Columbia

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sun Feb 02, 2003 6:51 pm

I think we can lift the moratorium.Some banal observations, on headlines:

"Columbia is Lost" was used all over the place. It's certainly not the best headline, and editors might have given some thought to how many other newspapers would use it. A quick glance at the front pages at the Newseum Web site shows that it was the lead headline in the Augusta Chronicle, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Oklahoman, Free Lance Star (Fredericksburg) Denver Post, Gazette (Cedar Rapids), Lawrence Journal-World, Jackson Sun, Indianapolis Star, Raleigh News and Observer, Miami Herald, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Los Angeles Times, Oregonian, Patriot News (Harrisburg), Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Maine Telegram, Seattle Times, San Jose Mercury News, San Diego Tribune, Rutland Herald, Reno Gazette Journal, Rapid City Journal, Press Democrat (Santa Rosa), Syracuse Post Standard, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Newark Star-Ledger, State Journal Register (Springfield), Statesman Journal (Salem), Baltimore Sun, Sun Journal (Lewiston), Times Record News (Wichita Falls), The Truth (Elkhart), New Orleans Times-Picayune, Albany Times Union and the Joplin, Mo., Globe.The New York Times, with "Shuttle Breaks Up, 7 Killed" was better, although some (including me) would note that it needed a semicolon, not a comma.So far, the two top contenders for the stupidest headline award are the Greeley (Colo.) Tribune ("Tears in Heaven" and the Logan (Utah) Herald Journal ("Space Tragedy II")I think it's still too early to seriously critique the substance of coverage, except perhaps to note that speculation about the cause of the accident is, while still too frequent, is remarkably muted considering the history of such things.[ February 03, 2003: Message edited by: blanp ]

Guest · **Posted:** Sun Feb 02, 2003 7:04 pm

In cruising the Web sites of several daily newspapers around the Pacific Northwest, I noticed several papers using "WHAT WENT WRONG?" as a banner hed. This seems, to me, to lend more ambiguity to a story already fraught with ambiguity, and thus disorient the reader on initial glance ... a hed shouldn't cast a spotlight on what nobody yet knows, but pithily summarize what IS known. Or am I wrong about this?

Guest · **Posted:** Sun Feb 02, 2003 7:08 pm

Another stupid hed contender:The Sun (Bremerton, Wash.):"SILENCE IN THE SKIES"

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sun Feb 02, 2003 7:13 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Jim Thomsen:
Or am I wrong about this?<hr></blockquote>No. The first-day headline should say what happened, especially in the case of a "major" event.

Guest · **Posted:** Sun Feb 02, 2003 7:14 pm

I know it's Phillip's job exclusively to pick on Marcia Dunn, but in looking at today's AP news budget, I just don't see how the following story helps the cause of concise and coherent disaster coverage ... based as it is on unsubstantiated speculation and then taking off on a doomed flight of its own -- of logical and rhetorical fancy.CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. â€” If liftoff damage to Columbia's thermal tiles caused the disaster, was the crew doomed from the very start? Or could NASA have saved all or some of the seven astronauts by trying some Hollywood-style heroics? Some ideas would have been highly impractical, dangerous and perhaps futile.
BC-Shuttle-Doomed from the Start? p0664.
By Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 2:08 am

A couple hold hands as they pray at a makeshift memorial to the astronauts of the space shuttle Columbia outside NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. (Reuters)Call me heartless, but I never got the "makeshift memorial" thing. The brightly colored balloons seem especially inappropriate.[ February 03, 2003: Message edited by: blanp ]

jpeppas · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 4:26 am

My paper used "Columbia is lost'
It is neither good nor bad, just a shrug.
That Saturday I had casually mentioned to the M.E. that in my education reporter days, I had interviewed one of the seven astronauts for a story. She asked me to write a short on my recollections, first-person style.
It was hard trying to write a story after writing nothing but heds for two years. It is even harder trying to draw recollections from something that happened five years ago.
By the way the astronaut was Chawla.
Besides being an astronaut and that being slightly memorable. In an odd twist she had gotten her doctorate at Colorado, where my brother had also gotten his doctorate.
I then resumed my normal sports boy duties.

gullyj · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 11:40 am

Seems to me by the time the "Columbia is lost" headline landed on doorsteps hundreds of pieces of Columbia had already been found.
Toronto Star joined in with the breathless "What went wrong?" that may have accurately reflected what many people were thinking but is a bit of a clunker as a head.
By the way, a late breaking story from British Columbia about seven high school kids dying in an avalanche while on a school ski trip made the bottom of Page One with a turn while the Columbia story filled many pages. That triggered an avalanche of letters-to-the-editor from the nationalistic crowd wondering why seven dead Americans were more important than seven dead Canadians.

mcjones75 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 3:32 pm

My paper's headline was Shuttle Disaster (subhd) Deadly descent shocks nation.A hearty thank-you to all the copy editors who deleted references to how 'we all' feel.
Andy Rooney informed me on Sunday that 'everybody' had a bad day Saturday and 'we all' were saddened.
Uh, I went to the beach and had a freakin' awesome day, my best in months. (And wisely chose to not read Marcia Dunn on Sunday morning. A lovely weekend.)

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 4:20 pm

For the record, I like this McJones person.

zfriloux · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 4:35 pm

One thing I came across Saturday and found strange:
One of our Washington bureau reporters was sent to the National Air and Space Museum to get reaction from people there watching shuttle coverage. He quoted one guy, a tourist from British Columbia, who said something like, "Americans don't understand how big a deal the American space program is to Canadians. We were completely torn up over the Challenger explosion, and now this."
I admit it wasn't the strangest thing I came across the first day -- that designation would have to go to all the "SHUTTLE DEBRIS: IF FOUND CALL POLICE" signs I drove past on the freeway on my way to and home from work -- but it stood out as bizarre.[ February 03, 2003: Message edited by: Zoe Friloux ]

Karenna Awtry · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 4:49 pm

Great headline that didn't get in print:
... 16 minutes from home
At least, I liked the idea.

Guest · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 5:14 pm

Anybody come across an instance in which rival papers came up with exactly the same banner hed on the same day? Today, both the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and The (Tacoma) News Tribune ran "SEARCH FOR ANSWERS" in almost exactly the same type size, meriting a sizable snicker from Northwest media observers ....

rumymommy · **Joined:** Tue Aug 06, 2002 12:01 am **Posts:** 138

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Kawtry:
Great headline that didn't get in print:
... 16 minutes from home
At least, I liked the idea.<hr></blockquote>It did ... I can't remember what paper offhand, but it did. Might be on newseum.

Guest · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 6:05 pm

I agree ... mcjones rocks the copy-edit casbah.Re Marcia Dunn: Our paper's executive editor has kept our Marcia Dunn story ban in place. Her "Hollywood heroics" piece for today's papers was execrable and added nothing of substance.

jmcg · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 7:57 pm

Not sure I see much that's better
than the admittedly much used "Columbia
Is Lost. Maybe Honolulu Advertisers's
"U.S. Mourns Loss/Of Shuttle Crew." Even
that needs tweaking, though, to reflect
the Israeli astronaut and the Indian-born
astronaut. As for widely used heds, I recall
that the better Sept. 11 heds were quite
similar, and that the bad ones were, for
worse and worst, unique or close to it.
And I'd still go with "Kennedy Assassinated" or "Japan Surrenders," knowing full well that they'd be all over papers elsewhere. As for N.Y. Times hed that Blanp likes,
isn't the death count stating the obvious?As for the worst of the lot, doesn't the
Tampa Tribune's "Almost Home" get a mention?
What did they go with on Nov. 23, 1963 (or
p.m, editions of Nov. 22) "JFK Motorcade
Approaches Dealey Plaza"? Or, on June 5, 1968,
"RFK Celebrates Victory in Calif. Primary"?

SusanV · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2003 8:14 pm

I kinda liked the one in Israel's Ma'ariv:
Pieces of the dream(with the pic showing debris streaking across the sky)

snoopyr13 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 04, 2003 12:14 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Jim Thomsen:
Anybody come across an instance in which rival papers came up with exactly the same banner hed on the same day? Today, both the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and The (Tacoma) News Tribune ran "SEARCH FOR ANSWERS" in almost exactly the same type size, meriting a sizable snicker from Northwest media observers ....<hr></blockquote>The Bradenton Herald and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune both had "Search for Answers" as the main hed today. Yippeeee. Your heart sinks a bit when the competition writes the same thing you/your paper did.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sun Feb 09, 2003 3:13 am

By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer SPACE CENTER, Houston - One week after the space shuttle Columbia broke apart as it streaked over Texas just minutes from home, NASA (news - web sites) still has more questions than answers. ***Seven full days and they haven't figured out what happened. Man.***

Guest · **Posted:** Sun Feb 09, 2003 4:26 pm

I was taught by a college journalism instructor: NEVER lead a story with what ISN'T known. The purpose of a story is to convey information, not the lack thereof.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Sun Feb 09, 2003 4:32 pm

"Journalism instructors" don't know jackshit, Jim. But we've been through this before.

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