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May 4, 2005

Dear AP Sounding Board,

You were asked to rate AP's coverage of the papal succession in four categories of news — stories, photos, graphics and online. We also asked about use of certain AP stories and advisories and examples of coverage that were especially noteworthy or not.

There were seven responses — mostly very positive on AP's coverage, yet also candid about aspects that might have been better.

On a 10-point scale, AP stories averaged 7.7, photos 8.25, graphics 7 and multimedia 7.5.

A sampling of comments: "Liked alternate leads and analysis pieces ... Used yet another agency's analysis because it read better. But we did use AP's Ratzinger profile because it had excellent details ... Loved the photo selection ... Biggest deficiency — and this is HUGE — was the lack of stuff moving in advance (of Pope John Paul II's death) ... AP fleshed out interesting angles to the story ... great photography ... excellent variety with lots of details (in stories) ... Photo coverage was first rate, graphics OK ... First day optional lead story was very good ... Stories didn't always have the historical sweep and perspective that we got (from others). ... The media focused on the secular Europe and liberal U.S., both of which would obviously be disappointed."

In coming weeks, you asked for strong spot/analytical coverage of Pope Benedict XVI but at much-reduced volume. "Whatever is newsworthy ... Whither the church now ... Allow the papcy to get underway before we start studying it."

Your detailed responses to Question No. 33 follow. Underneath is a critique of AP coverage by George Stanley, managing editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, relating to Question No. 32 on optionals/papal coverage ideas, and a point-by-point reply by senior AP editors.

As always, AP thanks those who participated in this survey and encourages all panelists to stay active.

— David Minthorn

Anjuman Ali, national/foreign editor, Wisconsin State Journal, Madison:

1, Please rate AP's coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI on a 10-point scale:

— Stories: 8

2, Did you use AP's daily news digests and pope package advisories? Yes

3, Did you use these story elements:

— AP Pope Contender profiles — full or abridged: No

— List of voting cardinals with photos: No

4, Any stories, photos or other AP content particularly memorable or disappointing?

The day after the new pope was elected, we used another wire service's story for our page one story. AP's version was long, loaded with details, and had some analysis. The story we went with summarized the day's news well, and quickly went into the forward-looking part — what can be expected from Ratzinger. We used yet another news service's story for the analysis because it read better. But we did use AP's Ratzinger profile because it had excellent details.

5, What papal coverage do you want over the next few weeks?

I don't see the need for too much papal coverage in the next few weeks. I'd use analyses into the themes the pope will reveal in Sunday's mass, and the next few visits he makes outside Rome.

Rick Hall, managing editor, Deseret Morning News, Salt Lake City

1, — Stories: 7
— Photos: 9
— Graphics: 5
— Multimedia material: NA

Please elaborate:

— The biggest difficiency — and this is HUGE — is the lack of stuff moving in advance. We've known for many months of John Paul's failing health. In his final few days, we knew his death was imminent. It would have been nice to move the timelines, the history, etc. in advance. That would have certainly given us a leg up when death actually came.

2, Did you use AP's daily news digests and pope package advisories?

Yes

3, Did you use these story elements:

— AP Pope Contender profiles: Abridged

— List of voting cardinals with photos: Yes

4, Any stories, photos or other AP content particularly memorable or disappointing? NA

5, What papal coverage do you want over the next few weeks?

Simple answer: whatever is newsworthy. Your past judgment has been just fine.

Bill Rose, managing editor, The Palm Beach Post:

1, — Stories: 7
— Photos: 10
— Graphics: 8
— Multimedia material: Unsure

Loved the photo selection. They captured the enormity of the scene, the rich detail, the pageantry and gave us plenty of feature shots from the crowds. Stories were good and kept up with events and sometimes got ahead of them, but didn't always have the historical sweep and perspective that we got from, say, The Times. Graphics were very helpful and matched up nicely with stories.

2, News digests and Pope package advisories? Yes. Very helpful. A fine guide to each day's coverage.

3, Did you use these story elements:

— AP Pope Contender profiles: Abridged

— List of voting cardinals with photos: No

4, Any stories, photos or other AP content particularly memorable or disappointing? NA

5, What papal coverage do you want over the next few weeks?

We're just about poped out. We've run an incredible amount of copy and two special sections and our interest in down to what everyone wants to know — whither the church now?

Reed Eckhardt, managing editor, Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Cheyenne:

1, — Stories: 8
— Photos: 8
— Graphics: 8
— Multimedia material: NA

Though the material was above average, though photos on day of Ratzinger's selection lacked that real "grabber" photo. Liked alternate leads and analysis pieces.

2, Did you use AP's daily news digests and pope package advisories? Yes

3, Did you use these story elements:

— AP Pope Contender profiles — full or abridged: No

— List of voting cardinals with photos: No

4, Any stories, photos or other AP content particularly memorable or disappointing?

See No. 1

5, What papal coverage do you want over the next few weeks?

Barring some major change in his positions or his health, just that facts, ma'am.

Roberto Villalpando, assistant national editor for wires, Austin (Texas) American-Statesman:

1, — Stories: 8
— Photos: 8
— Graphics: 6
— Multimedia material: 6

The stories fleshed out interesting angles to the story that was already over-covered and, as usual, AP had great photography, although a few seemed repetitive.

2, AP's daily news digests and pope package advisories?

— No, we generally gave greater weight to our sister papers' efforts and chain-originated material.

3, Did you use these story elements:

— AP Pope Contender profiles — full or abridged: Yes

— List of voting cardinals with photos: Yes

4, Any stories, photos or other AP content particularly memorable or disappointing?

— The story that dealt with some of the dubious backgrounds of the cardinals and rumors that were surfacing as they were in conclave was a favorite.

5, What papal coverage do you want over the next few weeks?

— Actually, I'd prefer not to see that much coverage at all. it seemed we covered it plenty or overdid it at times and we should, to be fair, allow the new papacy to get under way before we start studying it.

Tom Eblen, managing editor, Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader:

1, Please rate AP's coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI on a 10-point scale:

— Stories: 8
— Photos: 9.5
— Graphics: 8
— Multimedia material: NA

Stories reflected the usual workmanlike effort that AP puts into major on-going news events. There was excellent variety with lots of detail and color, which enabled us to offer many entry points into our overall coverage. Photo coverage was first rate. Graphics were OK; artwork isn't always up to what we'd like although the information is usually pretty good.

2, Did you use AP's daily news digests and pope package advisories?

— Yes

3, Did you use these story elements:

— AP Pope Contender profiles — full or abridged: yes, abridged

— List of voting cardinals with photos: no, although would have if space had been available

4, Any stories, photos or other AP content particularly memorable or disappointing?

— I thought that the initial coverage of the new pope reflected a slight bias because all media and the folks they were interviewing were almost uniformly "disappointed" that the cardinals didn't elect a more progressive, liberal pope. All seemed to ignore the fact that John Paul II had appointed all but two of the 117 voting cardinals, men who would be more in line with his theology and beliefs. There seemed, to me, to be plenty of Catholics who were pleased with the selection of a more conservative pope who was firm in the roots of his faith and unbending on such issues as abortion, feminism, celibacy, etc. Instead the media focused on the secular Europe and liberal U.S., both of which would obviously be disappointed. I know there are all sorts of defenses to this critique, but I think the coverage could have been more balanced.

5, What papal coverage do you want over the next few weeks?

— I want to see stories that continue to report how this pope squares his past job as defender of the faith to his new responsibilities. Where will he bend, where will he stand firm? Will he really listen to opposing voices? How will his papacy differ from JPII's, where will it remain similar? When he appoints new cardinals, we'll want to know whether they're progressive, liberal or conservative.

Debbie Kornmiller, reader's advocate, Arizona Daily Star, Tucson:

1, — Stories: 8
— Photos: 5
— Graphics: 5
— Multimedia material: 9

While the first day stories seems very good, other news agencies picked up different angles that we were able to use.

2, Did you use AP's daily news digests and pope package advisories?

Yes

3, Did you use these story elements:

— AP Pope Contender profiles: Abridged

— List of voting cardinals with photos: No

4, Any stories, photos or other AP content particularly memorable or disappointing?

— I thought the first day optional lead story was very good.

5, What papal coverage do you want over the next few weeks?

— In depth stories dealing with how the new pope is going to deal with the major problems that were highlighted at the end of the previous pope's reign.

George Stanley, managing editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, responding to Question #32 on optionals/papal coverage:

— AP has done an outstanding job on many stories in recent years, led by its unmatched coverage in Afghanistan, but it fell down covering the pope. Here is an example: "Housekeepers, elevator operators, waiters and other Vatican workers promised Friday never to reveal any details they might learn about the politicking and infighting that goes into the election of the pope." There was absolutely nothing in the story that backed up the editorializing by the writer about politicking and infighting, and the sheet the workers signed used no words even insinuating it. Earlier in the week we had published a story by another service that said any real politicking would likely backfire on a cardinal because the others would frown on it. I thought AP was the worst offender among media outlets that covered the selection of a new pope as if it were an American political election. After Ratzinger was elected, AP stories described him as "a staunch ultra-conservative" and "hardliner." Yet he also appears to be staunchly against the death penalty, against the war in Iraq, against consumerism and unregulated capitalism, in favor of strong labor rights, in favor of a redistribution of wealth from rich countries to poor countries — all positions that would put him to the left of most Democrats in American politics. Being orthodox about Church rules and dogma and being "ultra-conservative" — a political term — are two very different things, and AP was way too quick to apply easy but imprecise political labels. We had our own writer at the Vatican and bolstered it with strong stuff from Knight-Ridder, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Post. Yesterday, Knight-Ridder moved a great bio on the new Pope by David O'Reilly that showed far deeper understanding of Ratzinger's past and views than anything AP offered. I regret that we didn't do a better job of editing the few AP stories we used in the past week to eliminate bias, including the oath of silence story. In fact, I used that story as an example in talking to our wire editors and copy desk about ensuring that wire copy meets our usual standards, which that piece failed to do.

AP response from:

Deborah Seward, International Editor

John Affleck, National Reporting Team Editor

Dear George,

Thanks for your thoughtful response to our sounding board question.

We wanted to reply to you in depth because you raised some important points about coverage of the papal election, especially the danger of confusing secular politics with the inner workings of the church. Also we value your opinion as a thoughtful friend and often fan of the AP.

It might help to get a sense of where we were coming from in terms of our coverage priorities. In the days following the death of Pope John Paul II, we felt that the big story was who the next pope was likely to be and the challenges he would face. We set off to cover those angles aggressively, fairly and globally. In addition to spot coverage of the day's events, we regularly ran stories from four continents targeted to specific issues, such as: collegiality; the shortage of priests; competition from evangelical Protestantism in Latin America; relations with Islam; and, the growing church in Africa. We also profiled 12 of the cardinals we thought had a chance to be elected pope: Joseph Ratzinger was the first and we returned to him several times in the days before the conclave.

From our perspective, AP went far beyond horse race-style coverage.

We also understand that the church is a religious institution, and the dynamics at work in a papal election don't break down into the Republican-Democrat model of U.S. politics. But even within the church, people have different priorities and agendas in matters of internal Catholic policy and indeed, interested Catholics and even cardinals lobby for those priorities. So terms such as "conservative" and "liberal" do apply in this context. Someone who would have the pope tightly restrict the distribution of Communion to divorced persons and strongly favors celibacy for clerics would generally be regarded as "conservative," for instance, while someone who would let priests marry or allow female priests would be "liberal." Certainly, on such internal matters, Pope Benedict XVI is generally regarded as conservative, even strongly so, especially on those issues.

We tried very hard over the last month to use these terms properly, and we believe we did. Our coverage on this front seems in keeping with other major news organizations. Consider these leads on Tuesday, when Benedict XVI was elected:

AP:

With unusual speed and little surprise, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany became Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, a 78-year-old transitional leader who promises to enforce strictly conservative policies for the world's Roman Catholics.

L.A. Times:

Joseph Ratzinger, a renowned theologian and hard-line enforcer of Catholic Church doctrine for the last two decades, was chosen Tuesday to succeed his friend and close ally Pope John Paul II. Ratzinger, 78, became Pope Benedict XVI.

N.Y. Times:

Roman Catholic cardinals reached to the church's conservative wing on Tuesday and chose as the 265th pope Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a seasoned and hard-line German theologian who served as John Paul II's defender of the faith.

Reuters:

Roman Catholic Cardinals have elected arch-conservative German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope, choosing a shy, elderly theologian to defend the stern legacy of his charismatic predecessor, John Paul II.

A few final comments:

When it comes to the phrase "staunch ultra-conservative" in reference to Ratzinger/Benedict, we have checked our archive several times and find no use of it in an AP story.

On the oath taken by Vatican workers, they are sworn to secrecy and not to reveal anything they might pick up by chance in breaks during the conclave; perhaps the writer made a leap to assume there would be disagreements or "politicking" among the cardinals. But it's worth noting that, even though Ratzinger was elected speedily, other cardinals did pick up more than 38 votes on each of the first three ballots.

Finally, we're sending along a couple of stories we did in the final days of the papal coverage. One is a piece by Richard N. Ostling that traces the conclave history and discusses the need for secrecy, and the other is Brian Murphy's profile of the new pope on Tuesday. We think both are brightly written, but also informative and fair, and typify our coverage.

Thanks for reading all this. We're happy to discuss further.

Deborah Seward, International Editor

John Affleck, National Reporting Team Editor

Dave Minthorn, manager, AP News Administration, coordinates the questions and answers. Newspaper editors wishing to suggest a topic can send an e-mail to Minthorn at dminthorn@ap.org.

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