Should the Laci Peterson story receive major story treatment or minor?
Photo by Debbie Noda, Modesto Bee Consider yourself the executive editor. Imagine yourself in the newsroom of your favorite television station or newspaper. You sit among the top editors around a long wood veneer table ringed with coffee mug stains. Below are two arguments about the story of Laci and Scott Peterson. They echo the debate going on in Bay Area newsrooms. Read them both. Think about what you’d do. At the bottom, click to the voting booth and make a choice-either yes it’s a major story deserving copious coverage on front and other display pages, or no, it’s a minor story deserving occasional coverage, mostly inside the paper. In a sentence or two, defend your decision if you’d like. After you’ve voted, check to see how others decided and how some Bay Area media have decided the issue. Here’s some background if you need it: Laci Peterson, a young and 8-month pregnant Modesto housewife disappeared on Christmas Eve. Her body and her unborn son’s were later recovered from San F
