Post by steevo on Aug 14, 2007 0:29:15 GMT
Its just one more assessment bringing home the realization of how little information we really get about significant news.
My bold type:
My bold type:
When I read a very long, very maudlin, front-page Inquirer story about crime in Newark, I was left knowing very little about the exact nature of the crimes, other than the fact that there were "shootings in the schoolyard." And here's all there is about the principle suspect:
Five days after the shootings, Jose Carranza, considered the principal suspect, offered to surrender to Booker in the presence of a well-known Newark lawyer. The two came face to face at police headquarters.
"I don't think words can describe the level of emotion I feel about what these individuals have allegedly done to these families and what they have done to our community," Booker said.
Two other suspects, both 15, are being held. Their names have not been released because of their age.
Carranza pleaded not guilty at an arraignment Friday. After the arrests, Shalga Hightower said she wanted "the right justice" for her daughter, Iofemi, and the other victims.
"They took three angels away from their families," she said, "but one angel survived, so the story could get told."
There's almost nothing about the suspect, and even less about the gruesome nature of the crimes. Instead, the piece mainly goes into great detail to stress that the victims had promising lives.
Why? As details, aren't the gruesome nature of what happened to them, the fiendish nature of the principal defendant, and the callused insensitivity of the criminal justice system, at least as important?
Rarely have I seen a story so long and yet so woefully incomplete at the same time. Newark is in the New York area, and you'd think that if a report about crime there was important enough to merit treatment on the front page of the Inquirer that they'd at least supply the details.
To find them, I had to turn to the New York Daily News:
The illegal immigrant accused in the execution-style killings of three college students in Newark was freed on bail twice this year after being charged with assault and child rape, prosecutors said yesterday.
The shocking revelation came as cops arrested a third suspect in the schoolyard shootings, which have horrified homicide-weary Newark.
And as if the crime weren't already heinous enough, Fox News Channel 5 reported that two of the victims may have been sexually assaulted before being shot.
About 500 people, including Mayor Cory Booker, attended a prayer vigil last night at Mount Vernon Elementary School, where Terrance Aerial, 18; Dashon Harvey, 20, and Iofemi Hightower, 20, were forced to kneel before being shot in the head.
Aerial's sister, Natasha, 19, was shot in the face and slashed with a knife but survived. She has been helping investigators from her hospital bed.
An illegal alien accused of child rape was freed to commit torture-murder? Freed?
And that's not important?
Carranza's illegal status alone was enough to trigger a headline in the International Herald Tribune, "Murder of three at New Jersey schoolyard stokes immigration debate." The IHT notes that legislation has been sponsored to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future:
NEWARK, New Jersey: The murder of three people at a Newark schoolyard has further stoked an already contentious immigration debate, with critics of the city's current immigration policies highlighting that one of the alleged attackers was in the U.S. illegally and had faced serious criminal charges before.
Newark city councilman Ron. C. Rice on Monday said he was introducing a bill that would require local police to notify federal immigration authorities whenever they arrest someone living the U.S. illegal who is charged with committing a felony.
The bill would be the first piece of legislation resulting from the shooting of four Newark college students, which left three dead and one wounded.
Not that anyone in Philadelphia would know anything about it from reading the Inquirer, although the article's lengthy (2400 word) nature certainly gives the appearance of thoroughness.
I'm so tired of spin, editorialized reporting, and withheld details that my fingers are almost too exhausted to keep writing about this stuff.
While I have no quarrel with reporting that the victims were nice people who had promising lives, does this cancel out any obligation to report the heinous nature of the crimes, the depraved nature of the perpetrator, and the egregiousness of his release?
I hesitate to blame the Inquirer, because it's an AP story and not written by Inquirer staffers, but I'm wondering if crime reporting is being seen more and more as an opportunity to make the facts fit the narrative that fits the bias of the writers.
Call it what you will, but I don't see how they can call it reporting.
Remarkably, it took six AP writers (Erin McClam, David Porter, Jeffrey Gold, Janet Frankston Lorin, Daniela Flores, and Randall Chase) to come up with this story.
It must be hard work when there are so many details that have to be omitted.
Five days after the shootings, Jose Carranza, considered the principal suspect, offered to surrender to Booker in the presence of a well-known Newark lawyer. The two came face to face at police headquarters.
"I don't think words can describe the level of emotion I feel about what these individuals have allegedly done to these families and what they have done to our community," Booker said.
Two other suspects, both 15, are being held. Their names have not been released because of their age.
Carranza pleaded not guilty at an arraignment Friday. After the arrests, Shalga Hightower said she wanted "the right justice" for her daughter, Iofemi, and the other victims.
"They took three angels away from their families," she said, "but one angel survived, so the story could get told."
There's almost nothing about the suspect, and even less about the gruesome nature of the crimes. Instead, the piece mainly goes into great detail to stress that the victims had promising lives.
Why? As details, aren't the gruesome nature of what happened to them, the fiendish nature of the principal defendant, and the callused insensitivity of the criminal justice system, at least as important?
Rarely have I seen a story so long and yet so woefully incomplete at the same time. Newark is in the New York area, and you'd think that if a report about crime there was important enough to merit treatment on the front page of the Inquirer that they'd at least supply the details.
To find them, I had to turn to the New York Daily News:
The illegal immigrant accused in the execution-style killings of three college students in Newark was freed on bail twice this year after being charged with assault and child rape, prosecutors said yesterday.
The shocking revelation came as cops arrested a third suspect in the schoolyard shootings, which have horrified homicide-weary Newark.
And as if the crime weren't already heinous enough, Fox News Channel 5 reported that two of the victims may have been sexually assaulted before being shot.
About 500 people, including Mayor Cory Booker, attended a prayer vigil last night at Mount Vernon Elementary School, where Terrance Aerial, 18; Dashon Harvey, 20, and Iofemi Hightower, 20, were forced to kneel before being shot in the head.
Aerial's sister, Natasha, 19, was shot in the face and slashed with a knife but survived. She has been helping investigators from her hospital bed.
An illegal alien accused of child rape was freed to commit torture-murder? Freed?
And that's not important?
Carranza's illegal status alone was enough to trigger a headline in the International Herald Tribune, "Murder of three at New Jersey schoolyard stokes immigration debate." The IHT notes that legislation has been sponsored to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future:
NEWARK, New Jersey: The murder of three people at a Newark schoolyard has further stoked an already contentious immigration debate, with critics of the city's current immigration policies highlighting that one of the alleged attackers was in the U.S. illegally and had faced serious criminal charges before.
Newark city councilman Ron. C. Rice on Monday said he was introducing a bill that would require local police to notify federal immigration authorities whenever they arrest someone living the U.S. illegal who is charged with committing a felony.
The bill would be the first piece of legislation resulting from the shooting of four Newark college students, which left three dead and one wounded.
Not that anyone in Philadelphia would know anything about it from reading the Inquirer, although the article's lengthy (2400 word) nature certainly gives the appearance of thoroughness.
I'm so tired of spin, editorialized reporting, and withheld details that my fingers are almost too exhausted to keep writing about this stuff.
While I have no quarrel with reporting that the victims were nice people who had promising lives, does this cancel out any obligation to report the heinous nature of the crimes, the depraved nature of the perpetrator, and the egregiousness of his release?
I hesitate to blame the Inquirer, because it's an AP story and not written by Inquirer staffers, but I'm wondering if crime reporting is being seen more and more as an opportunity to make the facts fit the narrative that fits the bias of the writers.
Call it what you will, but I don't see how they can call it reporting.
Remarkably, it took six AP writers (Erin McClam, David Porter, Jeffrey Gold, Janet Frankston Lorin, Daniela Flores, and Randall Chase) to come up with this story.
It must be hard work when there are so many details that have to be omitted.
