Transparency, seriousness of purpose, a sense of humor.
All things we value at Civil Beat. And all things I think you would have found on the service over the past week.
Let me give you some examples. I hope, if you missed them during the week, you’ll take a look over the weekend, when you have more time.
Original, thoughtful reporting, with a seriousness of purpose:
- Time Running out for Akaka Bill, reported Hawaii reporter-host Chad Blair.
- A Honolulu Government that Keeps Growing is the way Adrienne LaFrance described the city’s budget and staffing under Mayor Mufi Hannemann. Civil Beat reporting showed that the departmental operating budget has jumped 39 percent over his term in office, with staffing up 500 — even in the face of the worst recession since the Great Depression.
- Honlulu Rail Heading Right at Them was the headline on Land reporter-host Mike Levine‘s account of who’s going to be uprooted by the proposed rail project and what it’s going to take to piece together the land for the route.
- Why the Roundtable Quieted its Civil Unions Storm was an example of how Civil Beat doesn’t stop at telling you what happened. Our commitment is to go further and help you gain a deeper understanding of local issues.
- Recession? A day in Oahu’s Hardest Hit Neighborhood by Money reporter-host Noelle Chun told the story of the economy not from economic indicators, but through the eyes of people living at ground zero in the local foreclosure crisis. Her writing tested the assertions of economists that the economy is on the rebound by asking real people what they’re seeing.
Transparency and a sense of humor:
- Visiting the Honolulu Police Fortress was an account by me of what it’s like to seek documents from the Honolulu Police Department. It might be have been funny, if it hadn’t been true. We’re committed to sharing our experience as journalists. We believe it can be telling.
- We published our policy on the use of anonymous sources on the same day that we published an article including such a source. Here’s how we explained in the article why we didn’t name the person we quoted: “The head of one household was so embarrassed by having to go into bankruptcy, not wanting others in the neighborhood to know, that Civil Beat granted him anonymity to make it possible for others to hear his family’s story. (Read our policy on anonymous sources).” One thing that stands out in our approach is that we explain why we decided to grant the person anonymity, not just that a person asked for it. Another thing that I hope stands out going forward is that we’ll always link to our policy whenever we use an anonymous source. That way you can better judge whether we lived up to our own standards.
- We also kept you up-to-date on our running engagement with the administrator of the state pension fund. We told you the bad news, when Noelle spent 25 minutes with him hearing why he couldn’t talk. But we’re also committed to telling you the good news. Our commitment is to truth and transparency. So we asked for input from members before we meet with David Shimabukuro this week and afterward, Noelle noted in another article how constructive and positive a meeting we had, thanks to Mr. Shimabukuro and his top aides, who spent a couple of hours with us.
As we head into the final weekend before the July 4th weekend, I hope you’ll consider writing your own piece for Civil Beat. We’ll be observing Independence Day with essays about the meaning of independence in the year 2010. You can find more information about this project in an article I wrote a while back calling for submissions. The deadline is 5 p.m. Monday.
Finally, this coming week we’ll be holding our second Beatup, a chance to get together in our office and talk. This time I’ll be talking about what it means for Honolulu that it’s now a one-newspaper town, especially what it means for Honolulu journalism. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts and concerns. I shared some of mine in an article this week, pointing out what it means when the Star-Advertiser makes a mistake in a front-page, above-the-fold headline, as it did regarding the Hawaii Business Roundtable clarifying its position on the civil unions bill. If you’re interested in attending, please RSVP by e-mail to beatup@civilbeat.com.
Just was we’re committed to having discussions online with you, we look forward to many such in-person events.
