Errors and Omissions

How does the Times select its obituary subjects?

Continuing the end-of-the-week death theme (unplanned, I assure you), I saw that the Public Editor's blog published an email exchange that sheds light on how the New York Times chooses the subjects for obituaries in the paper. It's worth reading for that purpose. But I also found it fascinating for how one editor of the paper deals with what is in most industries a customer complaint. It's pretty rare that a letter-writer gets a personal response, and rarer still to see it published.

The emailer, Dr. Carla Golden of Ithaca College, is asking for obituary consideration for the late Cornell professor Lee C. Lee. The response from obituaries editor Bill McDonald indicates that the paper was unaware of Dr. Lee's passing, but will look into whether publishing an obituary is warranted. In what could be a rather artful blow-off, McDonald doesn't make any commitments about when this determination would be made, or whether the paper will let Dr. Golden know if they decide not to do the obituary.

We'll keep an eye out and see if Dr. Lee's obituary makes it into the paper.

newspapers, media, obituaries

posted by Unknown @ 6/09/2006 03:18:00 PM