Ask The Post

This Week: Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor for Metro Robert McCartney was online Wednesday, Oct. 5, at noon ET to field your questions about The Post's coverage of local news in the Washington, D.C.-Metro Area.

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Robert McCartney: Hello everybody. There are a lot of questions already, so let's get started.

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Annandale, Va.: Since I've been reading The Post for the last almost 40 years I've seen the metropolitan Washington area go from a small city surrounded by smaller suburbs, to a small city surrounded by far larger and denser counties with millions of people in the suburbs and industry that pales D.C. Yet, The Washington Post still acts like a D.C.-centric paper in Metro--when a D.C. Council man speaks for example it's always in the paper yet the suburbs get relegated to low importance. Will the Metro section ever realize how important the engines of industry and government are in the suburbs as opposed to D.C.?

Robert McCartney: We at The Post are very aware of the growth in population and overall importance of the suburbs in the Washington region, and we have allocated resources accordingly. The suburban staffs have grown much more rapidly than the District staff, especially over the past 10-15 years. In the Metro section, both the Maryland and Virginia staffs are now larger than the District staff. It's true that there are more reporters covering the District than any individual suburban jurisdiction -- that is, more reporters are assigned to the District than to, say, Montgomery County. But that reflects two realities. One is the importance of the District as the urban center of the region. Also, our market research shows that when readers are asked what local community interests them, the District is always #2, after their own county or city. So the District does get some disproportionate coverage, but we still devote most of our resources to the suburbs, where more than four-fifths of our readers live.

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Washington, D.C.: Congratulations to The Post and WTOP for giving the Victoria's Secret lingerie chain more publicity for its new store than it would have ordinarily received because of scantily-clad inanimate objects.

Are we going to let nattering publicity-hungry conservative nabobs dictate media coverage in this town?

Robert McCartney: We covered the story this morning about the controversy at Tysons Center over the Victoria's Secret window displays because we heard in a number of ways that there was considerable public concern and discussion of the topic. The store and mall received protests, and there was much traffic about it on the Internet. It was certainly not our intention in any way to give the store free publicity, but such a result is often unavoidable in news coverage. We did choose to run the photo and story at the bottom of the Metro front, rather than at the top, to avoid overdoing the play -- even though we knew the story would generate a lot of interest.

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Wheaton, Md.: One issue I think the Metro section could cover more consistently are area environmental issues. Especially, the fact that 40% of the Chesapeake Bay is now considered a "dead zone", that is lacking the dissolved oxygen necessary to support aquatic life, seems to me to be an issue that deserves more sustained coverage. Are there plans for more coverage of this issue in the future?

Robert McCartney: We have covered the Chesapeake Bay and environmental issues for years, and will continue to do so. Very recently, we ran a full-page map of the bay identifying the very growth of dead zones that you describe. We have a new and talented reporter on the environmental beat, Elizabeth Williamson. She's been busy with Katrina relief stories in the past few weeks; she's one of a number of Metro reporters who were taken off their regular beats to help with Katrina. But she'll be boring into the environmental beat soon, and I'm sure you'll be seeing much coverage of these issues.

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Washington, D.C.: Why is it that in so many articles you have to go down several paragraphs to find out "where" something takes place. This seems to be a growing trend, especially in the Metro section. Not all "neighborhood" designations are immediately known to readers, e.g. Petworth. Often you go through several paragraphs to find out the location of what happened?

Robert McCartney: This is a good question, one one I've been pondering since I started this job in July. I agree we need to be vigilant to tell readers early in the story where something happened, and not to assume that they know the region as well as we do (hopefully). This is trickier than it sounds, though. Take the community of Clarksburg, for instance, the scene of a building permit controversy that we've been covering a lot recently. I've heard from several people that they don't know where Clarksburg is, so perhaps we should identify it in every story as a "community in northern Montgomery County." If we do that, though, then some people in and around Clarksburg would likely be insulted: "The Post acts like nobody knows where we are, like we're a foreign country." This may seem trivial, but it's a real issue for us.

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Arlington, Va.: Some of your reporters who write for the Metro section also have regular online chats. During those chats, they often express their opinions and frustrations in covering their beat. They also tend to be very sarcastic about the people/subject they report about. Then they go back and write more stories.

I'm curious as to how you think letting them do chats and then continue to write stories allows them to maintain their objectivity.

I think that during the chats the reporters are showing their true opinions about their beats and the individuals and subjects that they write about and they are no longer unbiased and objective in their reporting.

Robert McCartney: News reporters and editors for The Post, in online chats or other public forums, are not supposed to express partisan opinions or take sides about issues that they cover. They can express news-related judgments or make analytical statements, such as, "I think such-and-such a candidate faces a real struggle in winning the election, given the 20-point deficit in opinion polls and the fact that many issues are breaking against him." It's a fine line, sometimes, because in online chats, as on TV or radio, the tone of the language is typically more relaxed and conversational than in a news story. But news editors and reporters are not to express opinions that would call into question their objectivity in covering a subject. This is not true for columnists, of course, who are paid to have opinions.

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Washington, D.C.: Could you please explain the disparity in the way the Mount Pleasant murder rated such first-page, top-of-the-page coverage while most of such stories are relegated to either Crime and Punishment or Around the Region? There is the perception that ethnicity and location had a lot to do with the Mount Pleasant murder rating second- and third-day coverage.

Robert McCartney: I've received a couple of questions about this. There were a number of reasons why the recent murder in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of the District received bigger play in the Metro section than many other murders. First of all, murders there are comparatively rare. It was the first fatal shooting in the neighborhood in nearly two years. Second, to all appearances, it was a random shooting. A guy was out on the street and just got killed. That makes it particularly compelling. Finally, the neighborhood got very engaged about the shooting, so there was a degree of civic activism surrounding the incident that is not present in many other killings. All homicides are tragic, and if we had the resources, we'd like to give detailed coverage to every one. But we have to be selective, and various factors contribute to our overall news judgment. Another point: we draw criticism for underplaying some murders, but we also often get criticism for overplaying crime in general. "The only thing you ever write about us is crime. Why don't you write about other topics," is an oft-heard complaint. So we have to make decisions. One thing I can state categorically is that the race of the victim played no role in our decision on how to play the Mt. Pleasant shooting story. On the night that the decision was made to give the story prominent play, neither the reporter nor editor involved knew the victim's race.

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Arlington, Va.: I live in Rosslyn and am mainly oriented toward the District with some interest in what is going on along the Orange line. But as far as I am concerned, Loudon County is way out west and even Fairfax is essentially terra incognita. Why do I end up having to read Virginia metro news? May I note that I don't worry about the localized food sections (because of the ads) and the Weekly for crime and health violation information.

Robert McCartney: I've received several questions about this topic, too. We publish three zoned editions of the Metro section five days a week -- different editions for the District, Virginia and Maryland. (We don't zone on Mondays and Saturdays, so everybody gets the same Metro section on those days.) The principal difference among the three zoned sections is how the stories are played. Crucially, each edition includes all or almost all of the stories from the other two editions as well. What's difference is the prominence of the display.

So, on a typical day, the front page of the Metro section (page B1 on weekdays or C1 on Sundays) will have two or three stories about Virginia on the Virginia front. Often, one or two of those will be at the top of the page, to reinforce that this edition is for Virginia readers. In Maryland and the District, those same positions on the page will be filled by stories from Maryland and the District, respectively. In each case, though, the big stories from the other editions will be included, albeit in the back of the section.

So in your case -- you get a Virginia edition, but you want District news -- you should look for those District stories in the back of the section. Otherwise, you've got to go into the District and buy a copy of the newspaper there. Sorry, but we can only publish so many editions, and a lot of readers in Virginia tell us they don't care much about District or Maryland news. It's all about making choices, and somebody invariably feels slighted.

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Mount Pleasant murder: That was very long winded way of saying "we covered it more because people with money live there".

Of course murders in upscale areas are rare. Duh. People who have, usually don't shoot anyone, as they are quite comfortable and don't have the underlying issues that cause an increased homicide rate.

The Haves also are far more able to form community groups that react as did the ones in your rationalization. A government lawyer (or other such professionals) tends to have the stable hours and capital to form or be a part of such groups. The poor person who dumps out the professional's office trash cans doesn't.

You didn't deny the charge of overplaying crimes in yuppie land while downplaying crimes in places of poverty...you just rationalized it.

Robert McCartney: I don't mind so much being accused of "rationalizing." That goes with the territory. I'm deeply troubled, however, that you thought I was "very long-winded." They pay me to be concise.

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Arlington, Va.: Regarding identifying locations like Clarksburg and Petworth, why not just run a very small map for EVERY story? Just a regional map with a star on the location. I would think a 1/2" map would be plenty big for the needed level of detail.

Robert McCartney: We often run such graphics, which we call "locater maps." Space in the paper is precious, and we don't have enough to run as many as we'd like.

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Mount Vernon, Va.: Please specify what the "metro" area is. Today (10/5)the Metro section has a lengthy piece with a Sharpsburg, Md. dateline. Is this distant location a part of The Post's "metro" area? I live in Mount Vernon just south of Alexandria. There is usually little news about our area although it is just 12 to 14 miles from the White House. Fredericksburg, Va. and Frederick, Md. and even Roanoke, Va. events and happenings seem to get regular coverage. Please explain. Thank you.

Robert McCartney: Sharpsburg is not actually in the geographic region that we define as the Washington metro area, but we thought the story was of local interest, anyway. Antietam is a significant tourist attraction for people in our area. Also, the issues raised in that story apply to the Manassas/Bull Run battlefields, which are very much in the Metro area. For the record, we generally think of the core Metro area as the District, Fairfax, Montgomery, Prince George's, Alexandria, Arlington, Prince William, Loudoun, and Charles. We think of the broader Metro area as including Howard, Anne Arundel, Calvert, St. Mary's, Frederick, Fauquier, Stafford, Spotsylvania, Clarke and Fredericksburg.

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Portland, Ore.: I'm a daily reader of The Post and have been since long before it was online. My question is about the online edition. When I'm reading a story, or more often a column, online there is absolutely no reason to "jump" that story/column to a second or third "page" of the "paper." Yet, The Post editors insist on doing this for some unknown reason. At first I thought it was to allow for more advertising on Froomkin and Kurtz columns, but the ad count doesn't seem to change. Since it is well-documented that readers don't like jumps, why continue this practice when there is no necessity? Thanks.

Robert McCartney: I'm not positive but am pretty sure this is done for technical reasons relating to the Web site's publishing system. It's not an editorial decision, to my knowledge.

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Washington, D.C.: Mr. McCartney,

Each of the Metro columnists whose work appears on page B1 (Fisher, Britt and most certainly Milloy) writes with a left-wing, liberal perspective about life.

In the spirit of ideological balance - and to meet the needs of an underserved segment of your audience - will you consider adding a conservative voice to your columnist mix?

Robert McCartney: Interesting point. As you'll see from the next question, views differ as to The Post's ideological orientation.

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Silver Spring, Md.: The Post's circulation has declined fairly significantly over the past few years. How much of that, do you think, has to do with the paper's increasingly right wing positions (particularly it's support for the Iraq war) in what is still a left-leaning city?

Robert McCartney: If you compare this question to the one above, you'll see there's no pleasing everybody.

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Clarion, Pa.: On Metro coverage of the antiwar protest:

1. Why didn't The Post report on the status of protest organizer ANSWER as a front group for the Stalinist Workers World Party?

2. Has The Post run a correction setting the record straight on longtime activist Patrice Cuddy, identified in a Petula Dvorak story as a novice protester?

3. Why was Dvorak's live chat cancelled last week? (I have been out of town; apologies in advance if it has been rescheduled).

Thank you.

Robert McCartney: 1. I think we did a fine job overall of covering the antiwar protest, and our package was significantly more complete than that of some competing newspapers. However, I think we may have missed some angles, and this may be one of them. I do not know for a fact that the organizers included a "front group" for a "Stalinist" party -- but I have seen that reported elsewhere, and I can't rule it out. I do think we should have included in our coverage some examples from the speeches of some of the pretty far-left rhetoric that was heard. That would have made the coverage more thorough. However, it's also true that there's a lot of far-out rhetoric at such events -- whether they're left- or right-wing. In my experience, a lot of participants, probably most of them, pay little or no attention to the speeches, and especially to the more extreme ones. I spent an hour observing the march, and hardly anybody was listening to the speeches when I was there. Also, our reporting indicated strongly that the protesters were largely mainstream liberal, and certainly not "Stalinist."

2. We are considering a correction regarding the activist you mention.

3. Petula Dvorak's online chat was cancelled because she was busy working at the time that the chat was scheduled. She was at the White House, covering the arrest of 370 people until about 5 p.m. that day. The chat had been scheduled for 3:00.

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Robert McCartney: I'm way over the time limit, so that's going to be all. My apologies to the many who sent questions that I didn't get a chance to answer. Thanks to everybody for participating.

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