Is is that we report only the bad news or that it’s the bad news you remember?
A spate of ugly crimes in our Dakota County communities has me thinking about the criticism we always get at the paper: All you write about is the bad news. I’ve been in this business for almost 40 years and the accusation is a constant wherever I happen to be plying the craft of telling the stories of my community.
Years ago, Icame to understand that the complaint has to do with the fact that people remember the bad-news stories more than they remember theheart-warming stories of people living life properly. At least 90 percent of what we put into our papers is good news or at least neutral facts about community life. But it’s the bad and theugly, not the good, that sticks in readers’ minds.
In last week’s Thisweek Eagan, for example, Editor Erin Johnson reported that the cityis offering a reward for information about a suspicious fire that destroyed a vacant home on Wescott Road May 4. The story was accompanied by a photo of the burning house with an explanation that officials suspect arson. But on that same page are four other stories anda picture dealing with such things as the decision of a city council member to resign so she can spend more time with her family, the decision of Kowalski’s to open an Eagan store, plans for an Arbor Day celebration and Eagan High School’s spring show. My guess is most of you would remember the fire story, if you remember anything from that front page.
Similarly, Lakeville readerswould probably cite the terribly sad story of a mother pleading guilty to second-degreee manslaughterin thedrowningdeath of her child before they would mentionDerrick Williams’s front-page stories on Lakeville joining the transit-taxing district or the Kids Day Americaevent to raise funds for mentorship programs.Most of what we do in Thisweek and the Dakota County Tribune is celebrate the good happenings and good people who make up the cities we cover. But this week,Burnsville readers will probably remember the horrible story abouta neighbor who was beaten by an intruder who followed the beating and robbery by setting the victim’s house afire.
We shouldn’t feel guilty that we want to read about the bad news. It’s human nature to notice when things aren’t going the way they are supposed to. How many of us havebeen able todrive past an accident scene without looking at what might be aterrible sight of injury or worse?
News is, by definition, whensomething happens that is different from the norm. The norm is for people to enjoy the security of their homes without fear of violent intruders. The norm is formotorists to get from Point A to Point B safely. News is when people are assaulted in their homesor when people are injured or killed on the highways.
Increasingly, however, we in the news business are defining news more broadly to include not just the important and unexpectedbut also those thingsthat are simply interesting, and maybe not that important. Apple Valley Editor Andrew Miller used his front page to tellyou about the new Minnesota Zoo exhibit on Russia’s Grizzly Coast. RosemountEditor Jessica Harper featured a picture of marching band parents shopping for gifts at a garage sale held to raise money for band trips.
These and many other good things were reported onin our papers and on ThisweekLive.com. Do you remember them and read them the way you do the bad news?