Extra! Extra! You've already read all about it. Once again it is my distinct displeasure to bring the following "old" news to your attention. The Washington Post's Arundel Extra section is full of puffery, rehashed and re-aggregated news stories, press releases and generally useless information. I have opined about this before, and here goes again, as today's Extra tells us that crime is down in Annapolis!
Oh, you knew that already? Of course you did. You knew it from many other news sources days ago because they come out daily and the Extra comes out weekly, er should I say weakly? Not only is the news stale by Thursday, but the Post actually pays a reporter to rehash it without telling us anything new. In this case, they missed the big picture, which is what a weekly should be all about.
Many crime trends are down, if you only look at 2007 compared to the really bad crime stats of 2006, but all in all, our crime rates are way higher than comparable cities and at or near historic highs despite close to zero population growth. The Post's Ray McCaffrey completely missed that Annapolis citizens are on the verge of rebelling (okay so I exaggerate a bit) about gunshots and violent crime and what they perceive as sluggish local government response.
But worst of all is Mr. McCaffrey's complete reliance on official news sources. He quotes Mayor Moyer, Police Officer Hal Dalton and Alderman Ross Arnett as well as FBI figures but not a single one of the outspoken and increasingly active citizens who are concerned about crime. In fairness to Arnett and McCaffrey, the lawmaker was quoted as saying, "I'm not sure that statistics are telling the whole story here or the right story."
Well, that does beg the question as to what is the whole story, does it not? So I ask you, Mr. McCaffrey and editors, what is the whole story? What is the right story? We are waiting. The Post may call this journalism. I have another word for it.
Read it for yourself at
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021300980.html
Bay Daily on Hiatus
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Congratulations to Bay Daily creator, Tom Pelton, who has accepted a
position with another organization working to make the world a better
place. In his ab...
9 years ago
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