FEW THINGS are as difficult to deal with as an unexpected death or a life-threatening injury. These occurrences and their causes are often newsworthy, especially in a small community like that of the University student body.
The March 7 story "Student's condition critical after car accident" provoked criticism from one reader, who felt the article reduced the injured student to drunk driver X. That may be a valid point, but at the same time, there is nothing in the story that is incorrect with respect to the facts of the incident.
The reader also complained that the story lacked quotes from anyone who knew the student. This is an almost impossible issue. If a reporter does not get the "she is a nice person" quotes, the story looks incomplete or unfair. But getting those quotes is a delicate issue. When I worked for The Cavalier Daily, a coach committed suicide, and a news reporter tried to get quotes. You could see it coming: Some of the athletes had not heard about the suicide.
Hearing it first from a reporter is not the way to hear it, and the newspaper endured some criticism for it. For this story, I think a straightforward factual approach was adequate.
Another reader had a death-related complaint about the March 5 "Permanent Tanooki" strip, where the cartoonists did a fake after-death tribute. I agree that it was in extremely poor taste, and I also share the reader's complaint about the number of repeat strips in some of the comics. But, there are more important issues to address this week, so that's all for the comics page.
The mistakes involving typos and word usage were awful for the week before Spring Break. It started with Monday's top headline, "University share budget stance with legislature." I read this several times to see if there was any way it could make sense
I could not believe this kind of mistake would be at the top of A1.
To revisit the accident story, the story referred to the Center for Alcohol and Substance Education as CAPS. Huh?
It gets worse. In a March 6 Life story, "Circumnavigation," the columnist tried to refer to the appearance of a construction divider. Unfortunately, the reporter focused on the wall's ascetics. An ascetic is a person who avoids self-indulgence and leads a sparse life. I assume the columnist and editors wanted to describe the aesthetics of the wall.
I have tired of writing about the sports coverage, but the sports department keeps giving me material. More accurately, the sports coverage consistently generates the most reader e-mails, and many of the e-mails have valid criticisms.
On the weekend that finished March 3, Virginia sports teams were involved in a men's basketball game, the ACC women's basketball tournament, a men's lacrosse game, a women's lacrosse game, three baseball games, four softball games, and the ACC men's swimming and diving championships.
So each event was mentioned in Mondays paper, right? Wrong. No Women's basketball tournament, no swimming and diving championships.
Keep in mind that every other game (with the exception of the men's basketball game) was an early regular-season game. Admittedly, many of the games were at home, and some were against high-ranked opponents. If there were space constraints, they should have been anticipated. If space were the problem, then there may have been some organizational mistakes made by non-sports staffers as well.
Also keep in mind that the Virginia men's swimming and diving team won its fourth straight ACC championship, a feat accomplished by only two other Virginia squads. Remember that the Virginia women's basketball team, in stark contrast to the underachieving men's team, exceeded all expectations and almost pulled off the most improbable of comebacks against a top-five team in the ACC Tournament.
But if you wanted to know any of that, you couldn't find it in Monday's paper. Tuesday's paper contained two stories about the Women's basketball team, two stories about a game that occurred Sunday. Page B2 featured five paragraphs on the swimming and diving championships. To not cover an event because it is on the road and it is a minor sport is one thing. To delay the story one day, and then make room for only five paragraphs the next day, that sends a message of how little the paper cares. A Wednesday column praising the swim team was too little, too late.
Finally, a note about the Israeli-Palestinian situation. Most complaints I have seen have concerned terminology, and I can only say this: I have heard Palestinian Territories used on network news, but I have seen Palestine used in The Economist. If the Associated Press has a style rule for this, The Cavalier Daily should follow it stringently. Deferring to the experts' judgment is usually the best course in a controversial situation.
(Matthew Branson can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.)
Read More
EDITORIAL: Carla Williams deserves her seat at the table
By Editorial Board | 28 minutes agoLooking beyond basketball and football reveals that Virginia Athletics is, in many ways, thriving.
UPADHYAYA: The Great and not-so-Good sides of U.Va.’s 2030 housing plan
By Apal Upadhyaya | 2 days agoInstead of improving the dire state of existing infrastructure, however, the University has shifted attention away from it and chosen to expand.
EDITORIAL: Support low-barrier shelters in Charlottesville
By Editorial Board | 3 days agoInvesting in low-barrier shelters now will pay off in increased stability for the homeless, which will undoubtedly improve the safety of shelters and the community writ large.
