Monthly Archive for May, 2007

Why we’re choosing new comics

Published
by
Peter Baniak
on May 18, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 4 Comments

We’ve received a number of calls from readers who are concerned about our wanting to
Comix1_2
replace the comic strips The Wizard of Id and B.C. We decided to replace them after the recent deaths of Johnny Hart and Brant Parker, the co-creators of the two strips. A few years ago, when cartoonist Charles Schulz died, we discontinued Peanuts rather than republishing old strips.

Like Peanuts, The Wizard of Id and B.C. were great comic strips.  Comix2_2
But comics are rarely as good when a new artist takes over.  And, like the rest of the newspaper, we believe the comics pages should reflect the new, not repeat the old.

It has been a while since we’ve updated the comics and this seemed like a good opportunity to let our readers help us choose a couple of new comics. Comix3_2
There are many new, good cartoonists out there and we think it’s a good idea to update our comics pages every so often and give some new cartoonists a try.

We realize that some readers are dedicated to some of our strips and we appreciate that. But, we want our newspaper content to be as current and as interesting as possible. We’ll continue testing new strips for two more weeks. We hope you’ll vote either on the in-paper ballot or here on Kentucky.com and let us know which new strips you’d like to see.

Sally Scherer
Lifestyles Editor

Share/Save/Bookmark

Covering a plane crash that wasn’t

Published
by
Peter Baniak
on May 15, 2007
in News
. 0 Comments

Especially since the crash of Comair Flight 5191 last year, it’s a phrase that brings the Herald-Leader newsroom to an abrupt halt: “plane crash.” So when reports began rolling in that a plane might have crashed near the Whitley-Knox county line about 5 p.m. Tuesday, the newsroom got pretty quiet. Then, we set about finding out what had happened. What we — and other media — found out was a good reminder about the importance of finding out all the facts, and a lesson in how quickly a story can change. In this case, the ending was a welcome one — even though the story turned out to be a non-story.

On its 5 p.m. newscast, one Lexington TV station quoted the mayor of Williamsburg saying that emergency crews were on standby to be deployed to the site of an apparent plane crash. Another station quoted the local judge executive saying the same thing. Other stations broke in with eyewitness accounts of a low-flying plane trailing smoke, loud noises, windows shaking in homes on the ground below. At least two stations even reported on their Web sites that reports had been “confirmed” that a military plane had crashed. Stations reported what kind of plane it was and where it “went down.” Other stories on the evening news got pushed aside, as witnesses were interviewed live on the phone. Quickly, the story got picked up by out-of-state and national media outlets.

Curiously, all of the witnesses said they saw a plane flying low (some said it was trailing smoke). But no one actually saw a plane crash. Meanwhile, local emergency officials said they weren’t finding any wreckage or evidence of an actual crash.

At the Herald-Leader, we posted a short story on Kentucky.com at 5:45 saying that officials were investigating witness reports of a possible crash. We updated that story when Kentucky National Guard officials reported that all of their planes and people were accounted for. Meanwhile, we dispatched a reporter and photographer to the area — just in case the reports proved to be true. Three Herald-Leader reporters in Lexington, one in Frankfort and one in Washington worked the phones, trying to confirm whether a crash had indeed taken place. By 6:30, it became clear that there had been no crash. Officials on the ground said they had found no evidence of a crash; Federal Aviation Administration officials said no crash had been reported to them. Finally, the Kentucky National Guard said that one of its planes had been flying low in the area, but it landed safely as planned in North Carolina. We quickly updated Kentucky.com to reflect that no crash had taken place.

“All of our folks and all of our planes are accounted for,” Col. Ken Dale of the 123rd Operations Command of the Kentucky Air National Guard told reporter Steve Lannen. “We were in the area, and a lot of times when we enter a low-level structure, we will descend rapidly to 500 feet… Our engines put out quite a bit of smoke. People will see that and think it’s an aircraft in distress, and those type of reports get made.” Added Dale: “Somebody reported it, and the news ran with it. It was unconfirmed, and they reported there was an accident and there wasn’t one.”

You can read the end result of all that reporting and behind-the-scenes scrambling in a short story on Kentucky.com and a news brief on page B3 of the Wednesday newspaper — both explaining a plane crash that wasn’t.

Peter Baniak
metro editor

Share/Save/Bookmark

A sad but moving Mother’s Day story

Published
by
Peter Baniak
on May 15, 2007
in News
. 0 Comments

Reader response to our story Sunday about Tricia Langley’s journey through grief since the Mom
death of her 20-year-old son in Iraq was overwhelmingly warm and supportive.

Reporter Amy Wilson heard from older men who said they secretly hid tears from their wives that day, and from a mother whose son had left for Iraq that morning. She heard from those who wished to send letters to Ms. Langley and from others who wanted to share their own stories of loss.

“Many said it is a story that will stay with them for a long time,” Amy says.

Amy got a single e-mail that objected to the size and tone of the story and that it was being published on Mother’s Day.

“It was not an easy story to report, nor tell,” Amy says. As Ms. Langley told her Monday that she felt a little “exposed” because the things she told Amy around her kitchen table are a little harder to read in the newspaper. That said, she was greatly heartened to find that her story had affected readers so deeply.  “She has no regrets about her honesty,” Amy says. “She truly hopes it was the universal story of a mother’s love that touched people and not just her own.”

Amywilson_2
Amy Wilson (left) told the story the way Ms. Langley told it, slowly and without flourish. Theirs were quiet conversations that never wavered into politics or political correctness. Ms. Langley simply unfolded her story much as it was written, simply, with only the slightest diversion to maybe share something that had been triggered, some sweet remembrance of her son in his younger years.

It was, Amy says, a great honor and privilege to be allowed to tell this story. She, too, won’t be forgetting the story — or Ms. Langley’s grace in telling it — anytime soon.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Derby coverage behind the scenes

Published
by
Peter Baniak
on May 7, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Covering the Kentucky Derby is the Herald-Leader staff’s busiest and most fun time of year.  I like to call it our annual teamwork exercise.

Preparations begin in February with the formal appointment of the Derby Czar – or, Derby Queen, as we called assistant metro editor Dori Hjalmarson in honor of this year’s special Derby spectator. Dori and her assistants, night metro editor Jeff Beach and features reporter Mary Meehan, who will lead the 2008 and 2009 Derby efforts, spent weeks planning and organizing most of the non-sports coverage leading up to the Derby, as well as the 18-page special sections the day of and the day after the race.

Page designer Jeff Bowen was responsible for the elegant look of this year’s coverage, which included a dramatic preview cover closeup that had readers looking straight into the eye of Street Sense. (Did we call that one, or what?) You can download a copy from the Derby coverage page.

Sports editor Gene Abell presides over the racing coverage, and he and his team spend most of Derby week on the Churchill Downs backside.  Visuals Editor Ron Garrison, a veteran of more than 30 Derbies, and online editor Deedra Lawhead plan and oversee the photo and online coverage.   

The brains behind much of this year’s eye-popping multimedia coverage – online photos, audio slide shows, videos, panoramas and more – was photographer David Stephenson.

Many freelance photographers help us with Derby each year. Others include Dr. Ken Weaver, who with a 600mm lens captured the great image of Queen Elizabeth on page 13 of the Sunday section, and James Kenney and Tim Broekema, the leaders of Western Kentucky University’s acclaimed photojournalism program.

Derby2007_34a_2
On Derby day, we have nearly 50 reporters, photographers, editors, picture editors and runners at the Downs to quickly capture the event and put it online and into the next day’s paper. They work from two bases: the main press box in the grandstands, just to one side of the twin spires, and the cave-like auxiliary media center near the paddock, where you see reporters Amy Wilson, left, and Cheryl Truman, in this photo.

After weeks of work, the newspaper coverage hits the home stretch between the race and 12:50 a.m. Sunday, when the finishing touches are made to the Herald-Leader’s final edition.  The copy, design and imaging staffs back in Lexington put it all together. Those 35 people also collaborate on a catchy A-1 headline that incorporates the winner’s name, which isn’t always easy. (You know those folks were rooting againt Teuflesberg.)

It’s all a lot of work – and a lot of fun. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Tom Eblen
Managing Editor

Share/Save/Bookmark