Echo Editor's Blog

One of those dilemmas that surface in newspaper offices with regularity. It's Friday and we're sailing cheerfully towards our print deadline. Nice splash in place, all the inside pages away and a nice big red nose in the masthead to mark comic relief.

Then it happens. One phone call and all bets are off. A seven-year-old boy has stabbed a woman 21 times in Norris Green.

It's obviously a distressing story - but it's a sensational one too. The office kicks into overdrive. How much have we got? Can we get pictures? If we get them can we use them? Can we name the child? Can we name the mother?

We get the story, we sort out the legals. We design the page.

Then we see the big red nose in the masthead.

No problem. We pull it and put back the traditional Echo logo. After all, you can't run a headline about a frenzied stabbing under a comedy nose.

Or can you? Do readers get that sensitive? Would the victim or the perpetrator be upset? Is it more important to encourage charitable giving than it is to defend the sensibilities of a handful of people? We left the nose off. What would you have done?

Have finished my half marathon training. Now all that remains is Sunday and the run itself. I am excited, nervous, a bit scared. Did 50 minutes on treadmill at gym last night and found very easy. Knees ok, too. No wine all week, says my trainer. May prove almost as tough at the 13.1 miles....

Morgan makes first attempt on bike!

Harry has Spanish exchange student staying. Lovely girl from Caceres called Maria. Flecks of snow and howling north wind when I picked her up from the school last night.