DRAWING THE LINE

The issue here first hit me a year ago. Former Miami Herald columnist Ana Menendez, whom I admired, committed a virtual beheading of Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff. Writing satirically, she invented a secret memo and then reported his supposed thoughts, making him out to be a total bobo. It may have been good literary form, but it was the worst of yellow journalism. I felt partly responsible because I did not know how to respond. The column was, after all, marked ''opinion,'' though it ran in news pages.

Some readers are surely more brilliant than I, and are able to cut to the chase on how to balance ethics, fairness and tough critical opinion.

I remained troubled by the lack of definition and would vaguely nag Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal. Herald policy, he said, was that the job of the columnists was to ''flesh out local issues'' and ''add some opinion at the end,'' based on their reporting. Latin American columns, such as those by Andres Oppenheimer and Myriam Marquez, are considered local, he said.

But whatever the columnist is writing about is part of the news mix. In other words, editors assume that a reporter usually needs to cover the same subject, even though the columnist may have a particular personal view.

I called the standards editor at The New York Times, Craig Whitney, who was once my boss there. Via e-mail, he explained Times policy this way: ``On news columns, that is an issue that has come up here as well. A year or so ago, we came up with a reader's guide explaining various formats. You can see it online at www.nytimes.com/readersguide.

``The entry on news columns is shorthand, but what it means is that columnists in the news pages can express opinions, but, unlike a lot of editorials or Op-Ed columns, news columns must show the reporting: the facts or observations, etc., that led to the opinion.

We also limit news columnists to expressing opinions only on the subjects they're 'licensed' to write about. An economics columnist could make a case against or for the presidential candidates' economics or tax policies, for example, but not about their leadership qualities or lack thereof, or their character, or whatever. . . . When somebody strays over the line, we talk to them.''

So how do The Miami Herald's news columnists stack up? Send me your assessment.

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