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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

To the left, march!

Silly me. I'd have thought if you were going to put opinion in the news section, you might want to clearly indicate that to readers with something like, oh, a highly visible label saying something like ANALYSIS or COMMENTARY or even, heaven forbid, OPINION. But The New York Times has a plan that is a lot more subtle:  

The New York Times has a rule about presenting opinions in its news columns: Henceforth, they must all conform to the left.
As of Sept. 20—this morning, if you're reading a brand-new copy of The ObserverThe Times has instituted a sweeping but subtle redesign, to emphasize the difference between objective and subjective journalism. Straight news will remain, well, straight: laid out in justified columns, with even margins on the left and right. Stories that have been colored by analysis, commentary or authorial whimsy will all receive the layout previously reserved for columns: a straight left margin and a ragged right one.
Might that distinction be something the average reader wouldn't even notice? Well, says the design editor, “I think a lot of design is to address subconscious issues. Even though people might not notice, they might recognize it subconsciously." Yeah, right. A lot of readers who call me say they want to put in an "editorial" when they really mean letter to the editor or want to know how they can get an "ad" in the paper when they really mean a news story. Newspaper readers are supposed to read a story and realize that, because it's lined up only on the left, it's not straight news?
Posted in: Current Affairs
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