Many of you have offered your thoughts on the site’s many blogs or during live chats. But this takes it a step further.
Margaret Sullivan: Readers invited to comment on stories
EDITOR
We’re ready for you to talk back. As of Wednesday, if all goes as planned, The News Web site will begin featuring “commenting” on nearly all of our stories. That means that if Jerry Sullivan’s column makes your blood boil, or you want to dish about City Hall politics, or vehemently disagree with Jeff Miers’ latest concert review, you can make your opinions known to the world.
Reader participation on our site is not entirely new. Many of you have offered your thoughts on the site’s many blogs or during live chats with our reporters. But this takes it a step further.
In order to comment, you’ll initially have to register and give a valid e-mail address. Removing anonymity should help keep the conversation civil—and that’s important because, as we’ve already learned from blog commenting, the back-and-forth can get ugly at times.
As another safeguard, if five readers object to a comment it will be temporarily removed until it can be evaluated by a Web editor.
Look for the “comments” tag near the time stamp at the top of individual stories and follow the instructions to register. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.
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News Albany correspondent Tom Precious is always one of our most valuable and most productive staff members, but in the last three weeks he has outdone himself as New York State Senate politics devolved into utter craziness— with politicians switching sides, and an already dysfunctional state government grinding to a nearly complete halt.
Precious has, by all accounts, done some of the state’s best reporting. His coverage has been savvy, informed by many years in his post, and energetic.
“It’s been beyond crazy,” he told me last week. “The story has kept moving from hour to hour, and every day there’s a new twist or turn.”
Last Wednesday, for example, Precious wrote this lead paragraph: “State senators were paid Tuesday to argue over who could sit in the biggest chair in the chamber, debate whether a Republican looking for a can of Coke could be counted for a quorum and to haggle over whether bills passed by one faction are legal or a sham.”
Precious’ typical day recently has begun at 8 a. m. and ended at 10 or 11 p. m. He has been filing multiple times a day for the Web, and then writing a fresh story for the next morning’s print edition.
“It’s become physically exhausting,” he said, “and a lot of people are on edge.” It’s been exhilarating, he said, but enough is enough.
•••
The News has devoted significant time and resources over the past three years to covering poverty in Buffalo, one of the nation’s poorest cities. Beginning with a series by Jon Epstein and Rod Watson called, “The High Cost of Being Poor,” and continuing with a focus on the “Children of Poverty,” we have published dozens of major stories on the subject. Our efforts were never intended to win journalism awards or community acclaim, but rather to bring attention to the deep needs of those who need our advocacy.
The poverty work, though, has been recognized and praised—not only by local groups such as Buffalo’s Homeless Alliance but also by national organizations, including the Freedom Forum and, just last week, the University of Maryland’s Journalism Center on Children & Families.
“The Buffalo News staff dug into one of the most difficult and troubling weaknesses of the world’s richest nation: its inability to reduce poverty,” said the citation. “By focusing on children, this comprehensive project paints a sobering portrait of the unfair scope and ravages of impoverishment, particularly in the areas of health and education.”
The project, edited by Melinda Miller, involved reporters Mark Sommer, Charity Vogel, Dan Herbeck and Peter Simon, with photos by Derek Gee. Their work was excellent and could not be more important.
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