Killing The News

by Bruce Schimmel

Newspaper readers continue to abandon daily newspapers for other sources of news to which they feel a stronger sense of connection. But the Daily News, in some of its less illustrious efforts to recapture readers, seems to be ensuring its own demise.

Our cover report this week about the DN's now-infamous "Fugitives Among Us" story shows how one such attempt backfired, leading not just to protests but to the spread of misinformation.

And the DN's recent reader-rousing poll following the conviction of Rabbi Fred J. Neulander was perhaps an even worse example of over-reaching for an audience: It was a case of spreading disinformation.

Graphically, the cover image of Neulander that accompanied the announcement of the poll questions was a stunner. The enigmatic rabbi seems to look pensively at a huge headline which poses the question, "Should he die?

To be sure, whether or not Neulander would be executed was the question of the day. But for the DN to ask its readers to answer that delicate question in a call-in poll was a stunt unworthy of even the sleaziest of TV gossip shows.

Readership polls are hardly unusual for the DN, or for many publications. Polls are fun.

But generally the questions asked are usually pretty trivial, because such polls are not scientifically valid.

I am not a regular DN reader. I called both the "Spare Him" telephone number and the "Kill Him" line, casting a vote for each side. So much for science.

On the phone, DN Deputy Managing Editor, Michael Days, was quick to acknowledge that this poll had no scientific value. He also could not remember running a similar life-or-death question before.

When I asked him why do it, Days said that the paper depends heavily on newsstand sales, and so they are always "looking for ways to connect emotionally" with their readership.

To connect emotionally to your readers is one thing, but to mislead them is another. The next day, the DN published the results. Of the 2,500 calls received -- including my vote on each side -- 80 percent said the rabbi should die, 20 percent said he shouldn't.

There was no mention that the poll had no informational value. Nothing that this could not be taken as the actual opinion of DN readers.

And yet there the figures were, alongside other news and numbers that readers take to be true.

"Information for Life" is the motto of the DN's parent company, Knight Ridder. It's printed right on page 2, where it also says "When we've made an error, we'll say so ..."

Mixing information and disinformation is an error, and the DN should say so. They should apologize for this cynical stunt. Because the life they save might be their own.