Calm in the midst of crisis at the Boston Marathon

When reports of tragic events begin arriving via the media, I tend to view them a little differently than most people probably do. Certainly, I try to absorb the facts of the situation, comprehend its enormity, and even despair at our inhumanity to each other.

At the same time, though, I instinctively analyze how effectively the media are covering the situation. I notice how mass media — especially television news channels — struggle to fill air time. In their competitive world, it’s important to grab and hold as big a piece of the audience as possible, and that requires wall-to-wall coverage.

In the early minutes and hours of a major event, information is often sketchy, so the media struggle to find new things to communicate. Sometimes they grab onto the thinnest pieces of information and expand on them as best they can. Or speculate on the causes of the tragedy, and who might have caused it.

Then, of course, there are the “experts” quickly called upon to comment on what happened, or what might have happened, and why.

All the while, there’s a concerted search for the all-important eye-witnesses to the event.

And, whatever pictures or videos that might become available are repeated endlessly. If those images are disturbing, the news host will sometimes apologize for the graphic nature of them, then show them over and over.

At a local level, I watch to see how quickly and effectively hometown media connect with the “local angle.” The most important aspect of any major event is how it affects us right here at home. Yesterday, all our local media were quick to look for any Kamloops or B.C. people who might have been running in the Boston Marathon. Some tweeted asking if anyone knew anything about that to please contact them. Others dug out the list of participants and found there were no Kamloops runners, but many from other parts of the province.

Maybe most importantly, I look at how people caught up in the crisis react, how well they manage the crisis. Yesterday and today, I’ve been especially impressed with medical personnel from Boston hospitals as they scrum with reporters to describe what they’ve been dealing with.

Calmly, they’ve been telling reporters everything they know, talking of the extreme trauma they’ve been dealing with, and promising to get back to them when they have something more to add. Last night, one surgeon emerged from hours in the E.R., after carrying out surgery on a half dozen patients, and patiently answered every question the media had for him.

This type of calm under pressure is what we rely on to get us through such terrible situations, just as we rely on the brave people who run towards danger instead of away from it. Those are the people we depend on for reassurance that the world is still a good place.

Cat-on-the-pole caper good crisis management

Undignified but successful rescue of Trinity the cat by B.C. Hydro averted a potential PR crisis. (Kamloops Daily News photo)

It wasn’t exactly the Exxon Valdez, the Gulf oil spill or horse meat but B.C. Hydro’s handling of the cat-on-the- pole caper was pretty good crisis management.

The problem started when Trinity the black cat climbed a B.C. Hydro power pole in Sahali and decided to stay there. Alerted by a neighbour, Trinity’s owner Clint Stooshnoff called Kamloops Fire and Rescue, and B.C. Hydro looking for help to get Trinity down.

The fire department couldn’t do it because they don’t have the expertise or authority to deal with power lines. Hydro looked over the situation and decided not to tackle it either. Cats come down from poles when they get hungry enough, they say.

As is often the case when bureaucracies can’t or won’t solve a problem, there was only one place left to go — the media. Stooshnoff went on CBC Radio Tuesday morning, and the papers started asking questions, too. By afternoon, Hydro trucks were on the scene and a crew covered off the power lines and hooked Trinity under her collar and hauled her down.

Happy ending. What happened in between, no doubt, was that Hydro’s PR department recognized a minor crisis in the making. People hate to see cats stranded without help; media love stories about stranded cats. While the initial call by field personnel not to attempt a rescue was probably correct from a technical standpoint, from a PR perspective it wasn’t.

Had Hydro continued to resist, it would have had to endure a whole lot of negative PR pain. It might have dragged on for days while Trinity languished, meowing loudly up there on the pole. If hunger and thirst had weakened her and caused her to fall, it wouldn’t be pretty.

So, Hydro quickly relented and got the job done, with lots of positive coverage from the media. Reacting quickly is the first rule of crisis management. If a company waits even a few hours to respond, the public-relations damage can become irreversible. Kudos to Hydro for understanding that.

As for the urban legend that cats will always come down from trees or poles when they get hungry enough, the wisdom is mixed on that. While pretty much all cats are good at going up, it seems some are better at coming down than others. Some, in fact, are lousy at reversing the process, and won’t come down unless they fall down — and there have been cases of that with fatal consequences.

Making it to the Daybreak Kamloops studio, just in time

Armchair Mayor (on right) chats with others outside CBC Kamloops studio this morning. (CBC photo)

At 6:38 this morning, Josh Page, associate producer for the new Daybreak Kamloops show, sent a polite e-mail asking me if he’d need to reschedule the interview he’d scheduled between me and host Shelley Joyce.

At 6:39 a.m. I hustled in to the new CBC radio studio on Victoria Street, trying to look as though I always show up for interviews with 60 seconds to spare. Rob Polsen, who heads up the studio, took me directly into Shelley’s control booth and we were quickly on the air.

A few minutes before, I’d been rattling into town in the cornbinder thinking I was cutting it a little close and mentally calculating whether I’d be able to find a parking spot close enough to the studio to actually make it in time. Radio people must pull their hair some days, not knowing if their guests are going to show up.

All is well, however. And, to my surprise, about three dozen people were hanging around inside the studio and out on the sidewalk to welcome the city’s new CBC bureau and morning show. Not usually being awake that early, I hadn’t realized so many Kamloops residents are up and about before the sun even rises.

My on-air talk with Shelley was about a weekly commentary piece — radio people call them “columns” — I’ll be doing with Page about Kamloops issues. But rather than simply commenting on local issues, Page and I will go to various locales around town and have conversations about what’s in the news. The format is Josh’s idea, and I’m looking forward to it.

“Josh and the Armchair Mayor” will air Thursdays.

Retirement: Day One of the ‘new phase of life’

Discussing a story in the newsroom with reporter Jason Hewlett (centre) and city editor Tracy Gilchrist. But that was Friday. Today is today.

RETIREMENT DAY ONE:

Normally, on a Monday, I would be rolling into work some time around now. I would get a start on sorting through letters to the editor, attend a management meeting at 10, followed by a story meeting with our city editor and reporters. Mid to late morning, I would look at the advertising placements with our “Traffic” department and decide whether to move anything around or possibly to add or subtract pages.

Then I’d go back to lining up the Opinion pages, and get a start on writing my column for the Tuesday edition. Three columns a week. Did that for a long time; before that, a column a week for decades.

The phone would ring — the people at the other end would be looking for some publicity for an upcoming event, or they’d be angry about a story we’d published, or they’d have a problem with government or a cause they hoped we’d take up for them, or want us to cover a meeting or a protest or an anniversary or a speech or….

So the day would go, until our second story meeting of the day late in the afternoon, when the other editors and I would discuss what we had been covering during the day, and what was coming out of the wire services, and which stories we should choose and which pages to put them on.

And then I’d help out with copy editing.

And none of that is happening today. Friday was my last day on the job. Today, being my first day not on the job, is my first real day retired. All last week, I was treated royally, honoured at a reception, taken out for lunch a couple of times, toasted by staff in our boardroom. Many, many wonderful cards and emails from people I’ve come to know, and quite a few I’ve never met.

One of the gifts I was presented with is what is called The Mel Rothenburger Journalism Bursary, a $500 award for a TRU journalism student in need of financial assistance. It is to be presented, in my name, by The Daily News and Glacier Media Group and I couldn’t be more thrilled about it.

In Saturday’s Armchair Mayor column, my last as editor of The Daily News, I wrote about some of the young journalists we had working for us this summer, and how they reminded me of me when I started in newspapers.

One of the things I’ll miss most about my job, of course, is the people I’ve worked with and the people I’ve come to know in the community. I’m going to find ways not to lose touch.

There’s also a loss of identity. I’m no longer the Editor of the local daily newspaper. When I introduce myself to someone, I’m just Mel. I’ll find new ways to identify myself.

And, obviously, new things to do that don’t involve meetings and copy editing and figuring out stories for reporters and editors to work on. I spent part of my morning today on the phone with Robin at Johnson’s Ground Water Services figuring out how to get the float in our water settling tank working again so I can get water in the house.

Getting that done was pretty rewarding. But I’ve got a lot of other things to do today, so I’ve got to get moving.

As Vince would say, ‘You know we can’t do this all day’

A friend forwarded me a list this week. I don’t know who the author is, but it made me laugh.

It’s about being in your 60s.

1. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.

2. In a hostage situation, you are likely to be released first.

3. No one expects you to run — anywhere.

4. People call at 9 p.m. (or 9 a.m.) and ask, “Did I wake you?”

5. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.

6. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.

7. Things you buy now won’t wear out.

8. You can eat supper at 4 p.m.

9. You can live without sex but not your glasses.

10. You get into heated arguments about pension plans.

11. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.

12. You quit trying to hold your stomach in no matter who walks into the room.

13. You sing along with elevator music.

14. Your eyes won’t get much worse.

15. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.

16. Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service.

17. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can’t remember them either.

18. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to a manageable size.

19. You can’t remember who sent you this list.

If you’re in your 60s, you will find the foregoing hilarious. If not, well, wait till you get there.

I’ve noticed a few things about being in my 60s, too. I’ve noticed, for example, that I’m the only one left in the office who pounds on a computer keyboard as if it was a typewriter. I’ve gone through three of them this month.

I’ve noticed there’s a note taped to my monitor that says, “Have you tweeted today?” and that I just ignore it.

I’ve noticed that I’ve started accepting the 10-per-cent discount on seniors day — something I vowed never to do. I even cracked a copy of Zoomer magazine one evening.

I’ve noticed that my friends keep getting older.

I’ve noticed that, almost every day, somebody asks me if I ever think about retiring. Most are just making polite conversation; some sound hopeful.

I heard recently there are only two questions that need to be answered when you contemplate retirement: have you had enough, and do you have enough.

In thinking it over, the answer for me will probably always be ‘no’ to both but, as that great philosopher, Vince the SlapChop guy, has said, “You know we can’t do this all day.”

One more thing I’ve noticed is that I still love my job and admire the people I work with, and like most of the people I meet. Which beats the hell out of hating what I do and loathing those I work with. Seems like a pretty good time to call it a career.

 

‘You know we can’t do this all day.’

I’ve been thinking about it awhile, but when I hit 68 this spring I started thinking about it more. So, on Friday afternoon, Sept. 14, in the 42^nd year since I began working here, I will stop beating up on keyboards at The Daily News, and move out of the way for someone who will treat them better.

Until then, I’ve got a lot of writing to do. I’d better get busy.

 

The Dufferin standoff — the end of media competition?

Explosive end to Thursday night’s standoff in Dufferin. (Daily News photo)

Very busy in the newsroom this morning. People gradually showing up for work — some were up all night covering the Dufferin standoff that went on for several hours and ended in the early morning with an explosion in the house that police had surrounded since late afternoon.

Cam Fortems, who was there pretty much throughout, just arrived (10:30 a.m.), Mark Rogers, who was updating our website during the night, is here, too. So are Michele Young and Tracy Gilchrist. I think photographers Murray Mitchell and Keith Anderson are sleeping in — deservedly so. Me, I got to leave for home just after 9:30 p.m., though the trip was slightly delayed when I almost ran into a couple of horses that had gotten loose on the road from a neighbour’s place, and I had to stop to let them know about the strays.

One of the reasons the phone is ringing this morning is that out-of-town media are hungry for photos, as they were last night. In the old days, we’d think twice about giving away our material but it’s different now. In this Internet age, things move quickly. There are no more scoops. Everybody shares with everybody.

There will come a time, in the not-too-distant future, that we’ll be desperately looking for pictures and information on a story, and we’ll ask CBC, or CTV, or the Vancouver Sun or Province, or some other media outlet, to share with us what they’ve got. And they’ll send it along or let us grab it off their website.

A couple of serious highway accidents last winter, too far from us to get to, are good examples. We asked for, and got, what some of the other media had. There’s a bit of a code of conduct in these things — it’s polite to call the other guy and ask if it’s OK to use his material. All such material, after all, is copyrighted. But if nobody’s available at the other end, there’s an understanding that we’re all in this together and it’s not the end of the world if we just use it without their direct permission, because we have these verbal understandings.

The only must-do is to give the other media outlet credit. This morning, a TV station was on the line asking for more photos of last night’s tragic incident in Dufferin — and apologizing for not having given us credit for the use of our video last night.

Is this the end of competition in the media? Yes and no. We all still try to get the story first, and there’s less co-operation among media within the city than between local media and those in other centres. But exclusives are rare, and the public gets the benefit.

Talk about a slow news day; must be Good Friday

Talk about a slow news day. I used to tell my staff, “There’s no such thing as a slow news day, only slow reporters.”

Today I was proven wrong. Dead quiet in here with only a few newsies and a couple of others on the job. Not much going on around town. Phone not ringing. Nobody issuing press releases. ZZZZzzzz.

Walmart, on the other hand, was a different story. I had to take a run up there just after lunch to pick something up, and it was quite the experience. The parking lot was packed, the store was packed, the lineups at the cash registers were a mile long.

If we needed to get hold of anybody for a news story, all we’d have had to do was go look for them at Walmart.

Note to self — get your shopping done before the long weekend from now on.

Some corrections more embarrassing than others

Publishing corrections comes with the territory in this business. When you publish several thousand words every morning there’s bound to be a glitch or two.

This will shock you, but even I make mistakes. Really.

Such as when I wrote the other day about the hiring of David Trawin as the next CAO at city hall. I complimented the outgoing boss, Randy Diehl, for putting together a great administrative team, including Trawin, public works chief David Duckworth and parks guy Byron McCorkell.

Except, Randy didn’t hire McCorkell. Randy’s predecessor, Joe Martignago, points out this fact elsewhere on this blog.

“Keep up the good writing,” says Joe, “but, in the interest of ‘just the facts’… I’m afraid it’s me that must be held responsible for taking Byron out of the prairie wilderness and foisting him on Kamloops. (I also hired Randy, waay back when).”

You can read Joe’s full comments, but suffice to say I’m a little embarrassed.

About the time Joe’s message was landing in my inbox Tuesday, I was listening to As It Happens on the way home, in which host Jeff Douglas was talking about a correction that ran in the Washington Post last Friday.

“A March 15 Metro article about a priest who denied communion to a lesbian at her mother’s funeral was accompanied by a photo of a different woman who has the same name, Barbara Johnson,” stated the correction. “That photo is reprinted here, beneath a photo of the Barbara Johnson involved in the story.”

Saturday, the Post ran a second correction, which explained it had learned the first photo was not of anyone named Barbara Johnson at all but was of Sarah E. Reece, director of a national gay and lesbian task force.

So, the Post printed it for a third time, finally getting it right.

A couple of weeks ago, the Portland Oregonian had its own embarrassment. Its Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial page editor, Bob Caldwell, had died at 63.

The paper, based on what it was told by a family friend, said he was found dead in his car. It then published a correction explaining he had actually gone into cardiac arrest during a “sex act” in the apartment of a 23-year-old college student he had been buying textbooks for in return for certain favours.

Newspaper mistakes and corrections are great fodder for people who like to make fun of the media. They collect them; some even publish books or blogs about them.

One of my all-time favourites is this one: “A headline on an item in the Feb. 5 edition of the Enquirer-Bulletin incorrectly stated ‘Stolen groceries.’ It should have read ‘Homicide.’”

How about this? “Due to incorrect information received from the Clerk of Courts Office, Diane K. Merchant, 38, was incorrectly listed as being fined for prostitution in Wednesday’s paper. The charge should have been failure to stop at a railroad crossing.”

The editor of the Ottawa Citizen knew he was having a bad day when he wrote this one: “The Ottawa Citizen and Southam News wish to apologize for our apology to Mark Steyn, published Oct. 22. In correcting the incorrect statements about Mr. Steyn published Oct. 15, we incorrectly published the incorrect correction. We accept and regret that our original regrets were unacceptable and we apology to Mr. Steyne.”

We remain, ever at your service…

Hey, who you calling a prison town, Osoyoos?

Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Indian Band at announcement of new prison.

Keith Lacey is very, very sorry.

The besieged editor of the Osoyoos (pronounced O-SOO-YUSS, not O-SOY-YOOS, please) Times apologized Monday for the things he said during a breathalyser encounter with an RCMP member week before last, and the things he later wrote about it.

In a post on the paper’s website, Lacey offers “a sincere and heartfelt apology” to Cpl. Ryan McLeod. “Deeply sorry,” Lacy writes. “Truly sorry.” “Deep regret.”

But, in my mind, he doesn’t go far enough. More on that in a moment.

Whilst perusing Lacey’s apology, another item on the website caught my eye. An editorial written last year (before Lacey joined the Times) suggested it was a good thing Osoyoos was out of the running for a new prison.

The jail, announced last week for Oliver, would have “cast a shadow on the sunny, welcoming nature of this resort town…. Regardless of how secure a facility might be, many communities with prisons are often tagged with a stigma.”

Therefore, much better idea to support Oliver as the site. At the official announcement, Osoyoos mayor Stu Wells (a fine fellow and a schoolmate of mine back when Osoyoos kids were bused to school in Oliver) called it “a real shot in the arm” for the area.

And, no doubt, even better since Oliver is 15 or 20 minutes away.

Oliver, by the way, a town of 4,500 people, will benefit by 250 permanent jobs for a facility that amounts to a big-box store with bars, as compared to the 400 jobs Kamloops will get if the gi-mongous mountain-range size Ajax mine goes ahead.

But what really gets me is this idea that a city with a prison isn’t a good place for tourists to visit. Though the South Okanagan city has a wonderful climate and a beautiful lake, Osoyoos will never have as much to offer tourists as Kamloops has.

If visitors mention anything, it’s the pulp mill; they don’t complain about the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre because they don’t even notice it’s there.

Alcatraz aside, I wouldn’t call prisons tourist attractions, but the idea that a prison makes a city a scary place to visit is just dumb.

Now, back to editor Lacey and his apology, which is candid and, I have no doubt, “sincere and heartfelt.” Media have their miscues on occasion and must apologize when they do, but I haven’t seen this much grovelling since Larry decked Mo.

Given the vitriol that dripped from Lacey’s original editorial last week, the apology is appropriate, as far as it goes.

The closest Lacey comes to acknowledging his improper boast to McLeod about his clout as an editor is, “As a veteran journalist, I know the power of words and much of the language and comments I made about Cpl. McLeod in the performance of his duties were uncalled for.”

No mention, however, of having informed McLeod that “I am the editor of the newspaper and you will see the powers that I have,” as captured on video.

Of all that transpired that evening (and, how we’d all love to see that videotape), the implied threat to use his position in the media to respond against the RCMP member is the most seriously intolerable.

Yet, the apology makes no mention of it.

To publish, or not to publish photo of suspect in assault?

Suspect was taken into custody at Lansdowne Village mall. (Daily News photo)

I got a phone message yesterday morning from a reader who objected to the picture on the front page of the young man being arrested at Lansdowne Village mall. It was, she said, “disturbing” and “in very poor taste” to show the man’s bloodied face, because, after all, he has friends and parents who would be upset at seeing it.

The question of whether to use a photo that showed his face did come up for newsroom discussion the previous afternoon. My decision was to publish it, and to publish only the fact that he was being arrested after an incident at the mall, not to suggest he had committed any particular act.

For one thing, details of what had proceeded the arrest were sketchy. For another, there’s a legal consideration for media in such situations — just because someone is arrested, it does not mean he is guilty of anything. Police and Crown lawyers must decide whether to charge and prosecute, and a judge must decide on guilt or innocence.

Yesterday, more details of what occurred leading up to the arrest were released. On today’s front page of The Daily News, a story reveals that a 16-year-old stepped off a bus at the Lansdowne exchange and asked another man for a cigarette. The other individual responded by attacked the teen, then taking off.

Police caught up with the man suspected of the attack and a scuffle ensued. Police say the man repeatedly tried to head butt the arresting officer. It’s expected he’ll face charges of assault, resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.

The bus exchange has been the scene of several assaults and other nasty incidents over the past year. People worry about it. The City added extra bylaws supervision and this appears to have assisted in catching the suspect on Monday.

Whether the man in the picture is found to have committed the offences, I think it was the right call to publish his picture, even though his family and friends might be upset by it.