Back to business

Steve Smith said he’s had a number of calls from people who feel we short-changed Skyfest in today’s weekend roundup story. The event was mentioned in the story, but wasn’t included in an infobox on page A6. Fret not - there’s plenty of Skyfest coverage to come…

Meanwhile, over on News is a Conversation , bloggers Dave Laird and Terry Bain have other questions about the story. Feel free to share your thoughts.

Burnin’ up

“That’s pretty good treatment for a 10-acre grass fire,” reporter Jim Camden said. “We’re going to be seeing 100-acre grass fires within a couple of weeks.”

No one had any issues with the story or the photo in particular, but the point was well taken. By all indications, this year’s wildfire season looks like it will be a real doozy, and we don’t want to blow up the coverage too soon.

Editor’s note: “Blow up” might be considered a pun, but it’s not intended to be. Unless you think it’s exceptionally clever, in which case it was completely on purpose. But probably not.

Kids say the darnedest things

Editors partially addressed an issue brought up by the mother of two kids featured in yesterday’s Summer snapshots story (you can read her comment at Video Journal ). The mother complains that we didn’t ask for permission to use the photograph of her children in the paper.

We’re not obligated to ask for permission to use a photograph of a subject in a public setting, even if it’s a child, Smith said. There are circumstances when a child’s anonymity needs to be secured, such as an abuse situation, and in those cases we take appropriate steps. A photo of kids attending a movie at the Garland, however, doesn’t qualify.