The story appears on Page 10.
A big picture of the pit bull appears atop Page 1, in the area that promotes content inside the newspaper. The headline with the photo: "Killer pit bull."
The Page 1 presentation was my idea. The story, the headline text, all of it.
A couple of News & Record staffers questioned that treatment when I suggested it during our regular news meeting late Tuesday afternoon. They said the treatment felt "sensational." I persevered, and today's paper is the result.
We discussed the topic again this morning, at our regular 9:45 news meeting, with a bigger group, including several editors who were not at the Tuesday afternoon meeting.
The majority opinion: Wrong approach.
Editors said, again, that the presentation felt sensational. They also expressed much sympathy for the dog, which some suggested wasn't to blame because dogs do only as humans condition them to do, and for pit bulls, which they said get a bum rap. Some also said the presentation put too much focus on the dog rather than the dead girl.
I disagree, and I said so. We make the best paper we can each day out of the content available, and we do readers and the newspaper itself little good by acting timidly.
The actual pit bull in the photo was the pit bull, which means it actually did kill the girl (a News & Record photographer made the photo Tuesday after the dog was put in confinement). Also, I can't abide boring, because I don't think readers can, either.
Grand arguments on my side? Not really. Still, I remain unabashed.
But these are subjective decisions. Reasonable people will disagree. The discussion is always worthy.
(News & Record - Feb 26, 2014)
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