Your cutline here

I had meant to post this photo a few weeks back, but it kind of got pushed back due to election coverage. I smile every time I see it. Joe Duty took this photo at the Wise County Historical Society’s “Aurora UFO Experience” last month at the Wise County Historical Society. These are the participants in an alien-themed costume contest.

So I’ll open up the floor to you - give us your most creative cutline.

Tuesday truly was a historic election for our country. That cannot be disputed, whether you supported Barack Obama or John McCain. We will have our first black president in our nation’s history.

I can’t help but think when I see Barack with his wife, Michelle, that just a few generations back, her ancestors were slaves. Her great-great-grandfather was considered “property,” and now, just a few generations later, his great-great-granddaughter will be living in the White House and providing support and advice to the leader of the free world.

One of my favorite journalism Web sites is newseum.com. Each day, they post front pages from papers from around the nation and the world. I recently visited the site to see how they covered the presidential election.

Most papers seemed to go with either a smiling head shot or a waving to the crowd shot, but I think my favorite photo is of Obama with his daughter, Malia, right after giving his acceptance speech as seen in the Detroit Free Press.

I’d have to give my award for best headline to the Beaumont Enterprise for this creative work.

And in case you are interested in how a newspaper in Tehran, Iran, covered the election, here you go.

On a side note, I’ve gotten a few phone calls or seen posts on our Web site from readers who were upset we didn’t do more on the Obama’s election in our Wednesday paper. That’s an understandable concern. The argument is this is a historic election that affects the entire nation. This is true.

But our mission at this newspaper has always been to keep the focus local - we report local news, about local people. Plus, we had three reporters (four counting myself), who were covering the seven local ballot issues. Obviously, we didn’t have a reporter to spare to cover the presidential race. We don’t use wire service copy here, such as AP or Reuters. I believe most of our readers also subscribe to daily newspapers such as the Dallas Morning News or Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and those papers were able to cover the presidential race in depth, as they should. Our job is to give you information and news you won’t find anywhere else.

Do you have any comments you’d like to share on the election? If anyone attended our election watch party at the Decatur Visitors Center that night, I’d like to hear your thoughts - what you liked, didn’t like, what we might include in the future. I wasn’t able to be there because I was at the elections administrator’s office relaying election information as it became available, but I heard quite a few people stopped by.

I’m always amazed at how election seasons, especially presidential elections, can stir up such strong emotions in people. It seems the closer and closer we get to the election, the more passionate people become. That can be a good or bad thing.

Around this time each election, the Messenger usually gets a few letters from people angry about our coverage of politics. We are either “too liberal” in our coverage, or we give too much attention to Republican candidates. Here’s an example of two letters I’ve received in the last week. (The names have been deleted to protect the angry).

Letter 1:

“I just wanted you to know that the biggest waste of $35.00 was subscribing to the Messenger.  I didn’t realize how left winged the paper was and the past couple of months have been very disturbing.  Every week you have letters from Ron Sharpe, Ken Hughes, Veda Sherman and others who trash McCain and Palin and spew their hateful venon.  I wrote one letter about Obama’s mentors and associates, and after redoing it per your request, giving sources per your request (and basically getting a grand run-around), it went nowhere.  I guess it is too much to print anything against Obama. And do you get sources for all the other letters you print?  My subscription expires in March and I won’t be renewing it.  I would cancel it now but I don’t want to give the Messenger any money without getting something in return.  I can always use it to wrap my trash in, which is fitting because of the trash you print.  Several of my friends and family have already cancelled or didn’t renew their subscriptions.

“I guess you had better continue supporting Obama.  If he gets elected, I have no doubt that future news media will print or telecast only what the government approves.”

Letter 2:

“I just got home from the NASCAR race at TMS and opened my copy of  the Wise County Messenger and discovered you did not print ONE letter to the editor on the National/State and local elections for the last TWO editions!

“The citizens (And subscribers) do deserve to be educated on the candidates. Every other paper in the nation operates under this thinking. Let me guess … they will be printed after the Election on Thursday’s edition?

“It did not surprise me since you are a Republican owned and operated paper but it is very disappointing. I really am thinking of canceling my subscription but I do like to keep up with our local hero’s and sports teams.”

So we are clearly a left-wing Republican newspaper.

I responded to both e-mails. I pointed out to the first e-mailer that we have printed letters both pro-McCain and pro-Obama. With the letter she referred to, I e-mailed her to ask if she could provide any credible sources for the many accusations made in her letter. I would do the same if similar claims were made about John McCain. What she provided me with was information primarily from right-wing blogs, hardly an unbiased source for news. I would make the same determination if someone sent me information about John McCain from, say, Huffington Post or Daily Kos.

With the second e-mailer, I pointed out that the cut off for accepting letters to the editor was Oct. 23, and the letter he sent in missed our deadline. The last political letters were printed Oct. 26. As far as educating voters, I directed the e-mailer to our elections Web site which features profiles of the candidates in local races, except for one candidate who declined to participate.

As much as I’ve enjoyed keeping up with the candidates this year, and even enjoyed hearing people express their opinion, I’m glad that the election will be decided tonight (I hope).

If you are looking for a place to keep up with election returns, both local and national, come out to our Election Night party at the Decatur Visitor’s Center tonight at 7.