News-Record.com

In tomorrow's wonderful story about High Point Mayor Becky Smothers and her fight against cancer, we mention a letter she wrote in the High Point Enterprise announcing her condition. Rather than say something strange such as "a High Point newspaper," we named the paper. Sounds obvious. right? For years, newspapers wouldn't name competitors even when the reference was clear. Why give competitors a free plug went the argument. Why treat readers as if they are stupid, I say.

Our desire for opacity rather than transparency seems so silly sometimes.

Speaking out of the other side of my mouth:

In that story, Smothers said that at one point she was "scared shitless." As far as profanity is concerned, we don't permit it unless a source says it and it is vital to the understanding of the story or the speaker. The typical "hell" and "damn" will generally be printed. Everything else has a high bar to justify printing in a family newspaper. Editors argued to include the quote because it showed the level of her fear and emotion.

I said no because I respect the level of prudishness of some of our readers. I didn't think the quote was compelling enough to risk offending people who prefer their news profanity free. Using the curse word didn't add to my understanding of her fear or of her battle. In fact, the way it was said, it almost sounded as if its usage is every day, but maybe that's because it is in a newsroom. In the end, it seemed to give readers a reason to stop reading, and why would we do that?

Anyway, I approved the lame use of hyphens as in "scared ----less."

Update: After further discussion today, we changed it to a simple paraphrase.

Acknowledged, our desire for opacity rather than transparency seems so silly sometimes.

But read the story. It's a good one. And don't miss the multi-mmedia.

Monday update. Then there's this. (Via Romenesko).