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Originally Posted by catinthedark
K - sorry - I'm confused. I've been working in news (albeit in Canada) for 15 years. I've never worked at a paper, but I've worked in radio and TV news, at both the local and national/international levels. I don't really understand why he is coming to your paper's editorial board meeting. Are your paper's editorials based on what certain politicians ask you to write? There is no snarky tone to this question - I'm legitimately confused.
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Yes and no. Lots of people ask to meet with the editorial board in the hopes of us picking up their cause. Sometimes the issues are no-brainers and it's just a matter of informing us. Last week it was the area United Way teling us how they plan to push a new 2-1-1 phone number as an emergency line for social services. Or how the area hospital association is petrified about Medicaid cuts or how the state banking secretary is pushing for legislation to protect consumers.
Sometimes there are contentious local issues and we ask in people from both sides and then we write an article simply laying out the two sides.
When politicians come in they usually plan to inform us about something they're planning to do. In Santorium's case he's going to tell us all the wonderful things he's going to do to prevent the closing of a local military base, and there will probably be an article that says, "Sen. Santorum plans to blah blah blah in order to prevent the base closing." Perhaps there will be an editorial about the merits of keeping the base open with supporting quotes from Santorium.
But it's not a given. We've had people come in and give their point of view and then the editorial reads, "We tried to see so-and-so's point of view but we just can't, and here's why." And the meetings, while they almost always generate an article, don't always generate an editorial.
It's really just an opportunity for organizations and political figures to attempt to get the support of the paper. But what we write is up to us. We've had pols come in to talk about something specific, but when the conversation turns to something else they say something startling. Suffice to say people who come in don't always get the headline they want!
I've really rattled on. How's that?