This week, I’m going to complain and Cavalier Daily Managing Editor Tom Madrecki is going to respond. And then I’ll respond to his response. Madrecki’s comments have been edited for space.
Thornton: “Why do headline writers (especially sports headline writers) love puns and plays on names so much? And what can we do to stop them? (Or at least rein them in a bit?)”
I sent along an example in which the women’s lacrosse team stomped on Spiders and caught Richmond in a web.
Right off, Madrecki schooled me.
Madrecki: “I think it should first be mentioned that the selected ‘headline’ actually was a ‘kicker’ off the front page to the sports article in question.”
He’s right, of course. It’s called a kicker, or a reefer, or a sky box, or, heaven help us, a thingy. Those eye-catching words above the paper’s name on the front page are called all those things. They are not headlines. But that’s all journalismese shop talk. The question is why the playing off that team’s name.
Madrecki: “Cavalier Daily style – or at least a sort of style/tradition/that’s just how it’s happened – has almost always allowed puns for kickers.
“The answer to the question of why do people use puns is, I think, simple: Puns are frequently easy ways of breaking up the monotony of a page and they can add an element of humor – or at least slight cleverness – to the page as well.”
That’s the key, of course. Wordplay needs to add something or it’s just showing off. I’m not against puns and such. I’m just against too much of it. To me, two plays off a team’s name in four lines is too much – especially when one of them has Cavaliers catching Spiders in a web and it’s spiders that spin, not cavaliers.
It’s not a big deal in itself. It’s another tiny thing that can affect how people perceive a paper. The New York Post is famous for its headlines (“Headless man found in topless bar”), not its journalism.
I’m convinced Madrecki has grip on the line between clever and silly. He’s shared with me some suggested headlines he’s squelched. I’ll spare you.
The next issue is bigger. Last fall, a lot of college students in Virginia ran into problems when they tried to register where they go to school. State law has this convoluted requirement about voters having a place of abode and a domicile and some registrars decided that since students don’t intend to stay in their college towns indefinitely, they don’t qualify to register there. Federal court rulings seem to say those registrars are wrong, but not everyone who tried to register knew that.
Several pieces of legislation tried to address this. Some wanted to clear things up. Some seemed intent on adding another layer of confusion.
The bill that would have plainly put Virginia law in line with federal rules passed unanimously in the Senate, then died in a House subcommittee. The death was reported in the Cav Daily. Little, if anything, appeared before then.
Thornton: “This was a huge deal. Why wasn’t there more coverage and earlier?”
Madrecki: “In regards to why the story itself did not run earlier in the week (as it ideally should have), this is simply the result of reporters not being able to get in touch with sources by deadline, on multiple days in a row . . . The Cavalier Daily’s weekday-only publishing schedule frequently causes admittedly awkward gaps or delays in coverage, and this fact is compounded when a reporter proves unable to contact needed sources. Our size and staff makeup . . . obviously limits our ability to station reporters in Richmond – a luxury enjoyed by other papers. This limitation hurts us both in trying to stay on top of Richmond/political topics of interest and hurts our ability to readily contact delegates, etc. late in the day after their meetings.”
These things happen. And it’s clear that The Cavalier Daily can’t have a full-time Richmond bureau during the session – unless someone can sell that as a class.
But you don’t have to be in Richmond to follow an issue like that. There’s a free bill tracking service on the General Assembly Web site. The primary sponsor of a bill is almost always happy to talk about it, even if it loses. If you can’t reach them, you might get a legislative aid or someone on the committee to talk about it. There were stories about the issue in other papers and on Web sites – those might have provided leads to be chased down.
I know it can be done, because I covered that bill long distance myself. And I would have thought that the issue of college students being forced to jump through extra hoops before they could vote would be of keen interest to a newspaper serving college students.
Tim Thornton is The Cavalier Daily’s ombudsman. He can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.
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