Make up your mind

Ben Shors wasn’t planning on his story about destruction of child welfare records running in today’s paper. The story was originally planned for the weekend, but it was needed for today’s front page because we ran into problems trying to nail down the story originally planned for page one (we’re being “stonewalled” by sources, one editor involved with the story said).

Deputy editor Dan Hansen said he told Ben at 4 p.m. that we’d need the story, then told him at 6 that we wouldn’t need the story, and then told him at 6:30 that we’d need the story after all.

Steve Smith commended Shors’ “aggressive pursuit” of records and documents that enabled this story come to light, and another bright spot was the breakout that quickly summarized the issue, enabling casual readers to more easily enter the story.

You know, that guy

Our decision to run a story on the fallout from a blogger’s assertions about Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s sexuality became a subject of national ethics discussions after a Daily Briefing post on the subject was linked on Romenesko , a widely-read media news blog. The Poynter Institute, which publishes the Romenesko blog, asked Smith to participate in a podcast on the issue, but only on the condition that Craig’s name not be used.

When Smith asked how they planned to address the subject while keeping the senator anonymous, he was told they would be referring to “a Republican Idaho Senator.”

“It’s just another example of the Twilight Zone we sometimes find ourselves in,” Smith said.

Even more curiously, Romenesko’s aforementioned post appears to have been pulled, further indication that the Poynter Institute probably isn’t very supportive of the decision to publish the story.

Getting there…

The news just keeps getting better on the front-page typo front. In addition to being in a much smaller point size, today’s error is buried all the way at the bottom of the page. But come to think of it, “Wisconson” might work better with the fight song (On, Wisconson!).