December 30, 2005
The End of the Chat
It's been a fairly quiet last couple of weeks at the Ombudsman's office, but a recent Editor's Note announcing some changes to the Thursday Living/Arts section has prompted some readers to complain about the end of the Globe's Confidential Chat column next month.
Here's the text of the Editor's Note, which has run the last two Thursday's in the Life At Home section:
On Jan. 12, the Globe will launch a new weekly section called Style & Arts, which will replace the Thursday Living/Arts and Life at Home sections. This section will offer a vibrant mix of stories on fashion, design, gardening, and entertaining trends; shopping savvy for the individual and the home; advice columns by Martha Stewart and Peter Hotton; arts & performance reviews and previews; profiles and lifestyle features. Confidential Chat will no longer appear in the Globe. Because it will be produced and printed on Tuesdays, the Style & Arts section will not contain a Names column or late reviews. Local celebrity news or reviews of Wednesday night productions will run in the news section on Thursdays.
The item that drew about a dozen complaints from readers was the announcement that Confidential Chat is being dropped from the newspaper. I will address this issue in more detail in my column this Sunday (1/1/06), but here's an idea of what one reader had to say:
The obituary was just eight words in a note to readers on page E3, but it marked the death of an important institution: "Confidential Chat will no longer appear in the Globe." (Life at Home section, Dec. 29.)
How long did Confidential Chat appear? 75 years? 90 years? It may have been close to 100 years old. Like many old institutions, it effectively died before its death. Some fool decided a few years ago that Confidential Chat should no longer deal with controversial issues. Well, what need is there for confidentiality if you're not dealing in controversy?
Where once people sought and gave advice on difficult, personal, and sometimes touchy subjects, in recent years Confidential Chatters have only exchanged recipes, knitting patterns, or advice on where to buy hard-to-find items. Confidential Chat used to be much more -- a place for learning. I remember learning from Chatters decades ago the present a teacher really appreciates getting from parents or former students: not another mug or calendar or bottle of cologne, but a letter of thanks.
Chatters taught one another how to scrimp to get by on a low salary, how to recycle to help the environment, how to raise children or care for their parents, how to cope with devastating disease or disability. The wisdom of experts interviewed by Globe reporters is no substitute for the wisdom of Globe readers.
Sue Bass
Belmont, MA
POSTED BY:
rchacon | TIME: 10:09:49 AM |
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