Are we getting to be a little too familiar?

Timothy J. McNulty
From the Public Editor

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June 8, 2007

Hillary is, of course, her name. And, yes, she does use that single name in her political campaign. But I was told recently that for the newspaper to use just "Hillary" was disrespectful and an insult not only to Sen. Clinton but to all women.

This is not uncharted territory. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been a lightning rod for controversy since her husband campaigned for the presidency 15 years ago. After their eight years in the White House, even her name or the combination of her names and titles are signals of strong emotion, of friend or foe.

Mrs. Clinton or Sen. Clinton or former First Lady Hillary Clinton are all proper ways to address or refer to her, but just plain Hillary is almost guaranteed to trigger a reaction.

You can understand Hillary to be familiar and affectionate, even the sign-up page on her Web site is headlined "Hillary for president," and using only her first name in the campaign for the Democratic nomination is obviously a careful political calculation.

But in that world, the use of a name, a nickname or even initials has a double edge. Some radio and television commentators (you know who you are, Bill O'Reilly) pronounce it with a special emphasis and "Hill-ary" is meant to sound diminutive and dismissive, and often accompanied by an eye roll.

Fairness is such a subjective and elusive quality when it comes to politics. The name issue and the Tribune's coverage of the Republican and Democratic debates are just two aspects of the early 2008 presidential campaign that readers recently flagged for my attention.

With the campaign starting a full year early, the singular Hillary has been creeping into the newspaper in articles and headlines, and on the Tribune Web site. Three examples: "With Hillary books, fairness doesn't sell" and "Hillary's once-in-a-lifetime journey" and several months ago this egregious and now very outdated financial comparison with another Democratic front-runner: "Hillary coffers at $14 million; Obama at $500,000."

"The simple fact is that Hillary Rodham Clinton is running in a field of men who are never referred to by their first names," Jane Fritsch, an online Tribune editor wrote to me in an e-mail. "The argument that we call her Hillary to avoid confusion is a weak one. There are easy alternatives. ... Certainly the problem created by the existence of two presidents named George Bush has been a difficult one, but we found ways to solve it without diminishing George W. Bush."

The entry in the Tribune stylebook, the newspaper's guide for consistency and fairness, also is clear: "Except in extremely rare cases, don't use first names or nicknames in place of last names." Examples include not substituting Jesse for Rev. Jesse Jackson or Oprah for Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey has apparently migrated to another sphere, appearing in headlines as simply Oprah 176 times in recent years.

There are some people, mostly entertainers, who have enough celebrity and wish to be called simply "Madonna" and "Bono" and "Elvis" and "Beyonce." Of course, it doesn't really work without a unique name; there are not many "Cathy" or "Joe" celebs.

Fritsch said that she understands most people use Hillary just reflexively or for "conversational convenience." But she also cautions: "Addressing anyone one does not know personally by his or her first name is a risky business. It can easily be heard as an insult, a way of diminishing the person. Often, that is the intent of the speaker. Women are particularly attuned to this sort of dismissiveness. (It's just a step above the very grating, 'Sorry, honey, your car's not ready yet,' meant to put one in one's place.)"

In covering politics, not all debates merit equal attention. News judgments must be made in light of other news of the day. There are about a dozen more debates for presidential candidates scheduled for each party through January 2008, and some readers are eager to document their suspicions of political bias on each occasion.

Photographs are studied for their size and placement and whether the facial expressions and body language are complimentary. Column inches are measured to see if Democrats or Republicans fared better. Decisions on which quotes are used from a reader's favorite or unfavored candidate are analyzed for hidden agendas.

So far, there have been two Democratic and three Republican debates. The stories and photographs for four of the debates appeared on Page 3. The newspaper has been consistent, with one serious misstep, in its reporting.

The exception was the second Republican debate on May 15, which was all but ignored with only a three-paragraph Associated Press story on page 14. The small article was a secondary piece to a front-page story describing the Illinois Senate's decision to move up the state's primary election, an action seen as a way to boost Sen. Barack Obama's presidential quest.

Even more galling to some Republican readers was when the very next debate among Democrats was promoted on Page 1 with words and a photo of Clinton, Obama and John Edwards, but the next GOP debate was promoted with just words.

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Timothy J. McNulty is the Tribune's public editor. He listens to readers' concerns about the paper's coverage and writes periodically about journalism issues. His e-mail address is [log in to unmask] The views expressed are his own.

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