I'm so mad at the news media today. My colleague was killed in an accident yesterday. I'm sure you have either read about it in the CDT or heard about it on WTAJ. Reports are going out that it was a possible suicide. This is not true. It was truly an accident.
Picture this....
You are in your final days of life but you are fighting the cancer with all of your might because you want to make it to see your son graduate from high school. You are not ready to give up on the battle. You are making weekly trips to Hershey for experimental treatments. You are ill and in a lot of pain. Disoriented. Frail. Weak.
You are 10 minutes into your long trip. You feel nausea coming on. You insist that your driver, your husband, pull off. You do not know where you are, what time of the day it is, or anything. You get out of the vehicle as fast as you possibly can. You have no clue what is about to happen.
My colleague was strong in her faith and culture. She did not believe in suicide. She wanted to make it 6 more months.
And you know...even if it was suicide, why would the media constantly say it? Why? How does that make the story better?
Sorry...I knew I could vent here.
Mad at the media
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felix'apprentice
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I've seen the local media twist quite a few stories that I actually knew the facts on first hand. You sould always look objectively to everything you hear on the news and remember they are trying to twist it to make the news more interesting.
Sorry to hear about your friend Lisa, that's very sad.
Sorry to hear about your friend Lisa, that's very sad.
Don't bitch to me about the economy while you're still buying Chinese products.
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4_the_pocket
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She was my colleague and friends wife. My heart goes out to him, her and their son. She has been battling cancer for some time. When we were notified yesterday of her passing we thought it was from the cancer. It is only today we learned she was the woman involved in the tragic accident.
Its a very sad day indeed.
Its a very sad day indeed.
Steve is the name, drummin is my game.
ODERY/DW/DUNNETT | PAISTE/BOSPHORUS
ODERY/DW/DUNNETT | PAISTE/BOSPHORUS
First, my condolences on the loss of your colleague.
The suicide statement appears to be speculation on the part of the police investigating the incident.
I agree, though, that reporting that speculation was not necessary in coverage of the incident, and insensitive, especially so soon after it happened when most family, friends and colleagues are only hearing about it for the first time. Report the actual facts about it first, and hold off reporting the speculation until it is proven or disproven.
It looks like another news ethics discussion I'll pose to my news writing class.
The suicide statement appears to be speculation on the part of the police investigating the incident.
I agree, though, that reporting that speculation was not necessary in coverage of the incident, and insensitive, especially so soon after it happened when most family, friends and colleagues are only hearing about it for the first time. Report the actual facts about it first, and hold off reporting the speculation until it is proven or disproven.
It looks like another news ethics discussion I'll pose to my news writing class.
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bassist_25
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I was debating whether to post this or not, because I didn't want to turn a thread about Lisa and Steve's friend dying into my own soapbox. I figure I'll post it because it is relevant.
Those may remember that we got in the habit of handing out Snickers candy bars at shows. Most people thought that is was just a fun gimmick and a way not to take ourselves too seriously. However, it actually was a sarcastic aside towards WJAC.
Some of you may remember - and may have even participated in - a benefit we organized a few years ago called Helping Hands for Hastings. Four families were involved in a fire in which lives were lost. We decided that a benefit was the right thing to do. Rob and I went ahead promoting. We had to play politics with everyone from the local borough, who washed their hands on the event, to the PLCB. In the end, the event went extremely well. All of the bands rocked, and a decent chunk of money was raised.
Fast forward about a month later. There was a miscommunication between Rob and Davey, whose bar hosted the event and was personally affected by the fire. Davey thought Rob would come up to cut the checks with a bit of a ceremony, but Rob thought Davey would just cut the checks immediately. It wasn't a big deal. Davey always had the money in his safe. In all my years of dealing with Davey, he's never once done anything I'd consider remotely unethical.
However, one of the families involved in the fire was wondering where the money went. They ended up calling JP and WJAC. JP immediately got on the horn with Rob, who then got on the horn with Davey to clear up the misunderstanding and get the checks issued. However, in the interim, WJAC began its own "investigation." Rich Klindworth went investigating into where the missing money was. When the checks were cut, WJAC tried painting itself as a hero, as though it found the money. That was complete and utter BS. Things got taken care of when JP called Rob. On top of that, WJAC ran a bunch of stories, both on television and in print, about the story. While the denotative language was kosher, the connotative language in the pieces was clear: There was an integrity issue with Rob and Davey. Again, total BS! Rich Klindworth reported in one piece that Rob had yet to be reached for comment, which was flat out false. Klindworth spoke to Rob on the phone the night before. It seemed like every two minutes, WJAC was running a news break with a big shot of Davey's mug and bar while the news station patted itself on the back for something it didn't even do. The whole thing should have been a libel and slander suit, because people's names were dragged through the mud to make WJAC and Klindworth look good.
On Klindworth's personal page on the WJAC website, he said how he was such a health nut and that you wouldn't find a candy bar wrapper in his apartment. We grabbed onto the comment about the candy bar wrapper and started handing out Snickers bars at shows as a way to poke fun at someone who wronged us.
Here's a picture of Eric (just his arm) and me flipping Klindworth off before playing a gig.
I'm not making a general statement of bashing media, particuarly local media - there are a lot of very respectable journalists who report the facts and nothing but the facts - but it is true: What you read isn't always the truth.
Those may remember that we got in the habit of handing out Snickers candy bars at shows. Most people thought that is was just a fun gimmick and a way not to take ourselves too seriously. However, it actually was a sarcastic aside towards WJAC.
Some of you may remember - and may have even participated in - a benefit we organized a few years ago called Helping Hands for Hastings. Four families were involved in a fire in which lives were lost. We decided that a benefit was the right thing to do. Rob and I went ahead promoting. We had to play politics with everyone from the local borough, who washed their hands on the event, to the PLCB. In the end, the event went extremely well. All of the bands rocked, and a decent chunk of money was raised.
Fast forward about a month later. There was a miscommunication between Rob and Davey, whose bar hosted the event and was personally affected by the fire. Davey thought Rob would come up to cut the checks with a bit of a ceremony, but Rob thought Davey would just cut the checks immediately. It wasn't a big deal. Davey always had the money in his safe. In all my years of dealing with Davey, he's never once done anything I'd consider remotely unethical.
However, one of the families involved in the fire was wondering where the money went. They ended up calling JP and WJAC. JP immediately got on the horn with Rob, who then got on the horn with Davey to clear up the misunderstanding and get the checks issued. However, in the interim, WJAC began its own "investigation." Rich Klindworth went investigating into where the missing money was. When the checks were cut, WJAC tried painting itself as a hero, as though it found the money. That was complete and utter BS. Things got taken care of when JP called Rob. On top of that, WJAC ran a bunch of stories, both on television and in print, about the story. While the denotative language was kosher, the connotative language in the pieces was clear: There was an integrity issue with Rob and Davey. Again, total BS! Rich Klindworth reported in one piece that Rob had yet to be reached for comment, which was flat out false. Klindworth spoke to Rob on the phone the night before. It seemed like every two minutes, WJAC was running a news break with a big shot of Davey's mug and bar while the news station patted itself on the back for something it didn't even do. The whole thing should have been a libel and slander suit, because people's names were dragged through the mud to make WJAC and Klindworth look good.
On Klindworth's personal page on the WJAC website, he said how he was such a health nut and that you wouldn't find a candy bar wrapper in his apartment. We grabbed onto the comment about the candy bar wrapper and started handing out Snickers bars at shows as a way to poke fun at someone who wronged us.
Here's a picture of Eric (just his arm) and me flipping Klindworth off before playing a gig.
I'm not making a general statement of bashing media, particuarly local media - there are a lot of very respectable journalists who report the facts and nothing but the facts - but it is true: What you read isn't always the truth.
"He's the electric horseman, you better back off!" - old sKool making a reference to the culturally relevant 1979 film.
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4_the_pocket
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Its relevant, Paul. Its also a shame how your situation was reported. The local TV news is a joke.bassist_25 wrote:I was debating whether to post this or not, because I didn't want to turn a thread about Lisa and Steve's friend dying into my own soapbox. I figure I'll post it because it is relevant.
Its unfortunate how the local news gets away with some of the things it does. Its also a reason I rarely watch it. Seems they are not takin to task on shoddy, inaccurate reporting like the major market news stations are.
I only read the CDT article about this story, which was pretty benign and only stated it was under investigation. Any reporting to the contrary is irresponsible and painful for the family. We all have very heavy hearts in the lab today and are doing what we can to comfort a friend.
Steve is the name, drummin is my game.
ODERY/DW/DUNNETT | PAISTE/BOSPHORUS
ODERY/DW/DUNNETT | PAISTE/BOSPHORUS
Unfortunately how our office found of of our dear colleague's death was via the cdt and the time, they were also saying it was a possible suicide death. They changed the story within an hour though.4_the_pocket wrote:
Its unfortunate how the local news gets away with some of the things it does. Its also a reason I rarely watch it. Seems they are not takin to task on shoddy, inaccurate reporting like the major market news stations are.
I only read the CDT article about this story, which was pretty benign and only stated it was under investigation. Any reporting to the contrary is irresponsible and painful for the family. We all have very heavy hearts in the lab today and are doing what we can to comfort a friend.
We knew Helen (her american name) and she was fighting for life. Why would she even bother to try to make the trip to Hershey if her plans were to end it?
I've had a few issues over the past few years about how TV-10 handles some news stories, from sensationalizing trivial stuff (like running a patron's i-phone video of a bar-brawl skirmish at Aldo's as a top story on their 5 p.m. news) to implying a business' involvement in a fatal accident. (Back in the early '90s, a person showed up intoxicated at New Sebastiano's during a Foghat concert, didn't want to pay cover and was turned away at the door; the guy then stepped into the path of a big rig on the road outside the venue, and was struck and killed. During their report, TV-10's cameras showed the front of New Sebastiano's, implying that the bar was involved and might have served the patron prior to his death.)
I think on the part of their younger and less-experienced reporters, it may be naivete, since many of them are just getting started with their professional careers and are prone to mistakes. But in other cases (like the Aldo's brawl report or bassist_25's account of WJAC-TV's "Helping Hands for Hastings" situation), it is blatant sensationalism.
Here's a sad reality...it sells. You might recall that a few years ago, Fox 8 and ABC 23 tried a campaign where they resolved to lead off their nightly news with positive stories rather than negative news. They got clobbered in news ratings by TV-10's and 6's newscasts where negative stories ran first. As witchhunt eluded to by referencing the Don Henley "Dirty Laundry" lyric, bad news and sensationalism sell.
I think on the part of their younger and less-experienced reporters, it may be naivete, since many of them are just getting started with their professional careers and are prone to mistakes. But in other cases (like the Aldo's brawl report or bassist_25's account of WJAC-TV's "Helping Hands for Hastings" situation), it is blatant sensationalism.
Here's a sad reality...it sells. You might recall that a few years ago, Fox 8 and ABC 23 tried a campaign where they resolved to lead off their nightly news with positive stories rather than negative news. They got clobbered in news ratings by TV-10's and 6's newscasts where negative stories ran first. As witchhunt eluded to by referencing the Don Henley "Dirty Laundry" lyric, bad news and sensationalism sell.
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joltinjeff
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Killjingle
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I can tell u 1st hand that in having WJAC cover a family tragedy that I will never like or trust the media. Slander and propaganda was how they handled the story.
The stupid insensitivity to the ongoing investigation almost aided a guilty man escaping.
In the end u know what the truth is and so do the ppl close to the situation. I made it up in my own mind thats all that mattered.
Fuck em all.
The stupid insensitivity to the ongoing investigation almost aided a guilty man escaping.
In the end u know what the truth is and so do the ppl close to the situation. I made it up in my own mind thats all that mattered.
Fuck em all.
Everyone wants to go to heaven but noone wants to die