The Salt Lake Tribune PERSPECTIVE A2 Shinika Sykes doesn't need yourpity, initial repository for reader complaints about the sum and substance of The Salt Lake Tribune. Sykes is The Tribune’s reader advocate. A former Tribune desk editor and publication editor for the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Sykesis in her second two-year term. Sheis one of 37 such persons in the nation and last week was nameda director for the Organization of Newspaper Ombudsmen. An ombudsman, according to my Webster’s, is a person appointed to hear and investigate complaints from private citizens about some agency. Theterm is hard to pronounce, generally not under- stood and somewhatsexist. So when I created the post in 1992, | chosethetitle reader advocate. Someof the other 36 newspapers with these lightning rods of reader wrath also use the term reader advocate. A few, with an eye to political correctness, em- ploy ombud or ombudsperson. Still oth- ers like the ring of reader representative Two newspapers have what they refer to as public editors. Whatever, the basic duties are the A good percentage of Sykes’ letter and the nation the samesize or smaller than The Tribunewhich boast ofa full-time position dedicated to such an endeavor. o The Tribune rated appearances on two Sykes weekly harps in her Page AA-2 phone traffic are repeats. They range from those who delight in pointing out column about building more credible bridges with readers by working more tion to people who won't give up on their diligently to reduce small-change errors, bylistening closely to concerns, and by every misspelled word in each day's edidemandthat we run such-and-such fea- commonsense in news judgments. Sheis right, of course. But readers often request things the extension of which ture, to souls who, I suspect, just want someonetotalk to. If nothing, Sykesis they probably would regret — if they got patient — far moreso than I would be. We often don't agree. I usually come their wish. A reader advocate also is up with whatI feel are logical answers to why crap happens. She maintainsthat thereto explain the waythings traditionally work in the newspaper industry and Journalistic profession such rationale ought to be a reason and not an excuse. Healthydialogue. The reader advocate is geographically, philosophically andlogistically separate Sykes is not a fairy godmother who grants every reader's wish with the wave of a wand. Herduty is to pas from our news-gathering operation. She along each concern to meverbally or in the weekly Reader advocate Shinika Sykes. is free to write what she wishes about our stories, presentation andpolicies. summary of correspondence and phone calls on Fridays Her column does not require myconsent or corporate agreementto rate Sunday ink. The advocate’s position, shesays, is tractor to a young manseeking a refund from an online company to a convict asking Sykes to find him a newattorney for callers have a touchstonepoint. I have read the newspaper the same way theaverage reader does. This middle person these areas. al versionof five-day forecast for Salt the recognition that journalists do not increases awareness of customer con- same: offering readers a sympathetic ear and effecting greater newspaper credibility. There are only four newspapersin SUNDAY,May23, 1999 DITOR LET ERF om THE just occasional empathy. For she is the 4 cerns. At times, callers confuse Sykes for a consumer advocate. In a specific sense, sheis for readers. But she regularly receives petitions about issues ranging from the woman unhappywith tile con- Sykes is persistent if she believes the reversed a couple of my decisions based onthis pressure — returning the pictori- his parole hearing. Sheis of no helpin Nor can she be of great assistance on late deliveries or missing advertising in- Lake and Davis counties and the major scores to the bottom of the Sports section serts, which fall under the purviewof the Newspaper Agency Corp. For the mostpart, though. people who why we do things the waywe do. That's CBSshowsthis past week. ‘Thefirst was on the Andy Rooney portion of “60 Minutes’ Sundaynight. The network's resident curmudgeonnoted one can learn a lot about America by reading the newspapers in the heartland of the country. He cited The Tribune twice, the first a story in the Religion section and, a bit later, a photo of a University of Utah gymnast. ‘The other instance came on Friday night’s installment in the series “ “Prom- ised Land.” The film crew“borrows The Tribune newsroom in early April to shootscenesofthe storyline’s reporter, cub photographer and editors. The po- tential for fame evaporated whenthe di- rector said the plot placed the scene in Colorado and our newsroom was to be- come The Denver Post. Coincidentally, we also had scheduled for that day of filming a job interview with a reporter from the genuine Denver Post. When the candidate arrived in our newsroom, he confronted a giant and authentic Post nameplate hanging on the wall. We know how to welcomepeople. front, to namebut two. Shinika Sykes makes me think about contact Sykes havea specific, one-time problem or beef. Usually, they havezeroed in on vulnerable targets whyevery newspapereditor in America ought to have a reader advocate. Or ombudswhatever. A Spring Twisters Thirteen people werekilled § injured whenviolenttora Ke does tore through afarming area in. = southem China. The storm leveled =~“, more than 600 homes and caused Ver BOP Best NM 4 ~ extensive damage to crops in Guangdong province. located about 1,250 miles south ofBeijing in Bulgaria, four people were injured and hundreds were left mpiled by TOM HARVEY. JARVEY - Zz yr 4 Compiled by PETER LOZANCICH AND BRIAN MACINTYRE homeless after a tomado swept @Mexico: Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party has approvedthe first presidential primary elections ever to be held in its 70 years in power art of efforts to broadenparticipation and avoid bitter infighting for the 2000 nomination Also last week, the most powerful Cabinet minister, Interior Secretary Francisco La- bastida, announced his candidacy. But a newpoll shows thatthe party faces a major challengein the July 2000 election, especially if major opposition parties form a coalition. @ Venezuela: In an attempt to keep the assemblythat will write a new constitution from falling into opposition hands. President Hugo Chavez accepted the resigna- through the south of the country The community of Zhaltusha was hardest hit with more than70 per: cent of its buildings demolished, Atleast 2 people were kille 14 others injured in the Amenca Midwest after a of tomadoes pummeled western lowa Twotor @ Northern Ireland: The Anglican — For the week ending May 21, 1999 nadoes touched downnorthwest! of the town of Traynor. one them reportedly more than one mile wide VolcanoofFire emg Mexico's Volcan de Fue9° d let out 20 outbursts during 24-hour penod, sending ic ash rainingonto surround: immunities Scientists were a close watch on activity at = ; ae for the assembly. And addressing the na- tion Tuesday night, Chavez said he would ignore a National Electoral Council order to refrain from campaigning for assembly candidates. “If they want to take metojail let them come for me,” Chavez said. Colombia: Brig. Gen. Jaime Humberto Useategui, commander of the Army’s 2nd Division, was arrested for allegedly ignoring a town’s cryfor help duringa five-day killing spree by rightist paramilitary gun men two years ago in which as n people died. Uscategui pro-British Protestant group, the Orange Order. The bishops and several hundred ministers voted at the church’s annual con- v Indian Cyclone More than were evacual ern India’s: reliel workers br trolled the spill b efore itr D people “a munities and the 1 River. atribi t Salvador, located about heast of Rio de Residents of the affected ere holding a protest anding better protection lers whentheslide of 02A to hit on Ma: Mexico's most active. On about 800 villagers ential rainfall ett wo tions this week ofhis chiefofstaff and four cabinet ministers — all of whom will run Church of Ireland voted overwhelmingly last week against Northern Ireland’s major le Antarctica j I ® Jellyfish a vasion Earthquakes fourth day. The Louvre remained closed, as did the Arc de Triomphe and the Pantheon, theresting place of France's great- Paris museums and monuments for a Inderwater and Ocean peculated thata plankton growth ponsible for the 1 dniting active Mammoth Lake area of California rocked tounsts an idents of the Sierra Nevada «1 Earth movements were a! urged to topple President Jamil Mahuad ingto voters as tensions heated up ahead of June 2 elections. Theactions highlighted fears that the ANC — which polls predict will win theelection bya two-thirds major ity — will turn South Africa into a one party state butchose to respect the democratic system @ Guatemala: A book smuggled out of Guatemala's military archives documents nearly 100political killings during the na tion’s civil war The internal documents — released Wednesday by human nghts groups in Washington. D © — are the first made public that detail the military's role in systematically killing rebels andtheir al leged sympathizers. one of the groups said A week ago, Guatemalan voters rejected constitutional reforms aimed at imple menting the heart of the accords that end. ed the civil war @ Peru: The government approved a law Tuesday allowing courts to prosecute sexu al assault cases without the victimfiling charges. Women’s nghts groups applaud. ed the measure, arguing that most women in Peru do notfile charges against rapists for fear of retaliation and distrust of a male-dominated judicial system. Tom Harvey, a former correspondent in Latin America, compiled this column from wire service reports The Palt Lake Tribune @ Israel: For half a century. Arab women inIsrael had no voicein parliament. That's changed with the victory of Hussnia Ja cal leaders. Direct bara, the first Arab woman elected to Knesset The 41-year-old activist says he priorities are to improve education and fight unemployment in Arab communities the pra actice of appointing local chiefs in 191 Xinhua News Agency said. While an all-time high @ Indonesia:Students clashed with police Friday, the first anniversary of President arto’s resignation. In a scene reminus- ‘ots that forced Suhartoout of sters demandedhet uted for corruption. Theformer a’ vader s he did nothing wron; denied a Tim his family accumulated billion during his 32 years in power. Offi : b, elections havegradually spread through China's 900,000 villages since the government began dismantling praised by the governmentas evidenceof politic al liberalization, democracy at the as relatively little impact on higher Nevele Of government, where the that have suffered discrimination for years But despite her election last week. the 120-member Knesset continues to be dominated by men — only14 of the newly electedlegislators are women, and that's Communist Party tolerates no challengeto Compiled by JENNIFER SKORDAS dom owes ther its monopoly on power d ‘onom: ¢ and burea as a dri e as well bel leader Abdullah Ocalan was sen: tenced to death last week for mastermind. ng hundreds of deaths in Turkey in a bid w utonomy for the Kurds. Semdin Sakik washe B3 @ Japan: Par theproduction of child porn le for theslayings 191 acts of violencecar. Kurdistan Workers Party. *KK. The court's decision does not bode ¢ PKK leader. Ocalan has been with a minor nthe deaths of more than 30,000 entary elections Jordan: King Abdullah last week appealed to leading industrialized nations to give him a $3 billion break by deferring almost half of what his troubled Arab king + Skordas worked editor for an English-language spaper in Tokyo. She welcomes ¢. at jskordas@sitrib.com. This col only level whereit is all state media is based on Tribune wire-service re rn @ Sudan: The nation’s former military dictator peered from the window of his plane Saturday at the capital he hadn't seen in 14 years. Gaafar Nimeiri, at 69. returned to Khartoum from exile. He said he wasn't returning to seek powerbutstill intended to remain involved in Sudanese politics. Nimeiri, a 39-year-old army colonel whenheoverthrew a weakcivilian gov- ernment in 1969, survived at least five coup attempts during his 16-year military dictatorship @ Turkey: The top lieutenant to Kurdish escalate in the run-up to June S Germany: Leftists clashed with right ists Saturday in the western German city of Cologneat a protest of an exhibit on Hit- ler's army that depicts Nazi troops commit. ling atrocities during World WarIL. Police said 26 were arrested. About 400 leftists gathered near the city’s cathedral to counter a protest against the exhibit by supporters of the radicalrightist National Party of Germany, which had obtained court approval to demonstrate. Police orig. inally kept the two groups separated, but to little avail Brian Mac Intyre and Peter Lozancich are Tribune desk editors. Mac Intyre in. vites e-mail at bmac@sltrib.com; Lozan cich at lozane@sitrib.com. SUBSCRIPTION RATES ISSN 0746-3802 Apes ta Corporation 14 bo Kearss Tribune Sa Labe (ity, Utah 4111. Prieta Sab Labe Cty, Utah POSTMASTER changes to The Satt Lake Tribupe at the atx tracts. positionpolitician from holding a rally Sat- PACIFIC / FAR EAST / MIDDLE EAST nancial collapse in March, the military was Mendoza. workers want the Ministry of Culture to hire more people. especially for security, and to end a system of temporary con- urday and prevented another from speak- @ Ecuador: During thecountry’s nearfi we est minds, union leaders said Museum South Africa: Supporters ofthe ruling African National Congress blocked an op- Aadeona! be the highest-ranking acti said Gen Carlo» British security forces and Orangementry- ing to marchthrough the town’s main Catholic district empty room Saturday as striking workers kept tourists and art lovers out of many Colombia the democratic system.” predominantly Protestant town of Portadown have become a battlefield between @ France: The “MonaLisa” smiled to an spewed ash and lava. The Volcan cano — on the borduir betweenColima andJalisco states 3 always considered that we should maintain cree Church of Ireland church near the de Len: Spanish tor Fire Vol to be arrested in a human mghts case in the head Ofthe armed forcessaid ference to demand that Orangemen adhere to strict guidelines or havetheir privilege to worship at a rural Church of Ireland parish withdrawn. Forthe past three summers, the pastures surrounding the Drum- 11400 $940 #1200 Carrier Delivery (-erek period Dae Dads and S ay #4 fe 4 Thandagering ro rate Ane Barras of Cirrutations F nt information. call Monday through Friday. 4 am (om am Senda (am Wi pm POOR COPY| ' q