After Deadline
Keeping the paper fair and consistent
By John E. Simonds
Advertiser Reader Representative
Fairness and consistency are important enough to argue about, and few do it better than readers of The Advertiser.
Challenges arise in political campaigns, trials, strikes, military incidents or when public figures get into trouble. Even readers who recognize life isn't necessarily played on a level field look to Hawai'i's Newspaper as a haven from spin and bias.
Why, a reader asked, didn't The Advertiser identify the motorist whose vehicle hit and killed a University of Hawai'i swimmer on March 16? A March 19 article said the young woman was bicycling in a crosswalk when struck. The motorist, identified only as someone 45, apparently was not injured and also not charged with an offense. So, no name appeared in print.
The Advertiser's general policy is not to identify people in such situations unless they are charged. But the newspaper makes exceptions in high-visibility cases, including incidents that attract attention or involve public figures.
The caller wasn't impressed with the distinction. Other people whose cars or trucks have killed people were identified, he argued, asking whether someone important was being protected. Readers grow suspicious when information seems to be missing.
A Honolulu Police Department spokesperson says the motorist was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence but released. The story quoted police as saying alcohol and speed were not factors. No charges have been filed in connection with the death, though the matter may be under investigation. It could take months, the HPD said. The city prosecutor's spokesperson says it's generally up to police to initiate referrals, and many potential cases are pending.
The suspicious reader deserves thanks for identifying another Bermuda Triangle of accountability, where information seems to fall through the journalistic-law enforcement cracks, also taking the explanation for its absence with it.
People close to the system, aware of how the process works, recognize the difference between identifying those motorists whom authorities have charged and others who remain free and anonymous, despite also having caused death or injury. But readers away from the system may view it as a disparity.
Privacy is a key issue in Hawai'i, as is fairness.
The challenge of consistent coverage and balanced treatment has grown more acute as metropolitan newspapers have reduced their community record-keeping roles.
Along with Hawai'i's upturn in traffic tragedies, dozens of public events and decisions occur each day, competing for limited print space and airtime, placing heavier dependence on the judgment of reporters and editors.
On a lighter issue, a UH baseball fan asked why the Rainbows get more ink when they lose than when they win.
She cited a big story on losing to Santa Barbara as an example and was not persuaded by daily Advertiser coverage of UH's recent four-game win streak and victory over Wichita State.
It's hard to find a newspaper that covers a local university baseball team more thoroughly, win or lose, than The Advertiser does UH. In newspapering, as in baseball, consistency is important in maintaining the day-to-day strike zone of news judgment.
Public education has provided another kind of strike zone for Hawai'i.
The Advertiser has been busy covering the contentious prelude to what could be the first concurrent public school and university faculty strike in the nation — another test of fairness and responding to perceptions of fairness.
Two callers inquired about a full-page ad that the state of Hawai'i had purchased in The Advertiser of March 20. The callers each said they thought it was a news story, wondered why it was so one-sided for the governor.
Mark Adkins, senior vice president for marketing, in charge of the advertising department, acknowledged that, under Advertiser policy, the ad should have indicated who paid for it.
However, it was "clearly marked with a border and different font (type face) which did define it as an ad," Adkins said.
Absence of the usual advertising label may have confused readers. Newspapers need to be vigilant about defining this difference.
John E. Simonds, The Advertiser's reader representative, can be reached at 525-8033 or jsimonds@honolulu.gannett.com
