From the Newsroom -- Tony Dodero

Today, I’m going to take a few minutes to explain some newsroom

policies that seem to get questioned from time to time, and one that

ended up being so strictly interpreted that it hindered us from telling

the entire story last week.

Let’s start with the latter.

As many of you have probably read, paint-ball snipers struck

54-year-old Newport Beach resident Gary Holdren as he was skating along

one of his favorite spots, Back Bay Drive. He now rests in a coma in

critical condition in Mission Hospital, his prognosis still uncertain.

When we first reported the story, the newsroom engaged in a bit of

debate. Should we use his name?

The debate centered around a long-standing policy here to not name

victims of random, minor crimes.

Why do that, you may ask?

Well, think about it a minute. If a woman is strolling down the street

and a robber snatches her purse and speeds away with all of her

belongings, we’ll probably do a brief story on the event.

And if the robber is somehow caught in the act, naming him as the

suspected purse snatcher would create no debate.

But what of our victim? Her only crime was being in the wrong place at

the wrong time, do we name her and bring maybe further shame or

humiliation upon her?

How about victims of bunco schemes, or auto burglaries? Do your

neighbors really need to know that someone ripped your stereo out of your

dash, or that you handed over your life savings to a guy in the bank

parking lot? Probably not.

Really folks, believe it or not, we do have a heart around here. And

when it comes to certain crimes, like rape or crimes against children,

we, and for that matter most news organizations that I know of, have

policies that protect those victims by not naming them.

Back to our paint-ball victim.

We decided in the newsroom not to name him. I especially argued that

by doing so would serve no useful purpose. In hindsight, it was the wrong

argument.

Another news organization did decide to name the victim. The result

was his friends, who had wondered what happened to him, learned of his

fate and began a vigil by his bedside that continues today.

All because they read his name through the media.

We quickly reassessed our policy and upon further reading of it and

review realized we should have looked at it closer. The policy warns

against blanket responses and encourages editors to decide such matters

on a case-by-case basis.

We’ve since done so and we believe, now, that naming Holdren was and

is a public service.

I’m sure his friends agree and I imagine and hope he would too.

The next issue concerns the descriptions of suspected criminals. Some

have wondered why we don’t include the race of certain suspected

criminals in all of our police items.

The answer is pretty simple and we use our newsroom policy as well as

the policies of the Associated Press wire service and our parent company,

the Los Angeles Times, as our guide.

Those policies clearly state that race or ethnicity or religious

affiliation should be reported as a descriptor only if it is germane to

the story. If the person suspected of robbing a liquor store is white or

Latino, the person’s race has no bearing on the story, other than to fuel

hurtful and misguided stereotypes.

We should, however, include the race of criminals being sought for

major crimes if there are other pertinent descriptions that could indeed

help locate the suspect or, more importantly, keep our readers on the

alert for dangerous criminals.

For example, if a robber is described as a short, pudgy white man,

those descriptions do little good because they fit perhaps millions of

people, including myself.

If we have more to add, like he was wearing faded jeans, a white

tank-top shirt, had dark brown hair and eyes, stood 5-foot-5 and weighed

about 250 pounds, with crooked teeth, a goatee beard and a tattoo on his

shoulder that read “Mom,” then all of the descriptors are important.

And, whew, I’m off the hook.

Specifically, our rule at this newspaper is if we have the height,

weight, skin color and three other descriptors, then race can be

included. The other times we’d use race or ethnicity or religion would be

if it’s a determining factor in the story.

Here’s a couple of examples:

If there was a school fight between Asian and Latino students that cut

along racial lines, we’d be negligent not to mention the race of the

students. If Mideast tension sparked an altercation between a Jewish

person and a Muslim person at a local market, we’d need to mention that.

If a source in the story praises plans to construct a Mormon temple in

Newport Beach, shouldn’t we say if this person is a member of that

religion? Of course we should.

In sum, I hope what you’ve learned is that we do our best to talk over

these issues here in the newsroom, before they go to print.

We try to fend off stereotypes and offensive characterizations and

look out for those who simply were victims and were in no way seeking the

limelight and publicity.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments.

***

Tiger Cubs Pack 373 of Costa Mesa enjoyed the latest tour at the Daily

Pilot on Tuesday. The tour allows them to earn their Tiger Cub badge.

Those on the tour were California Elementary first-graders Sean Golden,

Dominick Jojola, Padraig Mulholland and Harrison Stern, and fourth-grader

Brian Golden.

* TONY DODERO is the editor. His column appears on Mondays. If you

have story ideas or concerns about news coverage, please send messages

either via e-mail to o7 tony.dodero@latimes.comf7 or by phone at

949-574-4258.