Sanders LaMont: The Bee's Ombudsman

I've been The Sacramento Bee's ombudsman since January 1998.

As The Bee's ombudsman I attempt to listen closely to readers, advocate high journalistic standards, explain how things work at the newspaper, relay readers' concerns to editors and answer questions about this newspaper. I then write a weekly column, picking subjects raised by readers that I feel will interest others.

I've been a journalist for 41 years, and I still believe this is the most rewarding thing a curious person can do for a living.

My distant past included work as a printer, bindery worker, subscription seller, drummer, ditch digger, carpenter's assistant, grocery store bagger, rod man on a survey crew, radio and television broadcaster and infantry platoon leader.

I like working for newspapers best of all. I am convinced newspapers are essential in a democracy, newspapers can make a difference in people's lives and the work is usually fun. It is also often difficult.

I was born in Atlanta, Ga., and grew up on the Gulf Coast at Mobile, Ala., a southern port with a Cajun attitude. I graduated from high school and junior college at Marion Military Institute, a prep school where I learned to polish shoes, shine brass, and march in New Orleans' Mardi Gras parades -- a vital part of my education.

I graduated from the University of Alabama with a major in journalism, a minor in English, and a commission in the infantry. I was managing editor of the campus newspaper, on the Dean's list and outstanding Journalism Graduate in the class of 1962. It was a pretty small class.

While in college I was hired as a reporting intern at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1961. I returned to Atlanta as a staff reporter the next year, which happened to coincide with the peak of the civil rights movement action in Atlanta.

I reported for active duty in the Army at Fort Benning in 1963, ran the base newspaper, did radio and television broadcasts, and served with the 197th Infantry Brigade training troops, including a brief time at the Mountain Ranger Training Camp in North Georgia.

My military specialty was Small Unit Combat Leader, which, fortunately, I was never required to use outside Georgia.

I moved to the Cape Canaveral area in Florida in 1965 to work for The Miami Herald as a reporter covering, among other things, the space program. The next year I joined the then brand new Florida Today newspaper as aerospace writer for Gannett News Service, based at the space center. I won several national and state awards, including reporting awards for coverage of the Apollo launch pad fatal fire and for coverage of the first Apollo landing on the moon.

In 1972 I was made state bureau chief at Tallahassee, Fla., for Gannett News Service, and covered politics and campaigns in the South, and the return of the Vietnam POWs at the end of that war.

In 1974 I moved to the Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press as managing editor, and later became executive editor.

In 1977-78 I took a brief break, after being named as a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the University of Michigan, one of 12 journalists selected nationally. I studied American history, philosophy, law, and anthropology and broke my wrist playing ice hockey with people less than half my age.

From 1978 to 1980 I was executive editor of the Marietta (Ohio) Times.

I joined McClatchy Newspaper in California as executive editor of The Modesto Bee in 1980. While there I helped redesign and repackage the newspaper, built up the staff, helped increase circulation, initiated internships, introduced diversity, played on the company soccer team and worked to improve the newspaper. The newspaper won the California Newspaper Publishers Association award as the best daily newspaper in its circulation category in 1985, and a national Society of Professional Journalists Public Service Award for stories about poverty in the San Joaquin Valley.

I currently serve as a part-time faculty member at California State University at Sacramento.

I have served twice as a Pulitzer Prize juror. I have been a guest instructor at The American Press Institute in Reston, Va., president of two different chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists, president of the California Associated Press News Executives Council, and active on the diversity committee of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

I currently serve as president of the Organization of News Ombudsmen, a professional organization with members in more than a dozen countries.

I enjoy sailing, music, books, skiing, history, hiking, and being in the mountains. I particularly appreciate Yosemite National Park and sailing on San Francisco Bay, and try to spend time in those places when other people do not.

My family includes my wife, who is an elementary school teacher and a member of the local Storytellers Guild, two grown children and three grandchildren.

THE OMBUDSMAN investigates complaints of unfairness, imbalance or inaccuracies in The Bee's news reporting. His conclusions are his own. To leave a comment for the Ombudsman call 916-442-8050; write P.O. Box 15779, Sacramento, 95852; FAX: 556-5690 or send e-mail to ombud@sacbee.com.