The Editor's Desk

In case you hadn’t seen it, I made a nuisance of myself at Monday night’s City Council meeting. You can watch the video here.

We’ve been mulling over what to do about crime reports in the newspaper for quite some time — and I should add that this problem existed well before Chief Burns took over and has nothing to do with her as far as I can tell. It has developed to the point where readers were accusing us of deliberately concealing crimes in the community. Nothing could be further from the truth.

What’s our incentive? There’s a saying, “If it bleeds, it leads,” meaning that crime and violence sells newspapers and increases viewership of news. This is true, though people tend to say it sarcastically, with idea that people are bloodthirsty and enjoy watching or reading about violence.

The reality is, though, that people want to read about crime because it affects them and their community. It’s very clearly the number one concern for most Barstow residents and it bothers me that there may be crimes out there going unreported.

And so, of course, my big speech ultimately accidentally backfires. Due to a technical issue, page A3 did not print properly today. So the bank robbery story was accidentally cut off and our crime reports did not print at all.

We will reprint the robbery story tomorrow and add the missing action briefings to the next report. We apologize for the problem.

Stevie St. John, our city editor, has said farewell and has moved on to bigger and better things in Los Angeles, where she is probably still sitting in traffic right now.

The city editor, for those who may not know, is the person who actually manages the daily workflow in the newsroom, keeping track of reporters’ workload, handling the primary editing of their stories, and making sure we have good content for the next day’s newspaper. It’s a tough job and not for somebody who can’t manage stressful situations. Stevie will be missed.

Readers who are following the trial of Robert Daniel Harrison, charged with kidnapping and assaulting a girl five years ago, may wonder about a paragraph we’re placing in all our stories:

“The Desert Dispatch normally does not identify the alleged victims of sexual crimes. When the girl was first reported missing, the Dispatch initially reported her identity and personal information in order to aid with the search. Once the circumstances of her kidnapping were made clear, the Dispatch stopped identifying the girl. In order to protect the victim, the names of involved family members will not be released.”

We have a policy of explaining why when we decline to identify individuals in our stories so that readers understand our reasoning. Most newspapers don’t identify victims of sex crimes because of the social stigma sometimes directed toward the victim.
But unfortunately, in this case, we already compromised the girl’s identity. When she was taken in 2002, the Desert Dispatch reported her name, unaware that she has been sexually assaulted. Once the details were uncovered, we immediately reverted to our policy of non-identification.
Unfortunately, this means, particularly in a community as small as Barstow, that many folks might know who she is. It’s a regrettable circumstance that we probably couldn’t have avoided, but we hope that the initial release of her identity has not caused her any additional suffering.

Our new local sports blog is now live. Check it out periodically for additional information about our local sports scene.

I’m really curious about what readers think of our commentary writers. I’m considering changing things around a bit with the opinion page, but I’m not rushing into any sort of decisions.

So what do you think of the folks who write regular commentaries on our opinion pages? Some have local ties, like Richard Reeb, Carol Jensen, and Barry Gadbois. Others, like Michelle Malkin and Tibor Machan, do not, but provide some interesting perspectives.

Which commentators do you like the most? Which do you disagree with, but read anyway? Which ones just aren’t worth your time at all? Feel free to post comments, but please explain your answers. I’m not going to change or eliminate a commentary writer just because people don’t like what he or she has to say. I’m looking for better understanding about how you interact with our opinion page.

I occasionally hear that people appreciate the amount of thought and research that goes into my editorials. I also occasionally hear that I don’t write nearly enough editorials.

The two comments are related. Some people make the transition from writing journalism to writing opinion pieces more easily than others. It has been difficult for me at times, because I worry that I’m going to write an opinion that may influence readers’ views or behaviors, and then it will turn out that I was totally off-base in my editorial (which I’m accused of anyway. I mean that I will come to my own realization that I was wrong).

It’s the flip side of a common (and necessary) fear among journalists about printing something that turns out to be untrue. It may be true that opinions cannot be wrong, but they can be poorly informed. Whenever I set forth an opinion, especially about a local issue, I worry that there’s information I don’t have that might have affected my stance.

For example, I don’t plan to write an editorial at this time regarding the conflict over the contracts for the wastewater facility upgrade. My immediate instinct is much like council member Joe Gomez’s — possibly abandoning a current plan over a $65,000 contract after having already spent $1 million seems incredibly wasteful.

However, if the costs are spiraling far beyond what was originally planned for, as Mayor Lawrence Dale is claiming, then the city (and the taxpayers) could end up losing far more than $1 million in the end.

But there’s gaps in our understanding right now. In our reporters’ discussions with those involved in the story, it’s not clear where the costs actually stand. We’re not yet sure of the facts of the situation, so I’m not comfortable with picking a side for this debate as yet.

I returned from our Freedom Communications conference slightly heavier (and not just from the excellent hotel food).

The Desert Dispatch received a “Best of Freedom” award for 2007. Specifically, reporter Aaron Aupperlee and former reporter Adrienne Ziegler were commended for their coverage of the arrest and subsequent sentencing of Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, who was one of five soldiers charged with a role in the rape and murder of a teen Iraqi girl and killing of her family in Iraq. Cortez was from Barstow.

Aaron and Adrienne both worked extremely hard to help paint a picture of who Sgt. Cortez was and how he ended up in this situation, with the help of community members who knew him and cared for him. They were able to gather information that not even the Associated Press could track down, and I’m very proud of their hard work.

In other newsroom news, we have a new reporter starting today. Jason Smith comes to Barstow from Burlington, Vermont (and yes, he’s already commented on the heat), with a degree in economics with a minor in Latin American studies. He’ll be taking over many of the responsibilities in governmental and environmental reporting. His fluency with Spanish (he spent four months writing for a newspaper in Mexico) will also assist us in covering our growing Hispanic community.

We’ve been working on putting blogs together for months, so of course they would actually finally go live while I’m out of town.

I’m in Tempe, Arizona, attending an annual company conference we call “Freedom School.” This conference is a gathering of editors, publishers and other leaders of Freedom Communications where speakers educate us on current issues regarding personal liberty both in America and abroad.

One of the more notable speakers today was Timothy Sandefur of the Pacific Legal Foundation, talking about the status of eminent domain in America. He was a very informative and entertaining speaker, though the lesson I took from the discussion is that property rights are essentially dead in America. Not a positive outlook I’m afraid. I’ll have an editorial in Wednesday’s Desert Dispatch about City Council’s decision to allow abuse of eminent domain intentions in the Barstow Redevelopment Agency. (Sandefur is in favor of abolishing redevelopment agencies entirely, and leaving matters up to market forces)

Our new Desert Dispatch blogs are up and running. Thanks for visiting.

I’m Scott Shackford, editor in chief of the Desert Dispatch in Barstow, Calif., and this is my blog. This blog has a number of different intentions:

• It allows me to write about issues and topics a little less formally than I do on our opinion page. As an editorial writer, the positions I express on A4 are written in a particular style familiar to most opinion readers. But not every opinion or commentary concept I develop is appropriate for that space. Here I may talk about some local, national, or world issues in a fashion that I hope is a little less pedantic.

• It allows me to fill readers in on what goes on in the newsroom at the Desert Dispatch and answer questions about how and why we do what we do and hopefully draw out some feedback. I may also talk about some projects or stories we’re working on, particularly if we’re looking for area residents to talk to us for them.

• It allows me to amuse (hopefully) by sharing some of the bizarre publicity-seeking communications that we would never put in the newspaper. These don’t come from Barstow residents, mind you. I’m talking about strange press releases and e-mails from people across the country who think we would use our limited print space to let readers know about their self-published books, give them free advertising for their new products, or otherwise deviate from our efforts to provide useful or interesting information to our local readers in order to serve their agendas. Some of them are good for a laugh.

This isn’t the only blog we’ve added to the Desert Dispatch. Reporter Aaron Aupperlee is putting together a blog about his interesting and unusual encounters out here in the desert. Sports Editor Matthew Peters will also be maintaining a blog about local sports-related issues.

This blog will allow for comments. Please follow the same guidelines of respect and appropriate behavior as we request for comments with our stories. Personal attacks against other folks, “flames,” spam, and comments that have nothing to do with the topic at hand will be deleted.