By Deborah Howell
Sunday, September 24, 2006

Readers complained last week about changes in daily television listings, why the information in a book excerpt about Iraq wasn't published sooner and why a Post Magazine feature allowed an Indian man to make what one reader believed were insulting comments about Indian women. A full week.

The change last week in the daily TV listings generated the largest number of complaints. Anyone in the newspaper business knows that you change listings carefully; readers, particularly older readers, get attached to a certain format. So far, about 500 people have called -- running about 86 percent against, 14 percent in favor. That's not a lot; when The Post tried to drop the "Mark Trail" comic strip in 1991, it got 16,000 complaints.

One reader wrote, "I have been an avid reader of the Post FOREVER and my mother, 86, longer than forever. We recently have become EXTREMELY disappointed in the 'new and improved' design of the TV listing section. It's terrible. Do you think you could have made the print any smaller? My mother does not have good eyesight and it is IMPOSSIBLE for her to read. My eyesight is pretty good and I can't even read it without squinting. Why did you change it?"

Most complainers were longtime readers used to the vertical format. Debra Leithauser, editor of TV Week and Sunday Source, said The Post was one of only a few newspapers in the country using a vertical format. The biggest reason for the switch to horizontal was to add 59 channels and to get the highlights and listings on one page. The change also saved space.

Eighty-six percent of Post readers have cable or satellite television, said Laura Evans, The Post's director of marketing research. Many asked for more channels, so Post editors gave up daytime listings, the least-watched part of the day. Those listings are available in Sunday TV Week, on cable TV's on-screen guides and online, Leithauser said. And no, there are no plans to change the vertical grid in TV Week.

Leithauser took complaints about smaller type to heart. The type was not smaller, but the typeface was different. The size was increased later in the week to make it easier to read.

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Bill Schenck of Falls Church wrote: "I found the book excerpt in Sunday's Post about the political patronage at the Coalition Provisional Authority to be interesting and informative. Why did I read about this three years after it happened? Now it is history (important, but history). It would have been news if The Post had reported on it when it happened, not three years after the fact."

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, assistant managing editor for continuous news, wrote "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone." He was Baghdad bureau chief from April 2003 to October 2004.

His answer: "This wasn't a case of holding back the juicy details because it would make for a better book. Had I known how the CPA's hiring practices worked while I was The Post's bureau chief in Baghdad, I certainly would have written about it. Please keep in mind that the CPA was run much like the Bush White House. Reporters weren't allowed to troll the halls without an escort. Many CPA personnel were told, in no uncertain terms, that they were not to speak to reporters without a minder present. It wasn't until those CPA staffers returned home to the United States that some of them came to realize the mistakes of the occupation effort, and they felt more comfortable to talk about what happened."

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A reader of Indian heritage wrote: "I was stunned to see the comments printed in the 'Date Lab' feature on Page 8 of [the Sept. 17] Post Magazine. The man, who was set up on a date with an Indian woman, is quoted as saying, 'I have Indian girls as friends, and most of them are a little snobby, maybe a little cocky, so it crossed my mind that she could be that way.' I can't believe a comment like that, which criticizes an ethnic group based on unfair stereotypes, would be allowed in the newspaper, even if this feature is meant to be quirky and off the cuff. Imagine if he said that comment about Jews or blacks. It should have been edited out."

Date Lab started in June and is a departure for the normally more staid Post. The idea came about as a way to attract more young readers to the paper, Magazine Editor Tom Shroder said. "We felt that one important thing that The Post under-covers is something that most people think a lot about -- dating and romance."

Magazine editors set up two singles on a blind date, give them disposable cameras, then interview them the day after for a "he said, she said" review of the date. The feature has been popular, and about 100 people a week join a database of would-be participants that now numbers about 1,000.

So why let the guy insult women of his own ethnicity? Shroder said, "What makes Date Lab work so well is that it becomes clear that our daters are being honest about how they think on a date, what moves them one way or another. We don't want to blunt that. But every time something like that happens, we scrutinize it very carefully. In the case mentioned, we considered that the speaker was an Indian man commenting on his own ethnic group. Secondly, the negative trait -- snobbery -- was not an extreme. Another factor: He was saying 'most Indian girls I know' had that trait, and that he wondered if this girl 'might' have it also -- both softening factors."

Date Lab is edgy. This couple admitted to drinking a lot; the man on the date said, "We were starting to slur some words there for a while." And his idea of a top-ranked date? "I give 5's to the dates where you wake up in the morning and say, 'You want breakfast in bed?' "

The quip about Indian women struck me as superfluous, but this column is obviously not for my advanced age group.

Deborah Howell can be reached at 202-334-7582 or atombudsman@washpost.com.