Doin’ the Pilot shuffle, and more responses to news coverage

TONY DODERO

Starting Monday, we will make official a bit of staff restructuring

and reshuffling that’s been in the works a few weeks now.

First on the list, Deirdre Newman will be our new government

reporter for the Daily Pilot.

Traditionally, we have always had two government reporters, one

who covered Newport Beach City Hall and the other Costa Mesa. In her

new role, Newman will cover both city halls as well as the county

government beat.

Why make such a move, you might ask?

The goal is to bring in a beat reporter who, while covering the

basics at city hall, can also report with authority on the issues,

trends and topics that span each of our towns.

The recent haggling over the state budget was a great example. The

effect the state budget was and is to have on local governments

played a huge role in the final passage of Gov. Arnold

Schwarzenegger’s spending plan.

At one point, it was after intense lobbying by city managers from

across the state that the first drafts of the budget became stalled.

Newman enthusiastically volunteered for this new endeavor. I guess

she really enjoys those council meetings that go deep into the night.

The next move is assigning Deepa Bharath to the newly created

position of enterprise and general assignment reporter. Many are

familiar with Bharath’s work covering public safety and courts --

especially the recent court case involving Greg Haidl -- and her

series last year on the locally based Plasticos medical team and its

humanitarian work in Ecuador.

As our enterprise reporter, she’ll bring a veteran’s touch. She

will tackle the slice-of-life stories we sometimes miss as well as

put breaking news stories into perspective.

With the police beat open, we have a willing volunteer in Marisa

O’Neil.

O’Neil has been our education reporter since last fall but

expressed to the editors a number of times how interested she is in

covering public safety and courts, so much so that she plans on

pursuing an advanced degree in that area.

We are happy to hand the job over to someone who has so much

enthusiasm for it. And know that while she has big shoes to fill,

she’ll bring fresh perspectives and ideas.

With O’Neil taking over the public safety and courts beat, that

means we have an opening in the education beat. This beat, which

covers the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, Orange Coast

College, Vanguard University and UC Irvine, is crucial.

We’ll be looking for a reporter with a thirst to cover education

and all of the issues that are tied to that.

I’ll let you know when we fill the spot.

*

As some of you may know, I teach an introduction to news writing

course at Orange Coast College. One of the basic class lessons is how

to determine what makes a story newsworthy.

A number of key elements make a story news. They include the

wide-ranging effects of the story, the story’s uniqueness and the

prominence of the subjects involved.

For example, it’s not news when someone shoplifts items from a

department store, but it is news when that someone is world-famous

actress Winona Ryder.

In last week’s column, I discussed our coverage of the

aforementioned Haidl case, in which the son of a county assistant

sheriff is accused, with his two friends, of raping a teenage girl at

his father’s Corona del Mar home.

In conclusion, I told readers we are always looking for better

ways to tell the story.

Below are excerpts of an anonymous e-mail I received in response:

“I have a suggestion: try writing about this story (the rape

trial) with a little less bias against the Orange County Sheriff’s

Department. I think it fair to say that in each story the Pilot has

written about this rape trial, it has never failed to mention that

Greg Haidl is the son of an Orange County assistant sheriff as if

that is part of Greg’s name. Has the Pilot ever printed the names and

occupations of the parents of the other defendants? I don’t recall,

but every time Greg’s name is mentioned it is with the title ‘the son

of Orange County Assistant Sheriff ... ‘“

The writer went on to note that Greg Haidl’s dad, Don Haidl, is

also a successful businessman, which we don’t always report, implied

we wouldn’t do the same if the accused was the son of a Daily Pilot

executive, and alleged that we have having something against the

sheriff’s department or law enforcement in general.

Let’s start with the last statements first. I can’t speak for

every person on our staff, but in this newsroom, we have nothing but

respect for local law enforcement. We enjoy great working

relationships with both the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa police

departments and other local agencies.

Also, there is no way that a relative of the Daily Pilot would be

treated any differently. Now, I’m not sure being an executive at the

Daily Pilot is anywhere near the prominence of being an assistant

sheriff, but we would not try to hide anything if a family member of

the paper was involved in such a high-profile crime.

But let’s be frank.

We, and other media, would not even have reported the Haidl story

if Greg Haidl’s dad wasn’t an assistant sheriff. It certainly

wouldn’t have received the same front-page treatment.

Is that fair? I don’t know. Ask the daughters of President Bush

whose bar-hopping escapades became news at one point, or anyone

remotely related to the Kennedy clan who gets in trouble with the

law.

If you have power, if you have influence, if you have money or are

a celebrity, the media will make an example of you when you run afoul

of the law.

“Fair and balanced” have become the media buzz words of today. Are

we being fair and balanced in the Haidl case?

It’s hard to say, but I also don’t know what else we could have

done.

How can we not report a story that everyone else is reporting?

Would we not then be accused of a cover-up?

In future columns, we’ll discuss how readers perceive us and when

they think newspapers are not fair.

Until then, as usual, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

* TONY DODERO is the editor. He may be reached at (949) 574-4258

or by e-mail at tony.dodero@latimes.com.