What's Good for the Goose

Recently the D Moines Register ran a series telling Iowans how they could learn from schools in Finland.

Here's a couple of things that the Ragister could learn from their newspapers.

Start and FINNISH (bad pun intended) each story on the same page.

This is the format the Helsingen Sanomat follows
and their Senior Editor says...

"In the United States, your stories are too long for ordinary readers. You need to break it up – use more photos, graphics and maps. ... We gave up jumps in the 1970s."

What is truly interesting is their Council for Mass Media (CMM).

Established in 1968, it comes across as a peer review board that interprets good professional practice and defend the freedom of speech and publication.

Any private citizen or public official believing there is a breach of ethical principles in any form of mass media can lodge a complaint with the CMM. If the CMM finds through its investigation of the facts that ethics have been breached, it issues a notice that requires the party violating the principles to publish CMM's notice of findings. Complaints to the CMM are usually investigated in about three months at no charge to the person lodging the complaint.

An enforcement of ethical principles might cause people to trust their objectivity and the scientific community is united in that fact.

The reality is that newspapers in this country will continue to decline for numerous reasons, chiefly their editorializing in news stories as well as their superior, condescending attitude.

Have you tried to contact someone at the Ragister lately?

If you receive a response, it's snippy.

The lone exception is David Yepsen, who always responds and even when he disagrees is not disagreeable.