy who wasn't good enough at working computers to get a real job in a booming industry.

Newsroom is sentimental rubbish, chief! We're an Information Center.

Great stuff. Don't forget to tune into the 5pm local TV news and see your story from the day before done verbatim without any credit to the paper.

Where's "concoct expense report" ?

hey that chart looketh familiar! Now where was I with my story..

Two comments:

1.) The "bias" observations does not sit squarely in the middle of the page. It is an octagon.

2.) The mere fact an editor took the time to post this makes moot of the first diagram.

Well done!

The design aspect is missing a few steps. "This story is boring" should be larger, and there should be a square with "Duh." There also should be one for "Spend 2 hours looking at SND magazine."

Where's "retrieve [star-reporter/copydesk/publisher] from bar next door"? Have you no respect for tradition? And where is "Carefully read and process all press releases helpfully submitted by brilliant and poorly compensated public relations professionals?"
Heh.

You forgot to add: Hound reporter for the 11 a.m. online update.

Oh - you left out this box - FIELD FOUR PHONE CALLS FROM THE SAME FOUR GROUCHY (and I assume from the timing of the calls in the middle of the day - retired) READERS - TWO LIBERAL, TWO CONSERVATIVE - WHO HAVE IRREFUTABLE PROOF OF THE PAPER'S BIAS BY THE STORY YOU SELECTED.

(And ... oh ... it's the same story. That's usually five minutes a call. Leaving theoritically only 7 hours and 40 minutes to get coffee - which I don't drink - and other such *duties*).

I'm also gratified to know critics of newspapers go for eight-hour stretches without pausing to consume liquids! LOL.

(From a former national editor!)

Hey, guys, I reside and work in Kazakhstan, but our newsrooms do work the same way :)
Just one thing to be added "Call my mummy"

John Robinson....you are my hero lol