I made an early evening decision on our coverage of the Jimmy Marks funeral that left more than a few of my newsroom colleagues unhappy and scratching their heads. Columnist Doug Clark and political reporter Jim Camden both attended the funeral and filed their respective reports. Both reporters, and photographer Chris Anderson, did an absolutely fine job of capturing the details of the rather unusual scene. As I was reading the stories prior to publication it occurred to me that we were about to devote a great deal of space and prominence to a funeral of a colorful and well-known character, but one whose impact in this community is certainly debatable. I felt we were about to overdo our coverage, so I asked that we move Camden’s story and Anderson’s photo inside the local section instead of using it as the main element on the Northwest page. I also felt that the Stevens County wildfire story by Nick Eaton and the photos by Anderson (a busy guy yesterday) met our daily goal of giving breaking news a high priority -- Managing Editor Gary Graham/News Diary.
Jeff Bunch provides Daily Briefing coverage of same matter here.
Question: Did Editor Graham make the right call to not overplay coverage of Gypsy leader Jimmy Marks' funeral?
D.F. Oliveria started Huckleberries Online on Feb. 16, 2004. Oliveria's Sunday print Huckleberries is a past winner of the national Herb Caen Memorial Column contest.
unhappy and scratching their heads. Columnist Doug Clark and political reporter Jim Camden both attended the funeral and filed their respective reports. Both reporters, and photographer Chris Anderson, did an absolutely fine job of capturing the details of the rather unusual scene. As I was reading the stories prior to publication it occurred to me that we were about to devote a great deal of space and prominence to a funeral of a colorful and well-known character, but one whose impact in this community is certainly debatable. I felt we were about to overdo our coverage, so I asked that we move Camden’s story and Anderson’s photo inside the local section instead of using it as the main element on the Northwest page. I also felt that the Stevens County wildfire story by Nick Eaton and the photos by Anderson (a busy guy yesterday) met our daily goal of giving breaking news a high priority -- Managing Editor Gary Graham/News Diary.
