Annapolis Capital Punishment

The Capital got a lot of grief from readers for its reporting about the recent police raid that resulted in a suspect being killed and an APD officer being wounded in Eastport. CP was on the scene shortly thereafter. The photo and headline for the story were about the slain criminal suspect and his grieving girlfriends rather than the injured police officer. Readers were angered. Weeks later, The Capital used a photo from that event to illustrate the murder rate as its chosen number one news story of the year (in its December 30th issue), and this is how it was portrayed (see photo to the right...uhh obviously). The caption reads:"Scene where an APD officer was shot."
See: www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/12_30-35/TOP

The point of this posting is not to remind readers that The Capital made a mistake, but to show that it is sensitive to and responsive to local concerns and reactions. Far from being an isolated or disengaged, monolithic entity, The Capital merely suffers from the same challenges we all have everyday in filtering everything through our own experiences, notions, shortcoming etc. The difference is that we each have one set of eyes, while they have dozens. We have one set of ears, while they have dozens. They are but one sender, one transmitter of news, but the difference is that they send or broadcast their messages to tens of thousands. Most of us don't have that kind of audience or resources. They have the protection of the sacrosanct First Amendment that essentially enfranchises them to make money--and lots of it. The Capital exists on the revenues from ads from businesses we own and patronize. That is why we expect--indeed, demand a high degree of accuracy and impartiality from them. It's also why your feedback and reaction to what they do--or don't do, is so important. Editor Tom Marquardt and staff are reading CP and hopefully are heeding what we are saying when we criticize them. My experience is that the Capital is open to and generally, responsive to criticism. Just remember CP's theory of journalistic reliability which states that the closer the reader is to any news story, the more likely the reader is to find fault with the accuracy and fairness of the story. That's why The Capital, and yours truly, can never win!!!

p.s. What's wrong with this story? (I can't wait to hear...)