News-Record.com

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You can link to my official biography. Or you can find out the real story:

Political affiliation: Unaffiliated. I was a Democrat more than 20 years ago.

Favorite subjects to write about: Local politics, growth and planning issues and community leadership.

Favorite television programs: HBO's "The Wire," a richly textured police drama set in Baltimore that casts its characters as real, multidimensional people (what a novel idea).

Favorite movies: An underrated Paul Newman courtroom drama, "The Verdict"; the deservedly praised 1962 adaptation of Harper Lee's novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird," with Gregory Peck; and the big little Oscar hopeful, "Sideways," a sad, funny comedy about mid-life that gives its audience credit for thinking.

If I have pressed the right buttons and clicked the right icons, maybe these words actually went where they were supposed to go.
And maybe someone, somewhere even is reading them.
But that's only half the idea.
This space belongs to you, too.
You already speak to us through your e-mails, your letters, your telephone calls and your op-eds.
Now those conversations can take on intriguing new dimensions
In the old days, a reader might fire off an email about an editorial or a column he's read in this morning’s paper. I'd respond. And that would be that.
Now others can join the conversation, instantaneously.
In addition, I hope to make the editorial pages more open and less mysterious.

Two new student organizations have arrived on "The Yard."

N.C. A&T's first multi-racial fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, is seeking a charter on the historically black campus, and the school's first support group for gay and lesbian students, PRIDE (People Recognizing Individual Diversity and Equality), held its second meeting last week.

As A&T continues to grow, such news should not be a surprise. And it's a matter of individual choice whether to participate.
But not everyone is comfortable with these developments.

Some students grumble in particular that they don’t like the name of the organization for gay students because it co-opts a familiar rallying cry for A&T students and alumni -- "Aggie Pride!"
Others are not so sure why a fraternity with a non-African American pedigree has a place at A&T.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is coming to town Tuesday and will meet for a while with the News & Record editorial board.

If you have questions you'd like him to address, zap them along and we'll try to work some of them in.

Tracie Fellers joins the News & Record editorial staff this week.

A Durham native, Tracie is a seasoned journalist and educator who has worked previously as a reporter at The Roanoke Times and the News & Record, and as an editor and reporter at the Durham Herald-Sun.

She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and holds master's degrees in English from N.C. State and creative writing from UNCG. She won N.C. State's 2004 Brenda L. Smart Award for Short Fiction.

Tracie brings a fresh voice and a fresh perspective to our pages. We're delighted to have her.

Thanks for the warm welcomes.

Part of my mission here is to explain how and why we do what we do. So let's get started.

Two of you have cited unsigned editorials as a pet peeve.

The editorials lack bylines not because we're hiding behind the newspaper's institutional shadow. They are unsigned because they reflect the opinion of the News & Record's editorial board, not merely one person's observations.

Here's how the process generally works:

The editorial writers meet each day at 9:30 a.m. to discuss topics and stances we should take. We generally arrive at our positions by consensus, but not always. That's because we don't always agree.

In the case of a split decision, we tend to go with the majority's view. In the case of a tie, I cast the deciding vote. And as a matter of courtesy in those cases, I avoid assigning the editorial to the dissenting staff members.

Our publisher, Robin Saul, also is a member of the editorial board and attends some board meetings. As the man who signs our paychecks, he can weigh in on a subject anytime he darn well pleases. But he tends to sit in for the biggies, such as our presidential and gubernatorial endorsements. In addition,every editorial crosses Robin's desk (or more, accurately, is sent to him via email) before it's published.

All of this is to say that individuals don't sign our editorials because individuals don't come up with them. They are summaries of group opinions.

Not so with personal columns by editorial staff members that reflect their individual points of view. That's why they are signed.

As for those who still believe we're dodging accountability, if that's true, we're doing a lousy job. The makeup of the paper's editorial board is listed daily below the editorials.

And the name and direct phone number of each editorial writer is emblazoned 365 days a year across the bottom of our page.

And since there are only four of us, it's pretty hard to duck responsibilty for our words or actions -- not that we'd want to anyway.