Readers' Representative Journal

A conversation on newsroom ethics and standards

Jaycee Dugard: Readers object to ‘sex slave’ headline

Jaycee DugardBy now, most readers are probably familiar with the story of Jaycee Dugard, kidnapped outside her Northern California home at age 11 and held captive for 18 years before being found in August 2009.

Dugard did not testify at the sentencing of her abductors last month. Her first detailed account of her time in captivity, which included rapes and the birth of two daughters, came in a TV interview Sunday.

That interview was covered in an article in Monday’s print edition, which carried the headline "Former sex slave recalls tragic life."

The characterization gave some readers pause.

"Has she not had a hard enough life without your label of 'sex slave'? asked Mike Erickson of Laguna Niguel. "Why not the headline 'Jaycee Dugard recalls tragic life'?"

Another reader emailed the reporter, Martha Groves: "I enjoyed your article on Jaycee Dugard, however wouldn't a title of 'kidnap victim' been more appropriate than 'sex slave'? All of us should help this young lady recover."

Editors who worked on the story Sunday night agreed, in hindsight.

"I think the reader raises a good point, one that I hadn't considered," said Jim LaVally, an assistant copy desk chief. "The term accurately describes her life while in the hands of these people. But it is loaded with mostly lurid connotations. And it robs the victim of dignity. I think we can find an acceptable alternative."

And Assistant Managing Editor Henry Fuhrmann, who oversees the copy desks, added, "I'm wondering whether, in some contexts, 'Jaycee Dugard' has become a usable headline name because of all the coverage, thus absolving us of finding a suitable generic replacement term."

Editors had the chance to put this thinking into practice with an article Wednesday. Dugard’s memoir was released Tuesday, and reporter Maria L. LaGanga reviewed it. The headline on the article: "A new chapter for Jaycee Dugard."

--Deirdre Edgar

 

Overheard on Twitter: A cool story, a heat wave and an unusual anatomy lesson

This week, Twitter users were liking stories about L.A.'s shrines to the Virgin of Guadalupe and Mexico's pioneering attorney general, commenting on The Times' tweets, suggesting ways to illustrate the heat wayve and lamenting an op-ed piece about Kim Kardashian's rear end.

A roundup of comments compiled by Ebony Bailey ...

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Afghan battle photo: Iconic or irresponsible?

Kabul-hotel

Nothing catches a reader’s eye quite like a striking picture on the front page of the newspaper. Such was the case with an AFP / Getty Images photo (above) published Thursday of “foreign forces” leaving the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, after an attack by Taliban militants.

The accompanying article described the attack on the upscale hilltop hotel, where elite troops from New Zealand were credited with helping quell the violence that left 19 people dead. The troops are part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Several readers questioned the decision to run the photo by Pedro Ugarte of Agence France-Presse, fearing that its publication could put the soldiers at risk. (The front-page photo was cropped into a vertical image and included only the three men to the left; it ran as a horizontal with all four men on the Framework blog.)

“The photo on the front page Thursday should never have been published,” wrote Edward Grant of Visalia, Calif. “Did you want to paint a target on their chests? Three soldiers who have just been in combat obviously don't want their faces in the paper. … Will you be happy to publish photos of their bodies if the Taliban manages to find and kill them using information from your article?”

The photo was published by many other major news organizations, including the New York Times, Seattle Times and the Guardian in London. The Guardian, however, took the extra step of blurring the men’s faces.

Steve Stroud, deputy director of photography at the Los Angeles Times, said the photo was selected because of “the weary, bloodied appearance of the soldiers that spoke volumes about the five-hour gun battle that pitted NATO and Afghan forces against the well-armed Taliban militants who had stormed the hotel.”

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Q&A; with Erik Shveima: Drawing The Times every day

01_01_2011side-by-side

He’s worked late evenings, once by candlelight. Life got busy with a new job and a hectic schedule. Still, artist Erik Shveima has never missed a beat, even 186 days into the year.

On Jan. 1, Shveima began a yearlong endeavor to create a drawing inspired by each day’s front page of the Los Angeles Times. He posts his daily art on his blog.

His personal project, part artistic challenge and part homage to ink-and-paper media, is still going strong -- Shveima says he’s just started drawing in his fifth sketchbook.

We caught up with the artist near his half-year mark:

How’s the project coming along?

Well, I’m still doing it. I haven’t missed a day, I’m happy to say. That was part of the thing, just keeping on top of it, and being persistent about it, and making it happen. I think it’s coming along fairly well. Recently, I switched jobs, and things have gotten busy. I have a little less time to devote to it, or the time I’m devoting to it, I’m much more tired. But I feel like I’m still able to find really interesting things in the paper and try to address them in the drawings.

Have you ever come close to missing a day?

I’ve had a couple of near misses. There was a time when it was nighttime, and I wasn’t able to start,  and I lost power. It was all crazy. I basically did the drawing by candlelight. And then it was a near miss in a sense that since we also lost power, I couldn’t post (on the blog), so I really couldn’t do anything. I had managed to get the drawing done, but I ended up posting the next day.

I had some days of intense work where the work has just piled up so much that it was really hard to carve out some time to even look at the paper let alone try to figure out some coherent drawing.

That’s part of the interesting thing for me for this project, because it is uneven. I’m not doing the same-caliber drawing everyday and that’s just because it’s a reflection of where my life is at the time.

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Overheard on Twitter: Dodgers bankruptcy and a 'gripping' read

In this week's installment, Twitter users were talking about The Times' coverage of the Dodgers bankruptcy and Christopher Goffards' two-part series about Luis Gonzalez III, and commenting on coverage and writing.

A roundup of comments compiled by Ebony Bailey ...

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Social Media Day: Times reporters in 140 characters

In case you haven't gotten the memo (or tweet, email, message, text, etc.) Thursday is Social Media Day. Social websites Twitter and Facebook haven't been around for even a decade, yet the sites have had a significant effect -- locally and abroad -- on news in the last year.

As journalists, we're always trying to figure out how to better serve our readers with these new tools. The Los Angeles Times is on Twitter, where we serve up daily and breaking news. We also have a main Facebook page where we share stories and welcome readers to join in discussions and polls.

Readers can also choose to follow specific sections and blogs on Facebook or Twitter.

Many of our reporters and columnists are also active on social media sites.

We asked some of them how social media has changed the way they work -- and asked them to answer in 140 characters or less:

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Test of blog comments expands -- and readers weigh in

FBcomments In March, The Times began testing a new system for commenting on its blogs, requiring the use of Facebook to sign in. As of Friday, the test, which began with Technology and The Fabulous Forum, has been expanded to nearly all of its blogs.

As Managing Editor/Online Jimmy Orr said in his announcement, the move to Facebook commenting would enable real-time posting of comments, instead of having to wait for manual moderation; and better authentication of users, which, it was hoped, would cut down on mean-spirited and profane posts.

Readers were invited to weigh in on the change --  which they’ve done. More than 70 have left comments on Orr’s blog post (the Readers’ Representative Journal has not moved to Facebook comments). Other readers have written emails.

Many of those unhappy about Facebook commenting have privacy concerns. Others say they simply don’t want to participate in social media.

"I love reading and commenting, however I have no intention of joining Facebook to do so," emailed Gail Albert of Los Angeles. "Other response/comment arenas have spam and vulgarity filters, maybe you should start there. Every society has idiots posting their insipid rants. The way I see it, it's always good to know who's out there and what people think, albeit, a different opinion."

Bob Matthews commented Friday on Orr's post: "The hideous policies of Facebook make thoughtful people avoid it. Thoughtful people whom you want reading and commenting. You are three months in to the trial, and the Facebook-comment pages have just as many inane comments as the others. You are not killing trolls, just alienating readers."

Reader Engagement Editor Martin Beck acknowledged that "not all readers have, or wish to have, Facebook accounts. And many readers prefer the anonymity of self-selected nicknames on our comment boards."

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Overheard on Twitter: 'Whitey' Bulger, a new commenting system for blogs

This week, Twitter users were talking about The Times' coverage of the "Whitey" Bulger arrest, the switch to Facebook commenting for blogs, accuracy and writing.

A roundup of comments, compiled by intern Ebony Bailey...

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Russ Stanton, sports photographer? For the day, anyway

Russ-dodgers1

Editor Russ Stanton was talking about the Dodgers game he attended Tuesday night. It was an unusual game, he said -- unusual that the Dodgers won, and unusual that they scored a lot of runs.

It also was unusual that Stanton shot the photo (above) that ran with the Dodgers-Tigers game story in Wednesday's Sports section.

Stanton accompanied Times photographer Gary Friedman to the game as a sort of apprentice.

This was the second time he'd gone on a ride-along with a photographer-- the first was in February 2010, to the mudslides in La Canada Flintridge that followed the Station Fire.

Stanton said he'd been wanting to do it again. "I don’t ever want to get too far from the daily process," he said.

Since he’s a "huge baseball fan" and had learned that Friedman was a Detroit fan, they made plans for Stanton to go along to Tuesday's game.

The pair arrived at Dodger Stadium about two hours before game time and "schlepped in about 80 to 100 pounds of gear," including four cameras. "I was Gary’s caddy," Stanton said.

Friedman set up remote cameras in the first- and third-base wells. "Knowing I had an able-bodied assistant (who carried his weight big-time carrying large camera lenses) in Russ, I could place more remote cameras to increase my (photographic) batting average," Friedman said in an email.

He was going to shoot the fourth camera himself from the first-base well, where Stanton would watch with him. But the plan changed when the remote on the third-base camera wouldn't work from across the field.

"The third-base well is right by the Dodgers dugout, so I said, 'I'll take it!'" Stanton said. He said Friedman did all the work by mounting the camera, while he just operated the remote.

"Being a serious baseball fan, Russ knows the game thoroughly, so he knew when to trigger the cameras," Friedman said.

"I shot the two lefties, [James] Loney and [Andre] Ethier, and Ethier did hit a home run," Stanton added.

But Stanton said he also found himself watching the game and forgetting to shoot. On one play, a Tigers player hit a line drive down the third-base side. "I didn’t get the shot," he said. But he said there also were photographers with him from MLB and from Getty Images, "and they didn’t get the shot either."

Friedman transmitted photos back to the newsroom twice during the game, and Stanton marveled at the process of photo editing on the fly.

He said that he thought the photo was going to run at three columns but that it was downsized when a story came in longer than expected. "Now I know how the photographers feel," he joked.

But it was no matter: "Suffice it to say, I had a blast."

--Deirdre Edgar

Photo: Dodger Aaron Miles is about to be forced out in the second inning of Tuesday's Dodgers-Tigers game. Credit: Russ Stanton / Los Angeles Times

 

Overheard on Twitter: Photos, music, Weiner jokes

Newsroom intern Ebony Bailey, a USC student, put together this roundup of Twitter comments about the Times and its journalism. She'll be doing it each week, and we'll publish here it on Fridays.

Here are some comments from this week...

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Questions about photos of a brawl and a ballet

This week, readers raised questions about the authenticity of two photos that appeared in the print edition -- both of them from the Reuters news service. In each, the readers thought the image was puzzling and must have been digitally altered.

Steve Stroud, The Times' deputy director of photography, examined both images and shared his findings:

CASE 1:

Iraq-protesters

Question from reader John Powell:

"The guy in the lower left of the image associated with your article does not look right (yellow, grey and black hoodie). Is it possible photographer Shalash (Reuters) got a composite image past the editors? ... Or maybe the guy is a "little person"? Thanks for looking into it. And yes I am aware of the depth perception effect and shutter aperture."

Response from Steve Stroud:

"On close examination using Adobe Photoshop software, the photo by Reuters staff photographer Saad Shalash showing the Baghdad protest appears to be genuine. The 'little person' in the foreground, while he may be shorter than those around him, is also bending down as he prepares to deliver a blow to his opponent. Examining the photo at the pixel level of magnification turns up no evidence that the content of the picture was tampered with."

CASE 2:

Cuban-ballet

Question from reader A.J. Van Herle, M.D.:

On Sunday, June 12, an article appeared regarding Alicia Alonso and the Cuban ballet, which I found very interesting. A photograph entitled 'The staying power of Cuban Ballet' puzzled me, however. Indeed, most of the ballerinas (not all of them) are shown with their legs in an awkward position. Their right legs face the photographer but their left legs are directed away from the photographer. Indeed, their popliteal fossa(e) face the camera, and this is further confirmed by the fact that the heel(s) of their ballet shoes face the camera.This implies that either most of these ballerinas have a complete 'luxation of the hip joint,' or the agency (Reuters) who provided these pictures have a fantastic expert in Photoshop in their service."

Response from Steve Stroud:

"Immediately upon opening the original photo file using Adobe Photoshop software it's evident the picture was greatly enlarged before being transmitted. Enlarging the photo only slightly more causes it to break up at the pixel level, causing aberrations for lack of digital information. It would be akin to putting together a puzzle without having all the pieces -- in this case, pixels.

"Without the missing information, the other pixels can be misleading because they are disconnected. The resulting lack of digital information makes the details look soft, small elements appear incomplete and, in this case, gives the appearance the feet might be facing in impossible directions.

"There's no indication of photo manipulation, rather an overzealous enlargement to achieve a dramatic crop."

-- Deirdre Edgar

 

Coverage of Palin emails draws shrugs and accusations

Email On Friday, the state of Alaska released more than 24,000 pages of emails sent and received by Sarah Palin during her term as governor. The Times published those emails in a database, Sarah Palin emails: The Alaska Archive.

The Times has come under criticism for publishing the emails, as have other major news organizations that received the government documents under a public records request made in 2008 after Palin was named John McCain's vice presidential running mate.

Some readers, like Marcia Goodman of Long Beach, just weren't interested in the documents. "Why does anyone care what a former governor and never-will-be presidential candidate said several years ago?" Goodman wrote to The Times.

Edward Golden of Northridge called the exercise much ado about nothing. "Fifty-three inches of space on a non-story about Palin's mundane emails," Golden wrote. "And your point is?"

And William deLorimier of San Gabriel saw a double standard by The Times. "I really question your journalistic standards when you show so much glee in the release of Sarah Palin's emails while she was governor of Alaska," deLorimier emailed. "I wish you people would show more journalistic tenacity in retrieving the current president's transcripts from Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard Law School."

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Readers' Rep Office
This forum is for questions, answers and commentary from L.A. Times readers and staffers about The Times' news coverage.

The goals: to help readers understand the thinking behind what appears in The Times; and to provide insight for the newsroom into how readers respond to their reporting.

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About the Bloggers
Deirdre Edgar was named readers' representative in January 2010.




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