Bias or Bluster?

Your read of the following exchange between Executive Editor Ben Holden and Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon may vary depending upon your perspective. The following four documents, all of which follow below, are relevant:
1. A proposed Op-Ed piece written by McKoon.
2. A Letter reply from Holden to McKoon, with attachments, taking issue with factual assertions in the McKoon piece.
3. The final re-submitted piece, submitted by McKoon for publication on Sunday Nov. 23 in the Voices section of the Ledger-Enquirer.

1) The Ledger-Enquirer. The Friday editorial admonished voters to watch Republicans for signs of being uncooperative with Obama and the Democratic majorities in Congress. I don't remember any such editorial asking Tom Daschle or Nancy Pelosi to play nice with President Bush when he was elected, twice. It seems counterintuitive to suggest that the party to watch now is the GOP when Democrats control the Legislative and Executive Branches of government. How about cautioning overreach by those in control? Remember 1993 when after running on economic policy President Clinton swung into action by having legislation introduced to...allow gays in the military?!
The Sunday editorial seems to suggest that the concerns about the fairness of coverage in the newspaper are totally without merit. (Deleted following discussions between McKoon and Holden) I have to take strong exception to that notion. The Ledger-Enquirer is the newspaper of record in our community.
I know when I research events and am looking for factual information, I go to archives of the Ledger. I also look to be able to cite the Ledger in debates again for a factual source on which we all can agree. Unfortunately, the Ledger and other mainstream media organs are losing this reputation of being an objective source of information.
This goes beyond an endorsement of Obama for President, although I urge a comparison of that editorial with the endorsement of Bush in 2004 and it seems hard to understand how both opinions can be held by the same editorial board.
The news items carried by the Ledger, principally coming from the Associated Press, have been very much stacked in favor of the Obama campaign.
You want some examples I am sure, so let me provide you some. The Ledger ran stories about Palin's unreadiness as VP, the amount spent on her wardrobe for the campaign and the so-called "Troopergate" episode.
The Ledger did not run any stories questioning Biden's readiness (i.e. his > suggestion in the wake of 9/11 that we should write Iran a check for $200 million), his connections with the credit card issuer MBNA (an MBNA executive bought Biden's house, etc.) or how many $1,000+ suits Biden had bought for him by the DNC or Obama-Biden.
The Ledger failed to run a single story on how the Obama campaign disabled basic credit card security software that allowed donations from multiple names using the same credit card number (Osama bin Laden and Adolph Hitler being a couple of names that got through), that did not check for overseas donations > or in any way come into compliance with FEC rules. Where were the Ledger stories following Stanley Kurtz lead on the connections between Obama and William Ayers or Obama and Tony Rezko?
Of course we did see stories about McCain and the Keating 5 and the many "lobbyists" working in McCain's campaign. I could go on and on but the fact is the Ledger's coverage mirrored that of many other media outlets in its tilt toward Obama.
There has always been a liberal bias in the press, but at the end of the day the press has followed stories where they lead no matter who was involved (witness Gary Hart and Donna Rice, Bill Clinton and the many scandals of his administration).
The 2008 campaign will be remembered as the time when liberal media bias transformed into liberal media advocacy, summed up recently by Chris Mathews who said his job as a journalist is to make Barack Obama successful.
This is why readership, advertising and subscriptions will continue to decline as long as the Ledger is seen less and less an honest broker of the news with a left leaning editorial bent and instead as a Pravda-like propaganda arm of the Obama campaign from the news and editorial pages. I hope you might take some of this criticism into account as you seek to cover the Obama inauguration and his administration.

Josh McKoon Chairman, Muscogee County Republican Party

2) Hey Ben,

Here are the results of my research regarding the points you raised (from Josh McKoon’s letter). I physically searched the papers of the last nine weeks or so. I didn’t have access to August’s papers. (even numbered issues only)

2. Placement and length of Palin "Troopergate" episode
The “Troopergate” scandal for Palin broke in the second week of July and was being covered extensively by media in her home state of Alaska prior to her nomination on Aug. 29.
According to Holly’s record, Troopergate never made it to the front page. In the stories of Sept. 3 and 4, surrounding Palin’s appearance at the GOP national convention, she attacked the media for its investigations into her personal life, McCain’s campaign strategist Steve Schmidt criticized a “faux media scandal” surrounding her, but he never mentioned anything specific. It was most likely either the Ted Stevens money or her pregnant, unmarried child he was referring to, as they were the hot convention-week topics.
Inside coverage of Troopergate did include:
Sept. 27: “Palin aides defy subpoenas in Troopergate” A10, 5 in.
Oct. 12 “Report stings Palin over Troopergate” A12, 21 in.
Nov. 4 (Election Day) “Report clears Palin in Troopergate probe” Page A6, 18 in.
Chuck was covering the travel issue. Other Palin and Palin-related coverage on inside pages includes:

Sept. 3: “Campaign funds hurt Palin image” A8, 18 in.
Sept. 7: “Palin’s persona covers her complexity” A17, about 40 in.
Sept. 8: “Biden eager for debate with Palin” A9, 6 in.
Sept. 9: “McCain, Palin criticize Obama on earmarks” A14, 18 in.
Sept. 15: “Young evangelicals split on Sarah Palin” A10, 24 in.
Sept. 16: “Palin spells out her role” A8, 18 in.
Sept. 23: “FBI searches apartment in Palin hacking case” A8, 12 in.
Sept. 25: “Palin look-a-like berated” A2 Really, 12 in.
Sept. 27: “Palin gives tainted donations to charity” A10, 12 in.
Sept. 27: “Veep choices add their voices” A10, 48 in.
Sept. 29: “Records show Palin accepted zoning aid, gifts while mayor” A8, 30 in.
Oct. 2: “Palin’s popularity tumbles among Alaskans” A10, 36 in.
Oct. 4: “70 million tune in to Veep debate” A10, 9 in.
Oct. 14: “Father of Bristol Palin’s baby speaks out” A5, 25 in.
Oct. 17: “Palin urges tapping into energy sources” A10, 20 in.
Oct. 28: “Candidates found in cabbage patch” A2 Really, included pictures of custom-made Cabbage Patch dolls modeled on both presidential and vp candidates to be auctioned for charity. 15 in.
Oct. 28: “McCain dismisses Palin clothes” A10, 20 in.
(I didn’t include all the A2 people briefs covering Tina Fey’s Palin impression and Palin and McCain’s separate appearances on SNL)
4. Biden's connections with the credit card issuer MBNA (an MBNA executive bought Biden's house, etc.).
I didn’t find anything on this, and very little on Biden at all. Something might have run shortly after he was named the veep choice, or something might have appeared on the business page, but if it did it was before September.

6. How the Obama campaign disabled basic credit card security software that allowed donations from multiple names using the same credit card number (Osama bin Laden and Adolph Hitler being a couple of names that got through), that did not check for overseas donations or in any way come into compliance with FEC rules.
Didn’t find this particular issue covered in any of our stories. We did have the story “RNC files complaint about Obama’s fundraising,” but that was about various fundraising records as possibly being from overseas, partly because when the information isn’t known on a contributor’s record, they mark it “IR” for “information requested.” Someone apparently thought it meant “Iran.” Ran on Oct. 7, Page A4 (obit page) and was between 10-15 inches.
8. Stories on Obama and Tony Rezko.
The only story I found mentioning Rezko ran Oct. 13 on A10 and is about 36 inches long. The headline is “Campaigns highlight foes’ past associations,” and the subhead is “Both candidates stretch facts in attempt to smear opponent. The AP story by Christopher Wills discusses Obama’s links to Ayers and Rezko and McCain’s links to Charles Keating, John Singlaub and Rick Davis. It detailed the connections, what the campaigns were saying, and what the actual facts were. It ended with a link to both candidate’s Web sites.
10. Stories on the "lobbyists" working in McCain's campaign.
I didn’t find anything on this either. If we ran it, it was buried in one of the “today on the campaign trail stories which comprise the bulk of our coverage.
I have to say, having done this review, I can say that our coverage of the campaign consisted of three main types of stories. “Today on the campaign trail,” as I said, then poll results stories, then “Checking the candidates’ facts” stories.
Most of our inside coverage was stories on both candidates and what they said that day, either proposing fixes for the economy, blaming each others’ parties for the state of the economy, or questioning the other’s veracity.
While I might agree that the content of some AP stories seemed a little quick to jump to Obama’s defense (a tendency we as editors tried to counter in our cutting as much as possible), I think our coverage was remarkably balanced. Even “fair and balanced,” if such a phrase can be used non-ironically any more.

Hope this helps,

Christopher Sheets

Newsroom Training Editor

Date: Nov. 18, 2008
To: Ben Holden
From: Chuck Crouch
Subject: Selected analysis of topics from coverage letter by Josh McKoon
Methodology: I took the odd-measured items from the Josh McKoon letter. I researched the story issues off-site and then came in and went through all papers from the final 2½ months of the presidential campaign. I specifically noted all inside wire stories in addition to the coverage that Holly Leach has listed in her fact-check, fairness scorecard. What follows is a listing of the selected topics I covered and a synopsis of our coverage regarding these items. This was a painstaking effort that involved turning every page in the paper for the period involved. This is necessary because our wire coverage has not been archived in SAVE database. As we go forward in SaxoTech, this kind of research should be more efficient and less time-consuming.

1. Placement and length of Palin wardrobe stories: We ran two stories regarding Sarah Palin’s wardobe.

Story I: On Thursday, Oct. 23 on page A10 we ran an 11-inch story in the left-hand well of the page. The headline on the story said: “$150,000 spent on Palin’s look” The subhead said: “Campaign says clothing will go to charity after vote.” This was the third and lowest-profile campaign story on the page. At the top of the page was a McCain campaign story. The second story at the top of the page talked about surprisingly long lines voters were finding in advance voting.
Story II: On Monday, Oct. 27 on page A10 we ran a 12-inch story under the headline: “McCain dismisses Palin clothes flap.” To my knowledge, these were the only two stories we ran on the topic.
3. Stories on Biden’s readiness (i.e. his suggestion in the wake of 9/11 that we should write Iran a check for $200 million): I found no stories on this in our paper. I did find stories on the Web referencing or repeating this 2001 anecdote. Most were on partisan Web pages.
5. The number of $1,000+ suits Biden had bought for him by the DNC or Obama-Biden: I found no stories in our coverage regarding this. The Web research I did held a consensus that McCain, Obama and Biden buy their own clothes. One Web story talked about likes and dislikes, but not about any of the three receiving party funding for their clothing.
7. Stories following Stanley Kurtz’s lead on the connection between Obama and William Ayers: I’m sure we have run a number of stories about this since the issue was brought out during the Democratic primary season. For purposes of this report and the coverage period leading up to the election, I found two stories in our coverage.
Story I: On Saturday, Oct. 11 we ran a 24-inch story on page A15 under the headline: “McCain ad raises Obama’s links to former radical (William Ayers)”
Story II: On Friday, Oct. 17 we ran a 30-inch story under the headline: “Chicago knows Ayers as a scholar.” Those were the only two stories I found during this period.
9. Number and placement of stories about McCain and the Keating 5: Again, since the original event in 1991, I’m sure we have run stories about McCain’s testimony and his part in the Keating 5 case. But for the purposes of this research I found no stories specifically about this issue.
Other Ledger-Enquirer points of entry on theses issues:
I would note that I covered only news columns in this research. Throughout this campaign, and including the most recent period, our newspaper has carried a number of columns by authors on both sides of the political spectrum. Some have been nice, others less so.
I know Josh McKoon knows the difference between opinion and news. But just as a numbers thing, we have run many columns and/or editorials that probably have touched on these topics. My sense is that no matter how politically savvy a person is, during political campaigns many can’t and/or don’t see the difference. And so coverage to some means everything that was in the Ledger-Enquirer.
My professional perspective on this campaign coverage: B
ecause I have watched and worked with Larry Foley for years as he carefully selects and diligently balances news coverage, I feel that our coverage throughout Campaign 2008 has been remarkably fair and even. I know that’s my goal every day I come to work and on every story I put in the newspaper.
We have reported news when there was news. We have tried to identify opinion or analyses when we run them. Most of all we have tried to give readers information from many sources so they could make a well-informed decision in 2008. We don’t live in a vacuum, and we must invite feedback and even criticism. I think we must recognize that other people are entitled to their perceptions. We can learn from them. But I also think that others must also look at the process and understand how diligently we seek and strive to balance coverage and be fair to everyone.

Chuck Crouch Senior Copy Editor
3) Final Version of McKoon Op-Ed From: Joshua McKoon Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 Dear Editor: I read with great interest the editorial in the Friday edition of the Ledger-Enquirer. The Friday editorial admonished voters to watch Republicans for signs of being uncooperative with Obama and the Democratic majorities in Congress. I don't remember any such editorial asking Tom Daschle or Nancy Pelosi to play nice with President Bush when he was elected, twice. It seems counterintuitive to suggest that the party to watch now is the GOP when Democrats control the Legislative and Executive Branches of government. How about cautioning overreach by those in control? Remember 1993 when after running on economic policy President Clinton swung into action by having legislation introduced to...allow gays in the military?! I wanted to address the issue of fairness in terms of the news coverage toward the two presidential tickets. The Ledger-Enquirer is the newspaper of record in our community. I know when I research events and am looking for factual information, I go to archives of the Ledger. I also look to cite the Ledger in debates again for a factual source on which we all can agree. Unfortunately, the Ledger and other mainstream media organs are losing this reputation of being an objective source of information.
The news items carried by the Ledger, principally coming from the Associated Press, have appeared to me to be stacked in favor of the Obama campaign. You want some examples I am sure, so let me provide you with a few.
The Ledger ran stories about Palin's alleged unreadiness as VP, the amount spent on her wardrobe for the campaign and the so-called "Troopergate" episode. The Ledger did not run any stories questioning Biden's readiness (i.e. his suggestion in the wake of 9/11 that we should write Iran a check for $200 million), his connections with the credit card issuer MBNA (an MBNA executive bought Biden's house, etc.) or how many $1,000+ suits Biden had bought for him by the DNC or Obama-Biden.
The Ledger failed to run a single story on how the Obama campaign disabled basic credit card security software that allowed donations from multiple names using the same credit card number (Osama bin Laden and Adolf Hitler being a couple of names that got through), that did not check for overseas donations or in any way come into compliance with FEC rules.
Where were the Ledger stories following Stanley Kurtz lead on the connections between Obama and William Ayers or Obama and Tony Rezko? Of course we did see stories about McCain and the Keating 5 and the many "lobbyists" working in McCain's campaign. I could go on but the fact is the Ledger's coverage mirrored that of many other media outlets relying on wire services in its tilt toward Obama.
There has always been a liberal bias in the press, but at the end of the day the press has followed stories where they led no matter who was involved (witness Gary Hart and Donna Rice, Bill Clinton and the many scandals of his administration).
The 2008 campaign will be remembered as the time when liberal media bias transformed into liberal media advocacy, summed up recently by Chris Mathews who said his job as a journalist is to make Barack Obama successful.
I hope you might take some of this criticism into account as you seek to cover the Obama inauguration and his administration. While I have this platform, I do want to make one other thing clear.
While I opposed the election of the Obama-Biden ticket with all the effort I could muster, we must all now respect the decision the American people have made.
In the wake of this election, evidently there are people making statements that Obama is the anti-Christ or Obama is a radical Muslim "Manchurian Candidate" of some kind. These statements are not only patently false and hateful but also do immeasurable damage to those of us who are trying to articulate a reasoned opposition to the policies we expect will be proposed in the next administration.
We need to stand together in condemning those irresponsible statements and focus on moving our country forward. As for me, Barack Obama is my President and I will support him when I can and respectfully disagree when I cannot. Thank you for the chance to say that. Regards, Josh McKoon, Chairman, Muscogee County Republican Party

Newspapering in Troubled Times. . .

-----Original Message-----
From: Holden, Ben - Columbus
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 12:58 PM
To: 'Ken Clark'
Cc: Canepa, Valerie - Columbus
Subject: Newspapering

Ken:
Ironic, huh? I have a standing rule against putting the D-Word (as in Depression) in a headline, but sometimes the news just seems to justify a full-throated scream. I'll take a look at it and see if we need to dial it back. Thanks for the note. Best, Ben

-v-
Ben Holden
Executive Editor
Ledger-Enquirer
(706) 571-8560 - Phone
(706) 576-6290 - Fax
www.ledger-enquirer.com
bholden@ledger-enquirer.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Clark [mailto:kenclark75@pstel.net]
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 6:07 PM
To: Holden, Ben - Columbus
Cc: Canepa, Valerie - Columbus
Subject: Newspapering

Ben, a couple of days ago you wrote an excellent column pointing out that now is the time to remain cool and not panic where the economy is concerned. Did you forget to show it to your headline writers?

Would still like to have that lunch at some point.
Ken Clark

There You Go Again

Mr. and Ms. Backman:

Thank you for your note. We get this complaint fairly routinely -- balanced of course, by complaints from many in our community who believe we go overboard with race-based reporting and in fact place the faces of minority criminal defendants in prominent display for improper reasons. As the editor, of course, my job is to defend against not just bias or "political correctness" but also the perception of both.

That said, because this issue seems to be of great importance to you, I assume you merely missed the following recent examples of our cops reporting doing exactly what you claim we don't do:

1. Today's paper, Page A6: "The suspect is described as a black man, age 20-30, standing 6-foot-2 and weighing 220 pounds.
2. Yesterday's paper, Page A4: "The suspect is described as a black man, standing 6-foot-2, weighing 190 pounds and wearing a a black, sleveless T-shirt, black pants and a black ski mask."
3. Thursday Oct. 2, Page A5: "The suspect is described as a 5-foot-7 inch to 5-foot 9-inch black man in his 20s."

Our policy is to include descriptions of race as part of descriptions that may help police catch criminals and protect citizens. When we have a description we print it. Our standard is two visible characteristics plus race, or one really unique and visible one plus race. "The suspect was white" is not a description in my view. You may disagree, which is OK by me.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've gotta get back to the mailroom.

Ben
-v-
Ben Holden
Vice President & Executive Editor
Ledger-Enquirer
(706) 571-8560 - Phone
(706) 576-6290 - Fax
www.ledger-enquirer.com
bholden@ledger-enquirer.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Vada [mailto:vbackman@mchsi.com]
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2008 11:43 PM
To: Canepa, Valerie - Columbus; Riquelmy, Alan - Columbus; Holden, Ben - Columbus
Subject: There you go again...


You guys really need to be taken to the woodshed on this one. Did any of you attend Journalism
School or did you work your way up from the mailroom? When identifying a suspect in a crime, RACE is integral to a description of the suspect. It is not racist to identify the race of a suspect. Race is a FACT. Racial identification could prevent an innocent person from being falsely arrested. If dark clothing and dark sunglasses are important...so is dark skin...or light skin. Honestly, I have seen this so many times before in your paper...I am not letting it go this time. If I saw someone with silver teeth and contacted the police, I would feel horrible if I incorrectly fingered a suspect of the wrong color. In the words of Sgt. Joe Friday..."Just the facts, Ma'am." Stop letting YOUR racial sensitivities interfere with reporting the news.

Vada and George Backman
-v-
HERE'S THE STORY:

A late night run to the border Sunday turned into an armed robbery at a Taco Bell.

The robbery happened when a man pulled into the drive-thru at 2:18 a.m. in a small, dark car with blue neon lighting inside, said Columbus Police Sgt. Frank Massa. The driver ordered some food from the 3527 Macon Road restaurant and then pulled up to the window.

"When he got to the window to pay for it, and the guy opened the register, that's when he robbed him," Massa said.

The suspect is described as a man in his 20s, wearing dark clothes, dark sunglasses and having silver teeth (Ed note: Red highlight emphasis was added by emailer). He had some type of handgun, Massa said.

"No injuries reported, and no shots fired," the sergeant added.

Alan Riquelmy

Reader Loves the Ledger

This note brightened my day and I wanted to share it with you.
Best, Ben
-v-
Ben Holden
Vice President & Executive Editor
Ledger-Enquirer



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sarah Briggs [mailto:sarah1960@ohio.usa.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 11:22 AM
To: CLE - Soundoff
Cc: vcanepca@ledg-ernquirer.com; Holden, Ben - Columbus; Nix, Dusty - Columbus; Owen, Mike - Columbus
Subject: The L-E



I've lived in cities like Dayton, Jacksonville, Orlando, Sioux City, Little Rock and even Dallas
and none of the newspapers in those cities could match the Ledger-Enquirer.
I feel very grateful to have such a high calibre periodical to inform and entertain me each
morning. Count your blessings.

Sarah

If there are two many cities in my Sound Off take some out.

Note: I love the columnists like Brad Barnes and Larry Gierer and Dusty Nix' editorials
are among the best I have read. I also love Sound Off, the editorial page, Jumble
and the crossword puzzle that is the best I have seen. The only thing I strongly
dislike is the TV section on Sunday. Just very small townish. Embarrassing.
I won't allow out of town visitors to see it laying out. Surely you can improve it.

The real celebrities

When a celebrity is ill, they get lots of attention, but the real
celebrities are the strength of our community. Here's a note from
Gabriele Azhar about her mother, Charlotte Osterburg.

Dear Mr. Holden:

My mother, Charlotte Osterburg, lived in Columbus from 1957 until we
relocated to Florida in October 2006. Mother was very active in the
community and frequently graced the pages of your paper. She retired as
the Programs Officer of the International Training Detachment at Fort
Benning which involved going into the community to interest people in
sponsoring the foreign officers attending various courses, a job she
loved and excelled at. Mother was the first woman Kiwanian in town and
headed the International Relations Committee. She was a Page One judge
in foreign languages as well as participating in many foreign language
events at Columbus State University. During his tenure, Gov. George
Busbee made her an honorary lieutenant colonel for her efforts in
fostering good foreign relations in Columbus. Mother was also a
Gracious Lady of Georgia.

Most important to Mother was the love felt for this country. We
immigrated from Germany in 1957, and there was no prouder American than
Mother.

If you would like to have additional information, please contact me.

Thank you for your consideration.


Gabriele (Gaby) Osterburg Azhar

To our Readers:

As you know, journalists nationwide are in the midst of a struggle to re-make the newspaper business in the wake of profound change. Here are the thoughts of Howard Weaver, Vice President for News at our parent company, The McClatchy Co.

Howard Weaver's Blog

Here's an email request I recently received and my reply:

Mr. (Deleted):

Thank you for your note. Our policy at the newspaper is to disclose race whenever it is part of a substantive description of the person being sought. As a practical matter, this means race plus two other factors, such as approximate age, height and weight. We do not print race when it is the only known factor other than gender.

In other words, we would not print that the alleged criminal was a "white female" (in the Chattahoochee Valley, that description merely narrows the hunt from more than 150,000 women to still more than 80,000 women). On the other hand, if the police are looking for a "white woman, about 5-foot-six and 125 pounds," we would (and do) print this information.

There is one exception to this rule, which serves to get more descriptions into the newspaper. That is this: if the suspect has an "immutable" or unchangeable characteristic such as a visible scar or a tattoo, we print the description, even if we have no other meaningful information beyond race.

Thank you for your concerns about our reporting standards.

Best regards, Ben



From: (Name Deleted)
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 7:57 AM
To: Canepa, Valerie - Columbus
Subject: police news


I would like to know why Sara Pauff does not include a better description of the thugs who are mentioned in the local police section today. Gunman, partner invade apartment, and clerk struggles with armed robber! In both cases descriptions are given outside of race. It would be nice to know if we are in danger of these folks and they are white, black, or Hispanic. How are we to look for them and describe them if we don't know there race! Please do a better job at editing your folks, thank you for your time.

Frequent feedback

I get a lot of correspondence in this job. Some very kind and thoughtful, some less so. Most of it is focused on something we didn't get quite right, or on something somebody wants us to put in the paper.

The string of emails that follows illustrates the kind of feedback I get each day, and one typical response. The lesson here, I hope, is the folks at the newspaper are all very busy and we are trying our best to cover a community of more than 300,000 with less than 50 journalists. But if you come at it the right way, you can frequently get exactly what you want. . . Or as my mama always said: "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."

Ben Holden
Executive Editor

Changes to newspaper were necessary

I have a great job.

I was never more certain of that fact than when, earlier this month, my wife and I traveled back to Berkeley, Calif., for our 20-year law school reunion.

She works in Columbus as a lawyer. That made sense to everyone.

I work here as the editor of your local newspaper. That made sense to no one.

But here's what they don't get: editing a local newspaper -- even in a time of tough competition from the Internet and in the face of an unforgiving economic downturn -- is a public trust.

You get that. That's why more than 150 of you wrote to us, many expressing concern that your newspaper is shrinking, and therefore our community -- with its great civic pride and justifiably high aspirations -- has taken a step backward. I understand and respect that view.

I don't like reducing the size of the newspaper which has been entrusted to me after 180 years. The choices facing us were difficult, but our Monday/Tuesday cuts were one front-and-back page each day. The actual number of local stories on Page 1 and Local on Monday through Sunday is typically eight or nine. That's about the number we've published each day since September 2004 when I took over as editor.

Also, take a look at your papers from the prior several months for Monday and Tuesday. They average 28 pages. This week we printed 26, or 13 pages front-and-back, rather than 14.

We realize having all the news in two sections on Monday and Tuesday is troubling to many readers, and I have resisted the urge for years to go in this direction because (despite the compelling financial case for doing so) I understood many readers would not like it. But we've said openly that the Monday-Tuesday two-section approach was a necessary evil.

That said, we've heard you and are making adjustments where possible based on your feedback. Many of you told us you enjoyed the Today in History and celebrity birthdays. Starting today, we are reinstating the daily celebrity birthdays feature, and adding back a large portion of the Today in History items on A2.

Also, we are working hard to adjust the weather page to the liking of more of our readers. And while we will undoubtedly not be able to please everyone, we believe we can make some adjustments based on your preferences. If this issue is of great importance to you, contact Jerry Morehouse at 706-320-4422 or jmorehouse@ledger-

enquirer.com by Friday, May 2.

As to editorial pages, many of you have asked about the lineup of columnists for the week. The best news we have to report is that Sunday Voices remains intact, as you see in today's paper. You can continue to enjoy regular columnists George Will, Joe Galloway and Jim Evans in this section. They will be joined by Walter Williams and Froma Harrop. Other columnists have found new homes: Bill O'Reilly will run Monday, and Bill Shipp and Mark Shields will run Saturday.

Also, many of you asked about health inspections. We will be reinstating this feature, which disappeared largely because the state of Georgia changed its reporting system. We hope to have someone trained and a system up-and-running to once again bring you health inspection reports by early summer.

As seven-day-a-week readers of the newspaper have learned, we didn't just take things away. In addition to front-loading news and information into page 1, 2 and 3, we also added a standalone Business section on Friday featuring small business, along with a roundup of our best content offerings on Ledger-Enquirer.com.

We will continue to run a bold, larger-than-standard index on Page 1 to help you find your way around the new format.

Eight out of 10 folks in this community read our paper at least once weekly. We trust them to understand where our country and our local economy stands at present. We believe that when the economy turns, so will all businesses, local and national -- including this one.

Thank you for your continued loyalty to the newspaper, which at the end of the day is a private business managing perhaps the most difficult economy of my adult life. But it is a business with robust growth prospects. In fact, 12 percent more people read our Sunday paper now than in the fall of 2005, and 9 percent more read it daily. And of the 31 newspapers in our company, the Ledger-Enquirer is No. 1 in Sunday home delivery circulation growth.

My mother always told me that nothing worth doing came easy. So I thank you once again, for making this the toughest job I've ever loved.

– Ben Holden

Changes to printed newspaper

Your Ledger-Enquirer looks different today. We have made a number of changes to the paper that are both structural and cosmetic.

First, the newspaper will be organized differently. Local news and opinion will be incorporated into the first section, and sports and business will run in the second section Tuesday through Thursday.

Monday's Major Local Companies package will move to Saturday, and Small Business will move to Friday. Friday's Army Life will move to Tuesday.

The weather map has been moved to A2, and information about lake levels, moon phases and river stages will move to the sports section. Sound Off! has moved from the opinion page to A2.

We will run an expanded index box to help you navigate the paper.

While these changes were made to address rising fuel and newsprint costs, they weren't made lightly. We pulled together a team of editors from all departments to create a more compact paper, and we believe the end result is a paper that is streamlined, better organized, and front-loaded with some of the most popular features.

No changes are planned to our core mission -- to be the best local information resource in the region, both online and in print. We just won nine Georgia Associated Press Awards for excellence, including the prestigious Freedom of Information Award, and our Web site, ledger-enquirer.com, is among the fastest growing sites in our newspaper group.

We welcome your feedback on these changes. Please call me at 706-571-8560.

Ben Holden, executive editor

Death of newspapers greatly exaggerated

If you read the headlines in American newspapers (including this one) you might get the impression from a few marginally informed “experts” that newspapers are on their deathbed. I say hogwash.

Newspapers in general, and the Ledger-Enquirer in particular, remain the dominant sources of local news in their communities and deliver the only mass audience that in any way compares to the historical “Town Square” of yesteryear.

How do we know? Well, because you told us so.

You told us through our March 2008 Market Study, which indicates our daily paper is read by 111,350 folks in this community, a 12 percent increase over the prior two years. The study, based on information approved by the Audit Bureau of Circulation data, also revealed that our Sunday readership had improved even more – to 134,510, or a whopping nine percent jump. (The study period was Fall 2005 vs. Fall 2007).

If we’re dead, nobody told us. Our home delivery circulation continues to grow. Since January, we’re up 1.3% daily and 2.2% Sunday. This despite high gas prices, recession fears and general economic malaise. Things are tough in the news business, to be sure. And eventually I’ll probably write a thing or two about our challenges. But not today. We just got these numbers and it’s time to celebrate.

These figures are a tribute to you, the reader, our remarkably informed and engaged citizenry here in the valley. The numbers also say wonderful things about our staff here at the Ledger-Enquirer.

We are growing due to the efforts of reporters like Mick Walsh, a former U.S. airman who does a great job of covering Ft. Benning. And Dawn Minty, our features editor who oversees coverage areas ranging from religion, to nightlife, to motherhood. Or Mike Haskey, our photo chief, a player-coach who manages a staff, takes photos himself and keeps a great sense of humor all the while.

Speaking of humor, if he were alive, my fellow Missourian, Mark Twain, might have a thing or two to say about all this. If he were me he’d probably scratch his wild patch of hair and wrinkle his unwieldy white mustache and say something like: “News of our death has been greatly exaggerated.”

Ben Holden
Vice President & Executive Editor

Welcome

Welcome to Inside the Ledger-Enquirer, our newest blog. In this space we’ll try to answer questions, address concerns and share information from the back offices of the newspaper. We get hundreds of reader inquiries a year, so it makes sense to post our answers for everyone to see.

A few ground rules:

1. To ask a question or register a concern, send it to the e-mail address in the righthand column of this page, vcanepa@ledger-enquirer.com. We will review all questions and will address the ones we deem of interest to our general readership in this blog.
2. To comment, use the button at the bottom of each posting. But don’t expect a response from us, and please don’t be offended when we don’t respond. This is our opportunity to share information with you; it is not a bulletin board or forum.
3. This space should not be used as a circulation complaint department. While customer service is a top priority for us, there are other, more timely customer service tools for issues pertaining to newspaper delivery and billing. Try our circulation call center at 888-323-1222, or e-mail our circulation vice president at jkelly@ledger-enquirer.com.

Now let’s get started.

'Idol' fans want more in print

American Idol fans want more

Another letter from a reader:

Sir, I have been wondering why the L-E doesnt have coverage of American Idol the day after the competition. I have seen papers in other cities and they at least have wire service stories thatgive us updates. I know you cover Idol online but I like the print version of your newspaper. I believe that this morning we should have gotten the whole story on last night instead of having to go online. The show ended at 9 pm so there is no excuse. I expcet better things from a paper with such a long tradition.
Even Fox TV gives us Idol updates early in the morning. We ought to be able to get it from the newspaper. TV is fine but I love print newspapers and want to trust them for my updates.

And our answer:

Thank you for the note. We make news calls every day for our 100,000-plus readers, and that will by necessity leave out some news. We have a reporter, Sonya Sorich (click here) who has written several dozen Idol stories and does a great blog online, so we certainly consider the series a high-interest item. On this particular day, our news editor found other news to be more compelling and important (dare I say interesting) to our readers, so he made a call. I realize you disagree with the decision, but I trust there were other news or entertainment items in the paper that were of value to you. . . Thank you for reading the paper.
Ben Holden

Race IDs in the newspaper

Race identification in the newspaper

Every few months we get calls from readers who insist that we’re withholding essential information when we fail to specify the race of a crime suspect. Two stories currently in the news, involving the slayings of two college women, have brought the debate to the forefront again. This from editor Ben Holden:

Effective about six months ago, we do not run the race of criminal suspects at large unless we believe the value of the description to the community outweighs the likelihood of prejudicial behavior toward innocent citizens. In general, we have instructed reporters and editors to omit race unless the description provides at least: (1) Some unique, immutable identifying characteristic (i.e., scars, tattoos, unusual height or weight); or (2) A "complete" description (which we define as approximate height, weight and race). Generally, this allows us to print most descriptions. Only the overly vague description – “white man in a blue pickup truck” or "black man wearing dark clothing" – will be disallowed.

Why registration

Why have we become so strict about user registration?

We’ve received dozens of complaints about the new user registration policy on Ledger-Enquirer.com. The policy changed in January, and frequent visitors to the site were frustrated that they were suddenly asked to share personal information before viewing content on the site. While we’re still experimenting with how many pages we will allow readers to view before we make them sign on, we strongly believe that registration makes the site better. And here’s how we explain it in e-mails to our readers.

We are asking for information about our audience so we can better understand who comes to our site and where they come from. The few questions we ask are just to get a better idea of who is coming to our site.

In addition, we hope we will be able to help weed out racist, vulgar and otherwise inappropriate comments. We’ve found that if people are asked to register, they are less likely to post the ugly stuff that offends everybody else. And, as you may have noticed, we’re getting a lot of this. Most newspaper web sites require user registration, and many of them seek considerably more information than we do.

We are not trying to limit access nor will we sell this information. The information gathered is for our purposes only.

Why we do some of the things we do

Why do we block content on the Web site?

This e-mail came to us over the weekend.

I understand that your online news section has a disclaimer allowing you to do most anything you want as far as editing, deleting etc. any comments posted…
Starting late last week several of us noticed that a filter was now in place on your system that would no longer accept post[s] that included the name of a nationally know televangelist. In addition, almost any derivative of this public figures name or his ministry was rejected by this filter. In addition almost every post concerning this public figure or the ministry he oversees was deleted, while other messages that are offensive to many were left up… Your paper has made the decision to print both literally and in electronic form stories concerning this public figure and his ministry. In addition you have printed a number of "Letters To The Editor" concerning the same subject. However, your online editor will not allow comments concerning the subject. We would like some help understanding this decision.

And here’s the response from executive editor Ben Holden and senior editor Jeff Hendrickson:

First, all we reserve the right to delete or decline publication of any content, as we see fit. But in this case, the comments about Cascade Hills and Bill Purvis [in response to a story published Dec. 1] were no longer moving the conversation, debate or not, forward. They were simply ongoing anonymous postings. People can continue to respond to our coverage of Cascade Hills. They just need to do it in another format – either as a Letter to the Editor, which requires a name attached, or in Sound Off, which may or may not run, depending upon available space. The anonymous postings online were deterring other people from coming to our site to post or read the posts.