School news lacking parity

Question: I am a subscriber to the Idaho edition and wonder why Lake City High School gets more publicity and coverage than Coeur d’Alene High School. The discrepancy is obvious and I find it upsetting. There should be equal coverage for both schools. – Doris Chappius, Coeur d’Alene

Answer: Coverage decisions are based on many factors. In sports, winning teams get more coverage than losing teams – for one thing there are championship runs to cover as seasons get extended. On the news side, events determine coverage, for good or ill. There is no intention to cover one school more than another, though circumstances sometimes produce that result.

Without a thorough content audit, I can’t say whether Lake City is in the paper more or less than Coeur d’Alene High. But over any reasonable period of time, I doubt there would be a significant difference. – Steve Smith, editor

Why name my son?

Question: This is a response to the March 26 article in the Valley Voice entitled, “Son’s friend arrested in theft.” This isn’t an Oxycontin addict but rather a member of my family. I’m disturbed that you’d include his whole name. People in life make mistakes; you don’t need to publicize them.

He regrets doing those terrible things, but now he’ll never live them down because his name was released. Why did you include his address in the article? It contained no relevance to the story or public. I know it’s your job to report the news, but the story would have been effective without encompassing these private details. This was a family issue shared unnecessarily with the public. You’ve created questions to everyone in the family with sharing last names.

A more difficult journey now lies ahead because you included crucial everyday life details. To you this was just another article about a troubled teen, but to me and my family this was rude, rapacious and very selfish. Given if it was your family member, I guarantee that you wouldn’t have tied in their name and address, so why would you do it to my family? – Meagan Benner, Spokane Valley

Answer: We published the four-paragraph article about Kyle Benner’s arrest because he was charged with two felonies. We regularly publish stories about people who are charged with felonies and list their complete names and addresses to avoid possible confusion or misidentification.

Arrest records are public record and we publish a great deal of this information so that the public can be made aware of crime and safety issues in their immediate neighborhoods and in the community in general.

You said in your note that Kyle isn’t an Oxycontin addict. We did not conclude or assume that he was, but we did accurately quote police Cpl. Dave Reagan on this issue.

Finally, you suggested in your note that if a family member of an editor or reporter had been charged in a similar case, we wouldn’t publish such information. I assure you that your assumption is false. We make no exceptions when it comes to publishing information about people charged with felonies, including Spokesman-Review staff members. – Gary Graham, managing editor