Published: July 19, 2008 08:49 pm         

Sticking to the relevant facts

We’ve had some feedback from folks who think we played politics with a criminal investigation involving the son of a state representative.

I understand those concerns.

My usual rule of thumb is to keep the parents out of a news story concerning the arrest of an adult. As more than one reader pointed out, adults at some point become responsible for their own actions, and their parents become less relevant to the story.

That’s a valid point.

This story, though, is a bit more complicated.

We began getting phone calls and e-mails about this story on a Monday morning, soon after we had finished production of that day’s newspaper.

The first was a vague e-mail from a reader wanting to know why a shooting over the weekend had gone unreported. I thanked him for the tip and told him we’d look into it.

Before long we began getting calls from folks wanting to know why we were trying to cover up a criminal case involving the son of a state representative.

That same morning, we got a news release saying the county prosecutor had asked for and been granted a special prosecutor to handle the case. Based on the fact that he and the state representative were members of the same political party, the prosecutor claimed a conflict of interest.

That news release became the basis of our first story, and before long we had posted it online.

At that point, the state representative’s name was newsworthy. He was the reason for the appointment of a special prosecutor.

One other point of note. We’d have had that story a lot sooner if the county sheriff’s office had been more forthcoming with information. Even after the prosecutor’s office sent out its news release, the folks answering the phone at the sheriff’s office were claiming not to have the basic details about this shooting.

This in spite of the fact that the shooting had occurred more than 48 hours before and the information we were seeking was a basic matter of public record.

That method of handing out information is exactly what leads people to conclude somebody’s trying to hide something.

Like any other shooting investigation, we plan to follow this case through the criminal justice system. We’ll mention the suspect’s father only when he’s relevant to the story.

The prosecutor’s news release made one more relevant point: Anyone charged with a crime in this country is entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

We’d all do well to keep that in mind.

No Internet, please

As I’ve mentioned before in this space, I hear now and then from people who are turned off by our frequent references to our online edition.

They don’t have access to the Internet, they tell me, and they don’t want to read these things online.

We certainly aren’t out to offend folks who prefer a product they can hold in their hands. These are our core readers, and we couldn’t stay in business long without them.

At the same time, the communication industry is evolving, and more and more customers are relying on the Internet for much of their news. They might pick up the print edition occasionally, but more often, they sit down at their computers to find what they’re looking for.

Our goal is to give readers the information they want in whatever form they’re looking for it.

The fact is, though, that you can do some things on the Internet that you just can’t do in print.

This past week, we devoted pages and pages of space to stories, photos and results from fairs in Cass and surrounding counties, but we had even more photos available.

In years past, those extra photos would have gone unpublished, but the Internet allows us to share them in a slide show on our Web site.

I’m guessing a lot of parents are glad we had that option. If you haven’t checked out those slide shows, I’d encourage you to take a look.

Speaking of space

We had a complaint last week from a reader who was unhappy we hadn’t had a story on the death of a national political figure.

To be honest, there were lots of stories across the nation and around the world that you didn’t see last week in the Pharos-Tribune. Particularly at fair time, we take every inch of space we can find to report on the county fair.

For several days in a row last week, we had no national news at all.

Just to be clear, though, we don’t run short of national news only at fair time. I’ll always favor a local story over a national or international story regardless of the time of year. If we have a choice between printing a story out of Washington or a story out of Logansport, we’ll pick Logansport nearly every time.

We see ourselves as your source of local news and information. The news from everywhere else we print if we have room.

In doing that, we believe we’re responding to what our readers want. If you disagree, I hope you’ll let me know.

Kelly Hawes is managing editor of the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached at (574) 732-5155 or kelly.hawes@pharostribune.com