Behind the Headlines

Is the lake one-fourth empty or three-fourths full?

No, this isn’t the old riddle about the difference between an optimist and a pessimist.  It’s a story about the difference between journalists and tourism promoters.

In Sunday’s newspaper, Somerset-based reporter Bill Estep wrote about the fears many people around Lake Cumberland have these days. They’re afraid that the local tourism industry will be harmed by repairs to Wolf Creek Dam, which has forced a water draw-down that has reduced the lake from a normal summer pool of 50,000 surface acres to less than 38,000 surface acres.  Photographs with the story, by chief photographer Charles Bertram, were quite dramatic. They showed that some popular parts of the lake were no longer a lake.

Some tourism interests around Lake Cumberland have complained about the story, even though Bill went out of his way to present an accurate, balanced view.  There have been even more complaints about the photos, claiming they show too much about what’s wrong with the lake instead of what is still right with it. 

When choosing the photos to publish in print and online, we weighted those considerations, and Charles wrote about it on the photo blog.  Photos like the one above made it clear that there’s still plenty of water in Lake Cumberland to float your boat.

The state Commerce Cabinet – no doubt under political pressure from the lake area’s $150 million-a-year tourism industry – jumped in Tuesday with an oddly worded e-mail to news organizations. It complained about a report in “a Lexington-based publication,” but didn’t say it was wrong.  “We’d like to let the public know there is plenty of water and opportunities for recreation at Lake Cumberland this boating season,” Cabinet Secretary George Ward wrote.  The email also solicited a letter-writing campaign to the Herald-Leader. That’s fine; we love to get letters.

I’m sure we’ll see even more efforts at spin and damage control. But let’s be honest: the situation is what it is. Yes, there is still plenty of water in Lake Cumberland for visitors to enjoy.  But no, Lake Cumberland isn’t anything like normal, and a lot of people are worried about it.

I think readers of the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com value accuracy and honesty, and this is a good example of why they keep coming to us in ever-increasing numbers.

Tom Eblen
Managing Editor

More than 100 people attended a panel discussion Thursday on “The media’s responsibility in a time of war” that featured me, Al Cross, a journalist and director of  UK’s Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, and John Stempel, a professor in and former director of UK’s Patterson School of Diplomacy. 

The forum, held at Temple Adath Israel in Lexington, was sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union. Most of those who attended were against the war in Iraq and were critical of the news media for not being more aggressive in its watchdog reporting. As I explained, I have also heard a lot from those on the other side – though not nearly as much in the past year or two as I did in 2003 and 2004 – that our reporting from Iraq was too critical of the Bush administration, not “patriotic” and should include more "good" news from Iraq.

While the Herald-Leader’s editorial page has been against the war from the start, those of us on the news side have simply tried to present the most accurate picture we could of the situation based on the reporting available.  And I noted that the reporting from  journalists with our parent company, Knight Ridder  (now McClatchy), which has maintained a large and aggressive foreign staff directed by the Washington bureau, has been widely praised as among the best and most accurate of any news organization.

The panel discussion lasted nearly two hours – and could have gone on much longer if the moderator hadn’t called time. It was a great session. And, thanks to Dr. Stempel’s foreign service expertise, the discussion ranged beyond media coverage to larger topics of U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East.   

I thoroughly enjoyed the exchange, and it left me thinking that citizens don’t spend enough time in public forums like that discussing and debating the vital issues of our time, such as the war in Iraq.  So, are there other civic groups out there willing to fill the void?

Tom Eblen
Managing Editor

What is the responsibility of the news media in a time of war?  That provocative question is the subject of a panel discussion I’ll be participating in Thursday (Feb. 22, 7 p.m. at Temple Adath Israel, 124 N. Ashland Ave. in Lexington).  The other panelists are Al Cross, a journalist and director of  UK’s Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, and John Stempel, a professor in UK’s Patterson School of Diplomacy. The program is free and open to the public.  It is sponsored by the Central Kentucky Chapter of  the American Civil Liberties Union, perhaps the only group whose role in society is less understood and more disliked than that of journalists.  It should be an interesting discussion, so stop by if you can. On Friday, I’ll let you know how it went.

Tom Eblen
Managing Editor

Everybody’s a media critic these days, and from the
situation in Iraq to coverage of the Anna Nicole Smith saga, there’s a lot to criticize. Add to it the profound
changes going on in business, technology, media and advertising, and you have
to wonder where the entire news industry is going.

Beginning tonight, PBS’s Frontline show begins a four-part
series of one-hour specials called News War: Secrets, Spin and the Future of
News. It’s quite a project, featuring
more than 80 interviews with key figures in print, broadcast and electronic
media who talk about the present and possible future of news.

Here are the dates/times for the shows from Kentucky Educational Television’s web site (EST):

News War:
Secrets, Sources, and Spin (Part 1)
KET2 TUE 2/13/07 9:00 pm
KET2 THU 2/15/07 2:00 am
KET2 THU 2/15/07 4:00 am
KET1 MON 2/19/07 10:00 pm

News War:
Secrets, Sources, and Spin (Part 2)
KET2 TUE 2/20/07 9:00 pm
KET2 THU 2/22/07 2:00 am
KET2 THU 2/22/07 4:00 am
KET1 MON 2/26/07 10:00 pm

News War:
What’s Happening to the News
KET2 TUE 2/27/07 9:00 pm
KET2 THU 3/1/07 2:00 am
KET1 MON 3/19/07 10:00 pm

News War: Stories from a Small Planet

KET2: TUE 3/27/07 9:00 pm
KET2: THU 3/29/07 2:00 am
KET2: THU 3/29/07 4:00 am
KET4: FRI 3/30/07  8:00 pm

If you get a chance to watch some of it, let me know what you think.

Tom Eblen
Managing Editor