Monday, April 14, 2008

DO IT ON THE PAPER:

DO IT ON THE PAPER: Do they go to the bank or the pharmacy down at the local newspaper?

Apparently not because otherwise they’d have picked up a calendar to put on the wall.

First, the “lede” from a Sunday article on Big Jimmy’s Koo-Koo4Coco-Puffs event held Sunday (yesterday) at noon:

"In an attempt to address the issues important to Kauai’s, including sustainability and food security, residents are invited to “Uncle Jimmy’s Big Tent Kukakuka” tomorrow at noon at Hanama`ulu Beach Park"

Then from today’s (Monday) correction:

“Yesterday’s front page article, “Jimmy’s Big Tent to spark island dialogue,” should state that residents are invited to “Uncle Jimmy’s Big Tent Kukakuka” today at noon at Hanama`ulu Beach Park.”

But preceding that, in an “on again, off again, on again Finnegan” moment (ask your J-school friends for the whole joke) on Wednesday, they published an op-ed from Mayor Bryan Baptiste defending his plan to, as we discussed, put public relations people in each department which was followed by a Saturday report that he was abandoning the highly defended program- also as we discussed- and going back to a different PR scheme that the council didn’t want to fund either.

So what appears in Sunday’s paper? a letter from Baptiste defending the program he introduced and abandoned.

Now it’s not hard to make the Mayor look like a babooze- he is one. But you don’t have to publish old letters that indicate you don’t even read your own newspaper.

But for real confusion look at a couple of letters from a woman concerned over our legal system’s treatment of sex offenders. In Saturday’s letters section she writes a second letter saying something was intentionally left out of the previous letter they published on Friday But instead of putting it in context or reprinting the whole original letter there’s one of those defensive, cryptic editor’s notes followed by her letter about with the complaint they censored the whole original letter and talking about someone in the NGO sector she had a complaint about... although it is not at all apparent where the reference was and what it referred to in the first letter.

Geez guys- make a decision and stick with it- and stop with all those unprofessional editor’s notes on the letter- this isn’t the first one.

We’ve gotta admit that the quality of reporting is- to damn with faint praise- some of the best that’s appeared since the Jean Holmes days but some of the editing is still dismal.

Any truth to the rumor that a regime change is in the works down there?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny you mention that; we were just commenting on how much we don't miss Lester Chang. Now if only Adam would follow. A hui hou!

Anonymous said...

And trade Amanda for someone who can concentrate for three running sentences. I always think I've had a stroke and the ability to make any sense of anything until I look up at the byline and see her name, then I relax and realize it's not me, it's amanda.

Anonymous said...

On the other hand Nathan has been doing the best job of covering government I'v seen yet. Editing aside.