Recruiting.

That’s a dirty word when it comes to high school athletics here, and probably on the Mainland.

The topic has bubbled to the forefront again with the news of Punahou being tabbed the No. 1 school for athletics by Sports Illustrated. (Punahou won 16 of 32 state tournament titles.)

Recruiting is against the league bylaws. The rule states that the prospective athlete must make the first contact. And we’d be naive to say it doesn’t happen or has never happened.

Let me tell you my philosophy: change the bylaws to allow recruiting and that way schools can admit they’re doing it, because I’m for it.

That’s right.

If recruiting gives a child an opportunity to become a better person, socially, academically and athletically, then what’s wrong with that?

What parent wouldn’t want the best for his/her child? Tell me a parent who would reject such an opportunity? Why is this a bad thing, as long as the child can keep up with the curriculum?

The byproduct of recruiting is that private schools might end up winning more than public schools. That’s just bragging rights resulting from a game.

But, if the bottom line is improving a child’s opportunities that could help him or her for the rest of his or her life, then that’s a good enough reason to allow recruiting.

What do you think?

We have invited Ariel Abadilla, Philippine Consul General, to come to the Advertiser next week for a round-table discussion with us about coverage.
The discussion will be the first of what we hope are several this year with various leaders of Hawaii’s ethnic communities as we renew our commitment to establishing relationships and fostering greater understanding between the newspaper and the diverse communities that we serve. We have had a number of successful sessions of this nature in the past, where reporters, editors, photographers, and others were able to connect with new sources and gain broader perspective and appreciation for Hawaii’s various cultures.
As today’s Behind the Headlines guest blogger, I decided to share information about this upcoming session because I believe our efforts in the area of diversity are key to the quality of what we do. In my role as managing editor for content, this is something that I care about passionately. Within the industry, this newspaper has often been recognized for the diversity of its staff. Recruiting and retaining top-notch journalists of color — particularly those with Hawaii roots — will always be a top priority.

But understanding and respect for the communities that we cover is just as important as maintaining a diverse staff. Next week’s session, and others that are to come, is one way of achieving this goal. The quality of our reporting is enhanced when we have a deep understanding of what’s important to the community, culture, or people we’re writing about. To that end, we want feedback. While we can’t meet individually with everyone as we will next week with some members of the Filipino community, I’m always happy to hear from you through e-mail, by phone, and even snail mail. You can reach me at mmcfadde@honolulu.gannett.com, 808-535-2426, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802.

And, of course, you can share your thoughts here.

Marsha McFadden/Managing Editor for Content.

The stories most often passed over by newspapers are the “small” stories about car washes, community cleanups, little league signups and school plays that are very important to the people involved, but not so much to the statewide readership.

These groups send in their press releases by email or fax to the newsroom in hopes that it will make it in print and draw hordes of people to their event.

We do place many of these types of events on page B-3 every day under the MyCommunities heading, but many more come in then we can possibly print.

As the community news editor at The Honolulu Advertiser, I’m in charge of running our myAdvertiser.com neighborhood Web sites, and I know how important this information is to residents.

To provide a venue for these type of stories, we have created the Get Published online tool. Get Published allows registered users to post their own stories and photos directly on a site covering their community.

We have seven myAdvertiser.com community Web sites: Honolulu (Waikiki to Makiki), Metro Honolulu (Downtown to Kalihi), East Oahu (Kaimuki to Hawaii Kai), Windward Oahu (Waimanalo to Kahuku), Cental Oahu (Mililani to the North Shore), Leeward Oahu (Aiea to Moanalua) and West Oahu (Ewa to Waianae).

As far as I know, we are the only news site in Hawaii that allows readers to directly publish their own stories online.

There is one caveat: we don’t allow advertising or opinion pieces on the sites. They are only for community news.

So, if you are planning a community event, a fundraiser or youth sports signups and want some free publicity, go to our Web site, look for myAdvertiser in the tool bar, click on that and find Get Published.

Then you write the news.

How important is it that a news story is new, that it just broke? Is the timeliness more important than, let’s say, how many people are affected?

As The Advertiser’s digital editor and today’s Behind the Headlines guest blogger, I thought I’d talk about the breaking news headlines we list on our home page.

I’m not talking about the really big stories, like last week’s coverage of the Aloha cargo division events. Those go in a special module at the top of the page. No discussion there. I’m talking about the daily breaking news that we run in a column in the top part of our home page.

We run the breaking news stories in that space in chronological order with the latest one first, by default. Many of our readers want it that way because it makes it easy to check in several times a day and scan the headlines to see what the latest news is.

But we didn’t always do it that way. When we first got serious about posting breaking stories around the clock, we weighed the impact of the stories and listed them with the heftier ones on top.

We heard from many readers who didn’t like that format because they would have to search for stories that were new. Sure, the story at the top of the heap might have been very important but they had already read it and they wanted something fresh.

That’s the reason why we decided to run the latest ones on top. (That and the fact that our boss, Senior Vice President/Editor Mark Platte, told us to do it.)

We know some of our readers disagree with this decision. They say we list stories that don’t qualify as breaking news in their opinion. These are readers who want us to make a news decision and keep the most important ones on top, even when other, less important events keep unfolding throughout the day.

Which type of reader are you? Would you rather see the very latest, or do you want us to weigh the importance?

Reporting on crimes is difficult enough, but when the police are unable or unwilling to provide information, the task of reporting fairly and completely is next to impossible.

This is not simply the concern of editors and reporters. It is the concern of everyone. People need to know about serious crimes in their own neighborhoods because it affects whether they should take further steps to protect their safety and the safety of their families. Conversely, if the allegations of a serious crime are weak or disputed, people need to know that, too. If the media cannot obtain the information, the public will remain in the dark.

Something happened around midday on Monday at the Paiolu Kaiaulu emergency transitional shelter in Waianae, but what happened is very much in question.

One adult and the child’s mother say a 9-year-old girl was sexually assaulted.
The Honolulu Police Department says it is investigating an alleged sexual assault, but would provide no further information. In fact, HPD would not even confirm that its officers responded to an incident at the shelter on Monday.

One reason that HPD gave for its lack of information was that a person was off work for Kuhio Day. But our reporters have been trying since Tuesday to get information from the police.

We don’t expect the police to have solved the crime right away, but an explanation of what they found Monday — if in fact they came to the shelter on Monday — should be public information. Was a child taken to the hospital? What allegations were made? Some people at the shelter allege there has been a cover-up. HPD needs to speak out to allay such allegations. The public has a right to know.

A rape of a child is a very serious crime and the public is understandably concerned when such allegations surface. The public needs to know if there is any reason for concern or not, and the police are in the best position to provide that information.

As I said, no one expects all the details immediately. But the public shouldn’t have to wait this long for basic information on an allegedly serious crime.

I welcome your thoughts.