There are things in Sacramento you can count on, constants that rarely change year to year.
You can bank on them – with help from the Fed, of course.
Like July is hot enough to bake pizza outside, without an oven.
Like the vacant downtown railyard is always on the verge of development.
Like The Bee going gaga over the Kings.
For some readers, though, it's not gaga but gagging, as a few dozen of them complained they were beside themselves after seeing last Sunday's front page.
They recoiled at the day's big story, played across the top of A1, picture and graphic included.
Headlined "Heart in the game," the story tracked the roller coaster pulse of Kings' co-owner Gavin Maloof as he watched from courtside as his lowly team played its villainous and championship-caliber rival from the south, the Lakers.
Gavin is known as the excitable one compared with his more stoic brother and fellow co-owner, Joe.
Since Gavin is a celebrity in town – which says more about Sacramento than about him – his game-time antics and volatility are well-documented on local TV via the obligatory shots of the Maloof brothers during game broadcasts.
It's news when he doesn't spring from his chair like a fighter pilot who's just pressed the ejection button. He is, as they say, in to it.
How in to it?
The story said his heart rate hit a peak of 175 beats per minute – after the Kings' Ron Artest dunked to give the home team its biggest lead in a game it would ultimately lose.
His pulse might have been higher except Gavin jumped so fast and hard, he snapped off the wires to a heart monitor a local cardiologist had attached at The Bee's request.
How in to it?
He shouted to a Lakers fan nearby, his index finger poking the air: "Boo to you, lady!"
So, readers asked, what possessed the paper to put the story on the front page and then display it so prominently?
To many, it reaffirmed Sacramento's status as a one-horse town and that the Kings again clouded The Bee's news judgment.
Was this really news? Wasn't this just fluff? they asked.
Here's a sampling from some of the complaints:
From Roseville's Walter Bremer: "Maloof's heart rate on Page 1, above the fold???
"Another 8 dead in Iraq on A15???
"You truly are the daily diary of Cowtown USA."
From Sacramento's James Raia, who sometimes free-lances for The Bee:
"I'm curious about the front-page placement of last Sunday's piece on the fluctuating heart rate of a billionaire Kings' owner.
"A piece on the fluctuating heart rates of those trying to pay mortgages, keep jobs, support families, save for retirement, that's a story. … But the heart rate of a subject chosen mugging into the camera? How was it relevant to readers? Scene section, midweek, maybe. But Page 1, on Sunday?"
From a reader who left this phone message:
"My, God. Has The Bee lost its senses? I can't phantom why that's on the front page with everything else going on."
Joyce Terhaar is one of the paper's two managing editors. She approved the Gavin Maloof story for the front page.
She said The Bee wants to mix up its front page menu by offering readers a variety of choices, including what she called "fun stories," such as the heart-rate article.
"Gavin Maloof is a celebrity in this town and well-known for being emotional at games," Terhaar said, explaining part of the reasoning for placing the story on Page 1.
She noted that the paper had done something similar a few years back when it measured noise levels at Arco Arena during Kings games and put that story on the front page.
There are, however, significant differences between the two.
The paper sampled noise levels over the course of 10 games with the help of a UC Davis audiologist. It focused on tracking five volunteers, such as an usher, a fan, the shot-clock keeper and a security guard.
The 2003 story said noise at the then sold-out arena was so loud it was causing temporary hearing loss. To the extent it was a warning for the thousands of fans then attending games, it had a common, public good.
In the Maloof story, although there was some discussion of how high adrenaline levels and stress can increase risk of a heart attack, it was essentially a look at the histrionics of an emotional team owner.
What readers take away from that beyond the obvious escapes me.
Scott Lebar, an assistant managing editor, made the call on how the story was displayed.
"I understand the readers' complaints – it certainly wasn't the most important thing going on in the world that day, but the front page, I think, offers more than a catalogue of what are deemed the most significant stories," he said in a e-mail.
"We always look for a good story mix for A1, and this one combined health, sports and a local personality, drawing on the results of a (stress) study in a creative and different way."
He said he wouldn't have changed the prominence given the story even if he knew there would be negative reader feedback, which he said he didn't consider at the time.
"I liked getting something local and vibrant at the top (of the front page)," he said.
I'm with the readers on this one.
The story was perfectly fine, well-written and reported. But it belonged in Sports or in the Scene section, not on the front page.
It was just too trivial.
Somehow, though, given the paper's tendency to go atwitter over all things Kings, I think the chances of a less-myopic view in the future are like expecting snow in July.
Pizza, anyone?
The Public Editor deals with complaints and concerns about The Sacramento Bee's content. His opinions are his own. You can contact the Public Editor by mail at P.O. Box 15779, Sacramento, CA 95852; or by calling him directly at (916) 321-1250.
