Northwest section continues unchanged

Question: How come the “B” section of your paper has been done away with? I have always thought that this section was the best since it had local news and opinions on local affairs. My suggestion to your editors is that you should get out of the office and talk to people to see what you can do to return your publication to a quality one. – T.R. Potter

Response: The Northwest or “B” section of The Spokesman-Review still exists. You may have picked up a recent holiday paper or a Monday paper. Monday is the only day of the week in which we regularly combine the A section and the B section because of advertising and space issues. We will also combine sections for some holiday papers for the same logistical reasons. Beyond that, our Northwest section continues to include news from Eastern Washington and North Idaho plus the strongest wire stories from throughout the region. – Carla Savalli, senior editor for local news

Question: Why cut “Spin Control” out of the paper when it directly enhances the quality and veracity of your journalism? Yes, I understand budget cuts. But this particular column is a “checks & balances” on the material reported in your paper. I think that it belongs on the editorial pages of the paper copy, not merely on the online version in a blog.

Spin Control has been very much a watchdog on S-R journalism. It helps ensure that alternate ideas get a voice and that accuracy and quality are enhanced.

Response: Due to economic pressures, the newsroom was forced to lay off 13 of our journalists last month, representing nearly 13 percent of our staff. In addition, eight other journalists accepted a voluntary severance package, further reducing the number of reporters and editors on staff. Two others opted for early retirement. We’ve since been able to rehire five of the people we laid off, but we still have a significantly smaller staff.

Something had to give. We simply can’t produce the same kind of newspaper that we used to with such a reduction in staff. Our annual reader surveys show that the number one interest and priority of our readers is local news. Staff-produced columns are informative, entertaining and well-written, but they do not provide enough of the kind of news about our community that readers demand on a daily basis. Elimination of the columns allows us to redeploy those writers to report and write more news.

The bylines of our former columnists will not be disappearing from the paper. In fact, most of them will be writing more frequently, just not in the column format. – Gary Graham, managing editor

Question: On Dec. 29 you ran a cartoon by Signe Wilkinson on page B5. I am surprised that in this day anyone would put “Mormon Politicians” in a separate category than they would “Christian Politicians.” “Mormons” are Christians and they believe in God our eternal father, in his son Jesus Christ, in the Holy Ghost and in the Bible, so long as it is translated correctly.

To run that (cartoon) was a huge disservice to the “Mormon” religion. The only reason I can think of that Signe added the Mormon part in the cartoon is that there is a Mormon running for president, but the cartoon would have been just as good if it had lumped Mormons with the other “Christian Politicians” or unmentioned instead of singling them out as if they were neither Christian nor believers in the Bible. – Jeanie Gadberry

Response: I agree with Ms. Gadberry that Signe Wilkinson’s decision to include the Book of Mormon in her cartoon was probably influenced by Mitt Romney’s candidacy for president. But I suspect that a bigger consideration was the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints formally recognizes a separate volume of scripture – the Book of Mormon – in addition to the Bible. Since the theme of the cartoon focused on various religious books, it seems like a logical image to help make her point.

Agreed, using the Bible as a text for “Christian” politicians while the Book of Mormon is labeled as a text for “Mormon” politicians might imply that Wilkinson does not consider Mormons Christians. I have no idea whether that’s her view, but it’s clearly a question on which there are different opinions.

That having been said, the editorial and op-ed pages of any newspaper are set aside for the expression of opinion, whether that of the editorial board, individual columnists, letter writers or, in this case, cartoonists. It’s legitimate to expect the news reporting that appears elsewhere in the paper to be unbiased, but contributors to the opinion pages are expected to bring their own slant. – Doug Floyd, editorial page editor

Question: I read and re-read the story about the Bonagofski family. Unless I missed the reason for the story to have made the front page of the Sunday, Dec. 30 paper, I was left with the question why this story made the front page?

I read the story thinking it was going to invoke compassion for this family and their struggles; it left me with complete opposite feelings. – Abra Oakes

Response: The Dec. 30 story on the Bonagofski family was part of a series titled “Whatever Happened To.” Over the course of a week between Christmas and New Year’s, the newspaper updated stories that made a significant impact on our community in 2007. The Bonagofski story was one of those that generated a lot of reader reaction the first time it appeared in April as part of our special Our Kids: Our Business project. We wanted to update the family’s situation for readers. Their story is a complicated one that evokes different reactions from different people. Our intent – as with all of the “Whatever Happened To” stories – was to provide new information and to acknowledge that sometimes stories stick with readers long after the newspaper has moved on. – Carla Savalli, senior editor for local news