AFTER DEADLINE
Editorial writing is a matter of opinion

By Yasmin Anwar
Advertiser Editorial Writer

They drum it into you in journalism boot camp: Get the facts, convert them into bite-sized paragraphs with the latest news up high, don't insert your opinion, and if your mother says she loves you, check it out.

Over the decades, of course, that rigid "inverted pyramid" format has softened to compete with the more visual and entertaining broadcast news. But while many newspaper stories today are written with wit, color and analysis, the fundamental journalistic principle — at least in the United States — remains the same: Give readers the information without too much spin.

So what happens when a news reporter becomes an editorial writer and is suddenly expected to express an opinion? I can tell, you it's not easy. Consider the case of, well, me.

I've been a news reporter for 10 years and an editorial writer for just seven months. Until moving to what reporters refer to as the "ivory tower," my beat at the Advertiser was Native Hawaiian affairs. Mostly, I covered the twists and turns of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and various efforts to establish a form of Native Hawaiian sovereignty.

When sources asked my opinion on matters of Hawaiian self-determination, I was careful to use strictly neutral language. Letting people know what I really thought would have compromised my reputation as an "objective" reporter. So I kept my opinions to myself.

Now suddenly, I'm required to have an opinion on everything, from Honolulu's restaurant smoking ban to physician-assisted suicide; from how to reduce the local price of gasoline to Jimmy Carter's visit to Cuba; and from the traffic-camera debacle to the Bush administration's war on terrorism.

Unlike a columnist, I can't really rant and rave, because I represent the editorial board.

There are five of us in the Advertiser editorial department, and that includes editor Jerry Burris, editorial writer Dave Polhemus, cartoonist Dick Adair and John Strobel, a copy editor and page designer. Advertiser editor Saundra Keyes frequently joins us to weigh in on the issues du jour.

Each morning, we gather around a table in Burris' corner office to discuss the day's news. We judge policy makers and their actions. We marvel, titter or scoff at the events and people in the news. We jot down notes, raise questions that an article failed to answer, bounce theories and hypotheses off one another and recount anecdotes that might have a bearing on how we look at an issue. Sometimes we have heated debates, but most of the time we reach a consensus swiftly.

Once we've come up with a handful of meaty topics, we divvy them up and get to work. For us editorial writers, that means online research, calling sources and confirming information and seeing if any new twists have developed. Next, we each craft a mini-essay that introduces a controversy or event and takes a position with a voice that is neither shrill nor wishy-washy.

The ground rules are that we don't have to write editorials that we strongly disagree with, and we don't take personal shots at individuals unless the case is particularly egregious.

And naturally, because we can influence — to a limited extent — the outcome of high-stakes issues, politicians, state officials, developers, CEOs, diplomats and concerned citizens come to lobby us. Most of the time, they want us to support their position on an issue or project. Sometimes they want us to reverse our editorial position.

Either way, they're trying to sell us something. In the case of hotel operator Sun International, for example, it was a luxury resort in Ko Olina with a casino. We listen, ask questions and try to maintain a healthy measure of skepticism. After all, an ill-informed opinion can haunt us for a long, long time.

Yasmin Anwar can be reached at 525-8027 or yanwar@honoluluadvertiser.com.