Op-Ed Columns

How does a community newspaper cover the presidential campaigns?

By reporting local and state developments directly, and using the best available wire stories for national news. Two major contenders visited Birmingham last weekend, and The Star was there. Matt Kasper's coverage of the rallies of Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Barack Obama focused on the reactions of area people present, and included photos by Kasper.

They were packaged with wire stories about the speeches. The advance story, by the Associated Press, gave no time or place for Obama's meeting Sunday (Jan. 25, 1D). It is unlikely that the AP would leave out such basic information. It was probably included in paragraphs cut for space reasons. Obama's Web site was given, but readers shouldn't have to go to a Web site for such facts. If they weren't in the AP story, The Star should have checked the Web site for the information.

The Star strangely underplayed Sen. John McCain's victory in the South Carolina Republican primary. Results of the Nevada caucuses were mentioned on Page 1A and covered on Page 4A (Jan. 20). The South Carolina primary was not noted on Page 1A. There was a story on Page 4A, headlined, "In South Carolina, older voters turn out for McCain." The third paragraph said McCain won "a close victory over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee." No figures were given. The results were not complete by The Star's press time, but more information must have been available. The headline at least could have named the winner.

The Star gave considerable space to the Alabama campaign of a minor Republican candidate, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, the first candidate to begin advertising in Alabama media (Jan. 11, 3A). The story, by Markeshia Ricks, said that Paul "seems to be resonating with political neophytes, independents, Libertarians and disaffected Republicans" in Alabama. Little evidence was given to support this conclusion.

'Parkway' missed point

On Jan. 6, the entire front of the Insight section was a multi-colored promotion for a video on The Star's online edition, "Jurassic Parkway." The video was a fanciful dream of the dinosaur Sue from the Anniston Museum of Natural History exhibit completing that Eastern Parkway. The point of the whole thing was obscure to this viewer. There's something to be said for imagination and innovation. Maybe that was the point.

Mistakes in sports

The lead sports story on Jan. 9 was the naming of a new football coach at Oxford High School, by Nick Birdsong. The name of the new coach in the headline and in the leading paragraphs was John Grass. But in the third through the seventh paragraphs, he is mentioned five times as "Gross." He then becomes "Grass" again. A minor editing error? Maybe, but it's the kind of error that makes The Star seem careless and that readers will notice.

Other sour notes

• On Jan. 9 there was no comic page. The Jan. 9 and 10 comic pages were run on Jan. 10. There was a front-page apology.

• The weather chart (Jan. 10, 6B) gave the highs and lows for "today, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday." But "today" was already Thursday. So, was "today's" weather really today's or last Tuesday's?

• A headline about former Southern Cal standout Reggie Bush said, "Sports marketer says he gave Bush $30,000 at USC." The story said it was $300,000 (Jan. 11, 2C).

• The same Doonesbury comic strip ran on Jan. 10 and 11.

• A headline on a wire story read, "U.S. military chief: Close terror prison as soon as legal issues worked out," (Jan. 14, 2A). The story referred Guantanamo. "Terror prison" might be an editorial comment, but not a news headline.

• A sports headline read, "Pullman plows Weaver." The story described a prep basketball game between Faith Christian and Wellborn, not Weaver (Jan. 15, 5B).

• A story on the Starbyte page was headlined, "Clean off your cluttered computer every couple of months." The last sentence read, "If you've ever wondered how a nearby …" Readers are still wondering (Jan. 19, 3B).

Worth noting

• "What is somebody's sacrifice worth" was an effective description of problems Alabama veterans are having with the Veterans Administration. The problems are national; this story shows their impact on several of our veterans. It was a good analysis and moving human-interest writing, by Todd South, photo by Bill Wilson (Jan. 27, 1A).

• The news media covers city council meetings and political conflict. Too rarely does it look at the day-to-day business of government. An article, "Somebody has to do it," showed readers how our county coroner does his job. It was a window into an important, usually invisible government function, by Nick Cenegy, with striking photo composition by Stephen Gross (Jan. 10, 1B).