At a tabloid newspaper, vivid writing rules. Stefano Esposito’s knack for it landed the Sun-Times in hot water recently, but editor in chief Michael Cooke stands by his criminal courts reporter. “He has his own wonderful style of writing the most obvious court cases,” says Cooke, “and putting some energy and life and drama–in the best sense–into the reporting of those cases.”
“Her kidnapper has already raped her, choked her and threatened to kill her if she struggles.
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Esposito, helped considerably by the street reporting of his colleague Annie Sweeney, wrote such an upsetting story that a delegation of furious readers showed up at the Sun-Times offices to protest.
For a technical critique of Esposito’s effort, I offer the comments of a Reader colleague who once lived near Wyman’s apartment, which was on the 4300 block of North Western. “The lead sets up the piece like it’s going to be from the victim’s point of view,” Tori Marlan observed. “And it’s not from her point of view. It’s not even a feature, where point of view is important. It’s just a news story. I think that narrative technique is being abused here. I’m not sure what the point of it was. Did the writers want their readers to identify with the victim? Ex-perience the kidnapping and rape vicariously? Feel sympathy for her? No need to punch it up–the details are startling enough on their own.”
Breen-Greco tells me Sweeney listened “very intently.” She says Sweeney explained that the two reporters had met “with a number of women who have been survivors and feel very much in tune with them and aware of what a traumatic experience this is, and the story was meant to highlight their terror.” That might have been the intent, says Breen-Greco, but the result was simple “sensationalism.”
When Words Fail, Use Typography
Or put it this way. In this pundit’s view, the Times reforms don’t accomplish a damn thing. Readers still throw down their papers in disgust because they don’t know who’s dishing facts and who’s blowing smoke.
