LETTERS: Amanda Bennett Explains Newspaper's Role in TV Age

By: E&P Staff In today's letters, Philadelphia Inquirer editor Amanda Bennett explains her paper's coverage of the 9/11 Commission's "report card" on homeland security preparedness. For background, see Greg Mitchell's latest Pressing Issues column on the subject.

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'Philly Inky' Editor Explains 9/11 Report Card Coverage

I know you mentioned this in your story, but I don't think you have captured the importance of a change in the way we are doing business: It's important for us as newspapers to realize that the story actually developed the day before.

We ran an A1 story on Kean's remarks -- that included virtually all of the information that came out the next day -- as our lead story on Monday. The next day we ran the details on A2....this is a practice we are trying to push.....our feeling is that in a television age, we need to do one of three things:

1) get the news out earlier
2) provide better context
3) provide different and more compelling details

We are going to do much more of this. We are making a concerted effort to be much, much more disciplined about not just running the old-style news of the day in the lead position if it is something that a reader will pick up that morning and be able to say: I know that already -- either from radio, TV, or the Internet.

This is going to force us to be much more on our toes, but in this case I believe we really were, by emphasizing the story the way we did the day earlier, and then providing context and detail the next day.

Amanda Bennett
Editor
The Philadelphia Inquirer

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Mnookin Mystery Solved

Re: 'Vanity Fair' Offers Fresh Details on Judith Miller Saga

You quote Seth Mnookin as writing in Vanity Fair that Judy Miller "had dated one of Sulzberger's best friends, Steve Ratner, 'and had even, for a time, shared a vacation home with Sulzberger,' whatever that means."

What that means is that Mnookin was sloppy and misleading in that sentence. What he should have said was, when Judy Miller was dating Steve Rattner, the two of them shared a beach house with Arthur Sulzberger, and his wife, Gail Gregg.

Charles Kaiser

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Whose Newspaper Is It?

Re: Wiley Miller Suggests Editorial Cartoonists Stop Syndicating Their Work

Wiley Miller, more like Wyle E Coyote. Because just like the beloved hapless coyote of Road Runner fame Wiley Miller just doesn't get the business aspect of the newspaper business.

To begin with, did he complain and suggest a blackout when editors decided to run Non Sequitor instead of one of the comic strips they were currently running. After all that poor artist lost his job when that happened. Thank God or we would all still be reading Dondi and the like in our newspapers.

Further, Mr. Miller took himself out of syndication years ago, but did he save any jobs as a result? No, someone else was there to take his place. The same would happen if syndicated cartoonists did as Mr. Miller suggests. Whether the current crop stops syndicating themselves entirely or decides to start charging absurdly high rates, the result will be the same. Find someone else with an opinion, no problem there, and the ability to create crudely drawn characters. While being deficient in that category myself I am sure there are plenty of people equally capable of drawing a cartoon a day and writing in a couple of words that fit the opinion of the artist. If they are replaced, they lose their jobs. If they charge more and are not replaced, what do you think happens? Someone else at the paper loses their job to help pay for the increased cost of the syndicated artist.

I have nothing against Mr. Miller, and I love reading his comic strip. However, what he and the journalists that are complaining about the cuts of staffing are doing is trying to fight the unbeatable foe: market forces. Every year less people read the paper, advertising is shrinking, and the cost of an employee increases. It does not take an economics genius to see that this is not a recipe for success. And raising subscription and advertising rates can only compensated for so much. Instead, those on the editorial side need to come down from their pedestals and start asking themselves, "Am I putting out the product I and others like me want to read, or am I creating a newspaper a majority of the people want to read?" In most cases, the answer is the paper the writer wants. Till journalists work for free someone, has to pay for them, and that is the readers and advertisers.

Maybe, if the industry as a whole would get together and promote a subscription as an investment in the freedom of the press instead of purchasing a good/service, the trend would be reversed. But in the final analysis, journalists have to realize a newspaper is the property of the readers -- not the editorial department.

David J Horchak
Newington Conn.

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Re: Media Fell Short in Covering 9/11 'Report Card'

These people who chaired the whitewash 9/11 Commission don't get it yet, or they simply don't want to "get it."

When it finally dawned on this administration that this "commission" was going to have to go forward, despite all the attempts to underfund, derail, and generally dead-end it, they actually decided to play along ... to a point. (Rice did actually have to "testify" under oath, but that was about all.)

Otherwise, it was just simply a way for this administration to do some more grandstanding, "see, we did co-operate!

Waste of time and taxpayer's money.

This administration doesn't give a rat's a** about 'security' in this country. Never did. They got their "new Pearl Harbor." What the hell do they care about some 'commission' recommendations!

Mary Walters
Valparaiso, Ind.

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Re: Reports from Iraq on Lion Interrogations More Nuanced Than Rumsfeld Let On

If the military really are throwing prisoners into a lions' den, they are urgently advised to read The Book of Daniel, chapter 14 verse 42, to learn the fate of those who engaged in such practices.

Even if one is not a biblical literalist, the parallel is instructive. I know of a country where, at one time, no one was safe from mistreatment once abusive practices became customary. To establish guilt was unnecessary. Only an accusation was required. Or sometimes not even that.

Pavel Chichikov
Washington, D.C.

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Re: What? You Gained Circ? (subscription required)

Whoa.

Did anyone bother to check the population growth in Bend. It's huge and it's mostly wealthy, retired folks. That might explain most of The Bulletin's success. It probably had nothing to do with free plastic bags and rubber bands or redesigned business sections.

Scott Hettick