‘Just the Facts, Ma’am’ No More

[Commentary] For New York Times Managing Editor Dean Baquet, the ideal front page would include three or four “strong news stories that nobody else has, an investigative story, and a couple of really good reads” -- for example, a sports or culture story, or an especially compelling obituary.

Some readers would like a more straightforward approach. Others believe that all that interpretation can too easily tip over into opinion. In recent weeks, readers have complained to me about what they saw as opinion creeping into news stories on Iran, Ukraine, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. It can be a fine line, but there is a difference between stating a well-established truth -- for example, evolution really happened -- and expressing opinion, no matter how well-informed. It’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed in a straight news story. In my view, The Times’s most prominently displayed stories sometimes go too far in the direction of interpretation, analysis and elaborate writing. The reasonable reader, with only his coffee for assistance, might well wish that the important nugget of news would appear in the second paragraph instead of the seventh.

[Margaret Sullivan is the fifth public editor appointed by The New York Times]