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Be the Editor of the Toronto Star
As we near the end of another year (and decade!), most Toronto media outlets and blogs have been having fun with best-of-the-year lists and year-in-review summaries. In similar spirit, the Toronto Star's Public Editor, Kathy English, has published a rather nifty year-end exercise - one that allows Star readers to play the hypothetical role of editor, and make difficult publishing decisions based on 12 real scenarios the Star's editorial team faced this past year.
Here's an example scenario from the survey:
Two women involved in an intimate relationship are charged with the first-degree axe murder of a man one of the women was also involved with. Would you publish numerous headlines labelling this as a "lesbian axe murder case."?
Other scenarios involve photo inclusion/choices, choice of words, and appropriateness of content.
Here on blogTO this year, we too have faced situations that have required making considered editorial decisions, and we've also taken our fair share of criticism for those decisions. It's all part of the process, and we've seen time and time again that what's revolting to some people is comic genius to others, what's unnecessary graphic detail to some, has important documentation value to others, and so on. Given our diverse cultural and ethical foundations, it's also hard, in general, to both please and avoid insulting everyone. One thing that's apparent is that readers of blogTO have never been shy when it comes to expressing their opinions on our content and our editorial decisions via our commenting feature and emails to the editors (something that we welcome and take to heart).
Kudos to Kathy English and The Toronto Star for coming up with a fun and interactive way to involve their readers. Reader responses to the Toronto Star's "You Be the Editor" survey are due January 4th, and Kathy intends will incorporate responses in her column on January 9th. I'm looking forward to seeing the results.
Photo by kitsch:in:sync.
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BTW. The winning lottery ticket is under the 1998 yellow pages.
1) PetroCanada has a refinery with a bad batch of gasoline that ends up in Southern Ontario, effecting mostly GM but also Ford and Nissan vehicles, too. The contamination affects the sensor unit in the gas tank, resulting in erronous guage readings. Do you a) bury it in the Business section like you do all of Toyota's foibles, or thrust it onto the front page of the Saturday paper, above the banner so every paper box in the GTA loudly proclaims that GM is having gas tank problems?
2) The President of Toyota Canada calls you up and tells you that you are going to Alaska for a week and you are to do a 3 weekend spread on the new Rav4. As editor, do you throw the keys to an intern and tell him to drive that 'girls car' to Alaska, or do you go yourself because you may jeopardize your monthly check from Toyota?
The Star is a complete rag. I stopped reading it 5 years ago and wouldn't use it to line my cat litter box.
You mean 'affecting.'
So, uh, good thing you're not an editor for the Toronto Star.