AFTER DEADLINE
On covering fatal accidents, system breakdowns and readers' vigilance
By Anne Harpham and Jim Kelly
In the aftermath of the multiple-car crash in Makaha that killed four people and injured three on Dec. 8, editors received several calls from readers complaining that our coverage "glorified" some of the victims. Police believe that two of the cars were speeding and that several of the people involved were drinking before the crash.
The callers said basically the same thing, that some of the victims "got what they deserved" and that they weren't interested in seeing their family photos or reading about their lives on the front page of the newspaper.
The violent deaths of four people is important news for our community. And because our job is to report what happened as completely as we can, an obvious angle is finding out about who the victims were, to report not only how they died but how they lived. Even if they were responsible for the crash, it's not up to us to make that value judgment. Our coverage would be incomplete, and it would be unfair and downright mean to refuse to publish photos or the remembrances of friends simply because the victims may have had a hand in their own demise.
Calendar calamity
Readers expect the information we provide to be accurate. We want readers to hold us to that expectation.
Now and then there will be errors in calendar listings — a wrong time, or a wrong date.
But we made a number of errors in the Faith page on Dec. 13 that added up to an intolerable breakdown in our system.
We listed four different events for the wrong day and gave a wrong time for a concert at St. Andrew's Cathedral last Sunday.
We know we inconvenienced people and we are sorry.
In addition to a mea culpa to the organizations whose events we listed incorrectly and the readers we misinformed, this column serves as notice that we do not take these kinds of errors lightly.
We corrected the errors, but we know that not all readers will see the corrections.
Regular readers of this column may recall that in April The Advertiser changed its policy on wording corrections and made it a goal to track the source of errors in a stepped-up effort to improve accuracy. In two weeks, we will report how well we did in 2003.
In tracking the source of errors, we have asked staffers to describe how and why errors have occurred and to suggest any changes that could help avoid future mistakes.
There are many causes of errors. Sometimes we are given wrong information, but many are caused simply by a mental lapse. Sometimes when we're in a rush, we don't follow our own internal rules for editing and processing copy.
In the case of the Faith calendar errors, several people made different errors that led to the mistakes. We reviewed the mistakes with the people responsible and asked them what needs to be done to avoid a repetition.
One staff member suggested better communication internally in how the Faith page is put together and that suggestion has been taken to heart.
All involved are also now more aware of making sure they double check original information against written and edited copy.
Informed readers
We discovered this month that some of our readers are very knowledgeable about European royalty.
We used a picture of Princess Victoria of Sweden with a story on Princess Maxima of the Netherlands on Dec. 10 in the People column.
More than two dozen readers called to alert us to the error.
The error was caused by someone who misread a caption in our photo archive. Many of the callers were amazed we could be so wrong, and the vehemence of their complaints was impressive.
Anne Harpham is The Advertiser's reader representative. Reach her at 525-8033 or aharpham@honoluluadvertiser.com. Jim Kelly is the executive editor. Reach him at 525-8094 or jkelly@honoluluadvertiser.com.
