Police Note Sad Incident

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2003 4:57 pm

Minneapolis Star-Tribune "reader representative" Lou Gelfand writes:Many readers wanted to take the cudgel to the writer of Tuesday's front-page headline, "Infant killed; throat is slit."
Typical was Janet Sarver, a mental health worker, who said, "The headline was horribly graphic, disrespectful to family. Just write, 'Infant died, mother suspected.' You were going for shock value."
Managing editor Scott Gillespie commented, "We never want to sensationalize the news, and we spend a lot of time discussing the impact of tragic photos, headlines and stories on our readers. In this case, our night editors decided the fact that the child's throat had been cut was what made the case so unusual. That, in fact, was one of the key reasons we decided to display the story on Page 1."
Steve Fisher, night copy editing supervisor, explored it deeper ....***What's to explore? Simple story, simple headline. No need to explain. (Janet's suggested headline would have been a howler.) "Reader representatives" should not waste time with such trivial complaints. Certainly, "night copy editing supervisors" have better things to do.***[ August 11, 2003: Message edited by: blanp ]

jmcg · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2003 6:20 pm

Nor is there any reason for the "night copy editing supervisor" to defend the hed by embarrassing the person (whom he imperiously refers to as "my copy editor) who wrote the not-quite-there hed "Infant's throat cut in St. Paul." There's a reason rewritten heds don't go into the paper. Keep 'em within the desk, and only as a teaching tool.[ August 11, 2003: Message edited by: jmcg ][ August 12, 2003: Message edited by: jmcg ]

dmfugitive · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2003 9:18 pm

The "night copy editing supervisor" continues: " 'Infant's throat cut in St. Paul' was the headline that my copy editor sent to me. It didn't say the infant was dead. In fact, such a cut might have been caused by a harmless accident."perfectly harmless, except for the cut throat, and we're right back where we started.

Bolder1 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2003 9:43 pm

<<"Reader representatives" should not waste time with such trivial complaints.>>So true. Just because you have one doesn't mean they have to write every week...they find themselves answering every pro-Bush (or anti-Bush) crackpot who sniffs bias in every word...makes me gag.On another note, the story itself is fascinating (mother is a prof. from Villanova who by most accounts suffered from postpartum depression, exacerbated by her baby's birth defect) Tragic all around.

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