SUZANNE TATE: Journalists' Job To Listen, Be Fair, Include Everyone

The caller was insistent and quickly came to her point: “So, do you just pick stories that make Sarah Palin look bad?”

I hardly knew how to respond.

So I backed her up and asked her to explain.

She was upset over a headline in a national Associated Press story that had run a couple of days earlier: “No questions, please,” it read. The story’s point was that Alaska Gov. Palin, now Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s running mate, would not take questions from the press.

Reporters were sequestered from her on flights and not allowed to question her directly.

I told the caller that frankly it was odd for a vice presidential candidate to have this measure of separation from the press weeks after being named to the ticket.

But I also pointed out that the story did not originate here. It was a wire service story sent to virtually every daily newspaper in America. Ditto for the accompanying photos. And ditto for the accompanying headline.

Or it could have been that a copy editor wrote the headline here to fit the space; again, a common practice at every newspaper in America.

The headline was true – she was refusing to be interviewed by any reporter, I pointed out. The caller quickly told me that she would be interviewed Thursday night by Charlie Gibson of ABC News. True, but that had not happened days earlier when the story was written and published. And Gibson is not considered a blistering interviewer.

Some critics have said ABC News and Gibson were chosen for Palin’s first interview because he has a homespun quality and was perceived to “go easier” on her.

Finally, the caller wanted to know if the paper’s aim was to deliberately deceive readers. She wanted to know if we were trying to say Palin wouldn’t be interviewed when we knew she would be interviewed later that week by Gibson. Wow.

No one on this newspaper staff would intentionally deceive readers, I told her.

“Well, you know you can manipulate statistics to say whatever you want,” she claimed.

“So are you asking me if I could say that a chair is a table?” I asked her. “My conscience would not allow that. And no one here would endorse that.”

It’s obvious that intelligent, educated people can look at the same set of facts and come away with different conclusions.

She said a group of about five teachers had seen the headline “No questions, please” and all of them believed it was a negative slam on Palin.

I looked at the story and thought – oh, that’s the story about how Palin won’t be interviewed yet.

The caller stood her ground on her points, but was respectful to listen to my explanation.

She also shared with me how she had suggested a story idea to a reporter more than a year ago – one that later made its way into the pages of the newspaper. I told her to remember that journalists really do listen and squeaky wheels do get the grease.

I also asked her that before painting everyone with a broad brush, to remember that I have been on the job here for three weeks.

She didn’t realize that.

I encouraged her to write a letter to the paper expressing her opinions, and to encourage her friends to do the same.

I encourage any reader to express their thoughts the same way.

To all of you who assume you won’t be heard, or that no one cares, or your opinion doesn’t matter, or everyone at the paper is biased, call me. I think you will be surprised.

My job is to listen to you and get divergent points of view on the opinion page.

My job also was to watch Sarah Palin’s interview with Charlie Gibson so I can form my own opinions on how she did, and so I will be ready when my caller phones back.

I did and I am.

Suzanne Tate is the opinion page editor of the Bristol Herald Courier and can be reached at state@bristolnews.com or (276) 645-2534.