• Neil Armstrong landed in Utah, not on the moon.• George Bush blew up the World Trade towers.• The Beacon Journal isn’t covering the Jimmy Dimora trial because everyone who works at the newspaper is a Democrat.All three conspiracy theories make equal sense. If you care to believe them, be my guest. That’s well within your rights as an ignorant American.The most recent conspiracy theory is rooted in the fact Dimora is a prominent Democrat who, according to the testimony thus far, is the epitome of sleaze. The Beacon Journal allegedly won’t touch the story because we don’t want to make him look bad.Here’s an excerpt from one of nearly a dozen emails I’ve gotten on the subject:“Perfect opportunity for the Beacon to cover a large news story. Keep and intrigue readers regarding a big, scandalous, local story and spend very little on T&E (you know, limited travel, gas $$, the reporters can still run back across the street and eat their brown bag lunch).“Why do you think this news story, which apparently the Beacon must not mention, acknowledge or, heaven forbid — sorry, the Democratic Party affiliates that flood the Beacon Journal employee lounge forbid — cover as an objective, fact-based newspaper story?“Great job to the editorial minds at work at the Beacon Journal. This ‘news’paper can really sniff out a big story. When one breaks, I’ll let you guys know.”Don’t you love the polite tone, the man’s obvious desire to engage in a meaningful dialogue?Believe it or not, I don’t determine what the newsroom covers. But I can offer some insight. And because talk-radio hosts never bother to ask anyone who works here what goes on here before throwing out wild hypotheses, I am more than willing to weigh in.You’re welcome.First of all, my amiable correspondent apparently is unfamiliar with the adventures of Tim Davis.Davis was the top official in Summit County. He was a Democrat who was enthusiastically endorsed by this newspaper’s editorial board. But when Davis was taken down by a scandal in the late ’90s, our newsroom wrote about it day after day after day after day.The difference between Davis and Dimora: Davis was the main honcho in our county, and Dimora was a top honcho in Cuyahoga County.Most of our readers care a lot more about Cuyahoga County politics than, say, Muskingum County politics. But they care a whole lot less about Cuyahoga’s than Summit’s.Sure, Dimora’s story is sexy — hookers and booze and bribes, oh my! — and it makes fun reading. For that very reason, it has drawn national attention.Well, there’s another wild case drawing national attention, too, and that one centers on a man who lives right here in Akron. Every time the suspect in the Craigslist killings appears in court, we are there, simply because we think that case is of more interest to local readers.The ABJ agendaThis certainly isn’t the first time we’ve been accused of having “an agenda” in our news coverage.Yes, we have an agenda. Our agenda is trying to figure out how best to deploy finite resources to cover the enormous number of potential stories waiting to be told.Inside the Beacon, we have constant disagreements about which stories are the most important and interesting — which ones to cover, which ones to put on Page A1, which ones deserve 1,000 words, which ones merit only a few paragraphs, which ones can be held temporarily when space is particularly tight.Those discussions rage daily during a 10 a.m. news meeting and again at 4 p.m. That’s because such decisions are highly subjective. There’s no mathematical formula or software program that will kick out the right answers.Here’s an experiment for you to run at home: Make a list of 10 stories and ask the members of your household to rank them in order of importance and interest. Mix in different topics, such as crime, business, sports, politics and humor.Unless you live with clones, the results will be all over the ballpark.Another misconception about the way we handle news is that the opinions of the editorial board dictate our news coverage. Not even close.As I have pointed out to doubters, many of the opinions expressed in my columns are diametrically opposed to the opinions expressed on our editorial page. The most obvious recent example involves the Akron mom who falsified documents to get her kids into Copley schools.The editorial board wrote several editorials saying the punishment was too harsh. I wrote half a dozen columns saying the punishment fit the crime.Now, if the owner of the Beacon Journal and his top executives are determined to control the message, how did I get away with that?The answer: Good newspapers encourage a wide variety of opinion.This is a good newspaper. Although the Internet has trashed the old economic model, just as the Internet has trashed the post office and the music industry and so many other long-standing institutions, the Beacon Journal still does a lot of important things right.Long trialThe Dimora trial has lasted five weeks and will likely continue into the spring. Do you really want that much Dimora? If not, do we just cover it every other day? Every third day?If an eye-opening Akron connection surfaces, you’ll read about it here.That was the case in October 2008, when we reported that Dimora had donated $1,000 to the campaign of Summit County Executive Russell Pry. That also was the case last year with multiple stories about the Summit County Board of Elections rescinding the hiring of John Frola Jr. after he was subpoenaed in the Dimora case.Look: It’s not as if we’re ignoring this story just because we’re not sending our own reporters into the courtroom. Using partners such as the Associated Press and the Plain Dealer, we have published 56 stories about Dimora’s scandal since his office was raided — seven of them since the trial began in January.If we’re trying to protect that dirtbag, we’re doing a lousy job of it.Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com.