News judgment a personal thing

I recall having a conversation once with a young college graduate who had the great (mis)fortune of being a reporter-type intern working for me. She wanted to know more about news judgment.

What were the rules that determined which story got top play, and which one got reduced to a three-graf brief – if not cheaped out altogether?

SHE HAD TROUBLE accepting my explanation that ultimately, the news judgment of any organization that was paying me to work for them was what story intrigues me the most.

My point is that it is a crapshoot. There is no right or wrong. There just is.

Something has to fill the space on a newspaper page or a website, or the airtime on a television or radio broadcast. There are times when totally cheap stories get big Page One play because there’s nothing better.

Then, there are days like Thursday.

ON A TYPICAL day in the Chicago news market, the fact that a federal judge set a trial date for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and that police found a body in rural Indiana that they suspect belongs to a 2-year-old who had been reported missing more than a week earlier would have fought for attention as the top story.

It would have come down to a brawl between editors who prefer politics, or those who’d rather have crime. Corruption, or cops and robbers?

But on Thursday, we had that other news judgment phenomenon that ensured neither of those stories had a chance at Page One – celebrity deaths.

First, Farrah Fawcett (although I’m of an old enough generation that a part of me wants to add “Majors”). Then, Michael Jackson.

I CAN’T RECALL a date with two such “big” entertainers passing on since May 16, 1990. That was the date that both Jim Henson (founder of the Muppets) and Sammy Davis Jr. (remember the Rat Pack?) died.

I recall the outcry caused by the Chicago Tribune when they gave Henson’s death top billing over that of Davis. Some saw a racial angle at work. Others saw some sort of elitist thought being used.

This time around, there doesn’t seem to be as many qualms.

The death of Farrah Fawcett (even though it offered newspapers and websites the chance to reproduce those full-color posters of Farrah in the bright-red bathing suit with her nipples poking prominently through the fabric) got buried by the death of Jackson.

AS FAR AS I can tell, there is one newspaper that gave Farrah top billing over Jackson – a Polish-language paper based out of New York. There also is a newspaper in Mankato, Minn., that gave the Jackson story top play, but also included a box directing people to the Fawcett obituary inside (while getting the Farrah poster picture on Page One).

Everybody else seems to be in love with the Jackson story.

Now I know the so-called rules of news judgment.

Both Fawcett of 1976 and Jackson of 1983 were pop culture icons. Back then, they were everywhere. Seriously, “Charlie’s Angels” (the program) and “Beat It” (the song) were things that will trigger memories of youth for people falling in that generation of people who are now in their early-to-mid 40s.

BOTH OF THEM since then have engaged in behavior that many consider to be (at best) erratic.

Jackson gets top billing because nobody suspected the 50-year-old was near death. By comparison, Farrah had been on a “death watch” for days, and had had the “last rites” administered just a couple of hours before she finally succumbed Thursday.

Still, I would have thought more news outlets would have tried to be like The News of Opelika, Ala., and try to do some sort of dual coverage of the two – even though that would have left fans of each respective person displeased that their preference didn’t get top billing.

In fact, it was an attempt at dual coverage that caught my attention the most. The Times of Northwest Indiana (a Munster, Ind.-based newspaper I do some work for, although I had nothing to do with the news judgment they showed for Friday’s front page) had their own reporter at Jackson’s boyhood home in Gary, Ind., to do the expected story of fans turning the site into an informal shrine to the one-time lead singer of the Jackson 5.

BUT THEY ALSO gave big Page One play to the story that on a typical day they likely would have taken over the page – the discovery of a body that likely belongs to Jada Justice.

She’s the 2-year-old mentioned earlier who had been missing, and whom police say they suspect her babysitter/distant cousin was somehow involved with her death.

It’s nice to see that at least one news organization in Chicago that had been treating the Justice search as a major story didn’t suddenly ditch the story just because of Michael Jackson.

Now if only they could have got Farrah on Page One as well (even though the only local angle I can think of is that many middle-aged men from the area were among those who once lusted after her poster), they would have managed to hit just about all the big stories.

EXCEPT FOR BLAGOJEVICH.

It appears that his court date being set never had a chance. Oh well, I’m sure his goofy antics in coming months will take over front pages and get him ample attention on many more occasions.

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EDITOR'S NOTES: Even professional baseball is managing to find ways to mourn the deaths of (http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090625&content_id=5537200&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb) Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

I don't know that I think Jackson's death is being overplayed, but I am surprised that some other stories aren't (http://www.eandppub.com/2009/06/question-of-day-for-friday-is-media-overplaying-michael-jackson-death.html) creeping their way to equal attention.