Ask The Editors

How do I get a letter to the editor published in the paper? Not sure how to go about it.

Letters should be addressed to: Letters to the editor, The Fresno Bee, P.O. Box 12504, Fresno, CA 93778-2504 or e-mail to: letters@fresnobee.com

Posted by Rich Marshall at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Somehow, I missed the results for the Best of Fresno 2006, where we could vote for the best restaurants (with numerous categories), best service providers, best radio station, etc. Is there a way to get a copy of the results? Don Williams

The Editorial Division doesn't publish a Best of Fresno section, but The Bee does have two sections that fit that broad definition.

The Central Valley's People's Choice Awards 2006 published Sunday, March 26, 2006. The 2007 version is scheduled to publish March 25.

The 2006 Best of the Valley Restaurant Awards published Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006. The 2007 version is scheduled to publish Feb. 21.

Both of those sections are coordinated by The Bee's Advertising Department.

Posted by Rich Marshall at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Wallace offers a friendly critique of a Bee headline that ran on page B-1 Saturday:

"F-16 pilot survives crash of fighter jet"

Maybe

"F-16 fighter jet crashes - pilot ejects" or
"F-16 fighter jet crashes - pilot safe" or
"F-16 fighter jet crashes - pilot ejects OK" or
"F-16 fighter jet crashes - pilot ejects safely"

or precisely (& chronologically correctly) "Pilot ejects safely, F16 fighter jet crashes"

The pilot didn't survive the crash--he wasn't even in the aircraft.

For a newspaper whose headlines have included

"Police shoot man on freeway with knife"

and (an editorial)!

"A room for hurting children"

you are doing a lot better - but I'm still watching

Cheers.

--Dave

You are right, Dave. We could have done a better job with that headline. And I did some research and found that we were, in fact, guilty of publishing the following:

"Visalia police shoot man with knife" (Sept. 9, 2002)
"A calm place for hurting children" (July 19, 1999)

I have to admit I got a chuckle out of these, and I'm glad you had to go back so far in time to find them. However, you bring up a serious point--the importance of getting headlines right.

Our copy editors, the people who write headlines -- about 200 on a Sunday -- agonize over finding just the right words, usually on deadline and in a limited amount of space, to tell stories that are sometimes complex. They're mortified when they realize they missed a double entendre or a nuance.

I bring that up not to excuse our mistakes, but to assure you that we do care, and strive constantly to improve. Thanks for keeping us on our toes.

Posted by Jack Robinson at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is Justin Timberlake and "crotch-to-crotch" dancing the best you can do on A-1(Jan 17)? Is this news worthy of front page placement? Was it just a slow day? All kinds of national and international news could have been in those front page columns. I know you can do better than that.

Rev. Roger Minassian

Thanks for the interesting question. We spent considerable time that day talking about where to put the Justin Timberlake story -- and how big a splash it should get.

Naturally we want the most important stories of the day on A-1. The Bee is a serious-minded newspaper that respects the intelligence of its readers.

But we don't want the front page to be dry and monotonous, like a homework lesson. So we also look for "talkers" -- stories that aren't necessarily significant, but are potentially interesting to a large number of readers. Sometimes this will be a weird and quirky tale, like our story Friday about the mysterious death of koi in Woodward Park. And sometimes it will be a story that already the talk of the town -- like the visit of Justin Timberlake.

I don't think much of his music myself, but he appeals to a broad cross-section of the population we serve. He nearly sold out all 15,000 seats in Save Mart Center -- a pretty amazing feat that says a lot about his popularity. We can't let something that means so much to so many people in the Valley occur without paying attention to it on the front page.

We did, however, back away from an earlier plan to feature the concert with a big photograph on the front page -- something we did when Madonna was in town June 5, for example. The feeling was that the news value of his appearance was not quite the same, and the story play was adjusted accordingly.

Posted by Jack Robinson at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why does the TV guide you put out not have CMT listing? It is the Country Music Channel?

Posted by Rich Marshall at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Fresno Bee's performance with the Jan. 2 sports page was in a word pathetic. The amount of line and picture coverage given to the Boise State game shows your paper' s inability to adapt to a game that became headline national news.

I ask you: Why would The Bee dominate the front page with an article titled "Glimpse of greatness." This is not a Stanford or Arizona town, the article was not even about a WAC or Fresno State girls basketball team. So why was the horrible decision made to have it take up in its entirety over half a page in a paper that should have been a front page dedicated/dominated by football?

The Broncos game may not have started as the top game of the season, but it definitely ended that way. Remember Boise is a WAC team and this is a WAC town.

Regards,
Jim Nau

First and foremost, we are a local newspaper. There are a growing number of other sources for readers to get information about national and international events. Our focus, therefore, has been -- and will remain -- on local sports. The centerpiece story and display on Stanford's Candice Wiggins was relevant to our readers because one of the best women's college basketball players in the country was coming to the Save Mart Center that day. This is a unique story that only The Bee would have.

The Boise State game had a connection because the Broncos are in the Western Athletic Conference, a connection we thoroughly covered in a Dec. 27 story about the Boise State football program. That is also why the game story was played at the top of the page with a picture.

Additionally, there were deadline issues to consider. The first story moved on the Associated Press wire at 10 p.m., giving us a very small window in which to reconfigure the cover of the sports section.

Posted by Rich Marshall at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We're changing the look of our TV and Cable Guide, here's some reasons why:

Why did you change the TV and Cable Guide?

This change enables us to print the guide in our downtown Fresno facility rather than shipping it to a printer in Modesto.

By printing the book here in Fresno, we achieve multiple goals. Most importantly, we'll be able to provide readers with more up-to-date listings that reflect late changes in TV station and network programming.

Also, we'll have more control over the printing quality since we'll run the book ourselves. In the past, we have heard from many readers who said the guide's type was too dark or too light to read or that over-inking resulted in smudges and dirty hands. With our pressroom's commitment to quality, we hope to eliminate these issues.

There's also a cost-cutting benefit. The Bee will save some printing and transportation costs by not sending the guide to an outside printer.

Why can't you print the smaller TV Book at The Bee?

The Bee's presses cannot print pages smaller than tabloid-sized. Also, our pressroom does not have the capability to bind, or staple, the TV book.

Did you take anything out?

Yes, one short feature - the sports profile that ran next to the sports listings - was dropped in favor of longer and more comprehensive sports listings.

Did you add anything?

While there were no new features added, some changes should be considered additions. All grids are slightly larger, which should make them more readable. Also, the listings of televised sporting events and three- and four-star movies are significantly longer.

Why did you make this change without asking for reader feedback?

While we did not conduct a reader survey asking for opinions about the new book, the guide has many changes that resulted from requests, suggestions and complaints from readers. The most significant change is that listings now should be more up-to-date because our deadlines are a full seven days later than previously.

The new book also has longer, more comprehensive listings of sporting events and three- and four-star movies, which were frequent requests from readers.

Posted by Jennifer at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)

When describing a suspected criminal, if the suspect's race is known, it's logical to mention it in an article: black,white, Asian, Hispanic/Latino, etc. However, in doing so, The Bee should limit the description to known facts.

In the article, "Wife of Gas Station Clerk..." (12/30/06, page B1), an unidentified shooting suspect was videotaped by a security camera. The suspect is described as "Southeast Asian." How can someone possibly determine that an unknown person is "Southeast Asian" by looking at a film or photograph? If anyone is able to do that, he should tell the police the suspect's name, as well.

If The Bee, or any local news source, were to describe a suspect as "Samoan," "Mexican," "Bolivian," "French" or "Nigerian," based solely on appearance, you can imagine the community's outcry! This sort of thing adds to/reinforces negative stereotypes.

Terry Peyton
Sanger, CA

Posted by Rich Marshall at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)