Thread: News reports getting so they don't tell names in some crimes

Has anyone noticed that when you read a article say a rape or a beating or dwi stabbing or fight lately they just say the man or the woman was arrested or captured. I was in N.Y. on our way back from Canada for work yesterday we stopped at a restaurant. A couple of state troopers were eating near us one was reading a local newspaper the state trooper stated they didn't even give his name in the article or mention he was illegal. According to conversation apparently he was there! The other on commented thats how they are dealing with them now. What we don't know can't hurt us. The trooper reading paper stated that they always give everyones else's names when envolved in a crime. He read a couple of other articles to prove his point none hispanic names. I interupted and asked does that suprise you? He said what is becomming of this country? I said if he figured out give me a call and let me know! I picked up a few papers threw Penn. and west virgina and virginia. He was right some articles said only suspect appehended or taken to jail. No names! Others had names and details! Just wondering what your thoughts were?

I too have noticed these apparent 'inconsistencies' among news reports - especially about local criminal events.

For example, just yesterday, I had found a story that involved a man that was drinking while on the job (he was a delivery driver), was obviously of "Hispanic" origin (had a very Hispanic sounding and hyphenated last name), and this man had run into or 'over' a very young boy (2-3 yrs old) and killed him. The news story reported the man's name, but no address or hometown.

So, thinking that this broke practice from other similar news stories from the same media outfit, I started checking other crime stories to see what their conventions were about reporting source info about the perp (perpetrator).

What I found was that in nearly all other cases of similar crimes (driving crimes let's say), there was at some point in the new article, some attribution about the address or city of where the perp. was from - even if the perp. resided outside of the town affected.

To be as thorough as possible, I emailed the news staff of the media company to see if they knew or would devulge any info regarding the perp's status / citizenship. The answer was the following:

"All the information available is in the story. Sorry we couldn't be of more
assistance.

Thank you,

Teresa Bell, kgw.com Senior Producer "

So, not being convinced I had dug deep enough, I went over to another news outlet in town and checked their version of events - not much different - if at all. Probably, their just grabbing the info off a listing of police reports and relaying what they put on paper.

I don't know if it is safe to assume that because they didn't publish the perps (as I mentioned above) address or town whether he was illegal or not.... so, after considering the details at length, I chose not to post the story up here on the forum. Having said all the above, really though, we (the concerned public) shouldn't be kept in the informational void about these things.

Here's the story - if you're curious:

http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/oregon/st ... ead6a.html

This is something I have noticed also with rape cases.

Sometimes we travel for work for a period of time, so I get to see a lot of TV and get to see the local coverage for various cities.

A couple of years ago, I began to notice when they were giving an account of a rape case or a 'rapist on the loose' warning, they would give the description of 'white male, 6', 35'

or 'black male 6', 35'

OR 'male, 35, brown hair, brown eyes, 5'7"' - no race or other description.


It happened too often to just be an oversight or unintentional.

Has anyone noticed that when you read a article say a rape or a beating or dwi stabbing or fight lately they just say the man or the woman was arrested or captured.

Yes, I have. This has been going on since at least the pallet company raids months ago where the ICE people reported they were ordered not to release names of those arrested. Names sometimes show up in little burg papers that aren't part of the big newsfeeds. Sometimes articles of arrests will pop on the Web and then soon disappear. They get replaced with get tough pieces from Homeland Security. Also articles involving Hispanics will often get a re-write out on the west coast before being distributed. News from Missouri coming from a San Diego paper for instance. Trust very little of MSM.

Start writing and calling those papers and asking them the names of the person in this article...

If they tell you the police asked them not to publish the names, then call the public relations officer, at the police dept. and ask them. Protecting privacy is the right of the victim, not the perpetrator. Pester the heck out of who ever is withholding the information. Go to the source. Don't take that racial tensions crap for an answer either. If they are using that as an excuse, to keep the public uninformed, they are racial profiling and sorting information based on race.

That's not even PC that's hiding the truth!

Dixie

I also notice this in newspaper articles here re crimes, no name, description, nada!

Just last week in our paper there was an article about a girl being raped by three men. Not only did the paper list their names, but also gave their status.... two illegal, one with a visa due to expire. This is the FIRST time this has ever happened in our paper. This is the same paper that chose to run a series highlighting all the contributions of the immigrants to the community (most of whom were illegal). Is the tide turning or was this just an oversight on the paper's part? I hope it is the former.

In general, I tend to agree with what everyone else has said. That information always seems to be conveniently absent from articles.

I have absolutly noticed that. We had a horrible incident where WHITE boys jumped and beat up other WHITE boys. They even went so far as to beat up one kid with his own artificial leg. It was very disturbing. They went so far as to say they were of German desent and they weren't even immigrants, legal or illegal. White wasn't specific enough. They gave every specific detail outside of their social security number.

But the rest of the time they limit it to male or female. They've started leaving names out because sorry...some are definate ethnic names. You don't find too many black guys named Hans, and not many white girls named Tanisha, and not many latinos named Hung Chao. You get an idea by the name. Granted through marraige and stuff the last name isn't always a for sure. Mine is definately Polish through marraige but I'm not Polish. Names are a way to celebrate your culture and ancestors. But if you don't want to be identified by your name then don't give your kid an ethnic name. And don't call me a racist if I'm able to figure out what race you are by your name. If there's a criminal out there I want to know is he (she) white, black, asian, middle easterner, or latino...etc. They sure don't leave the name out when they've done good. The latino community is fine when Juan Jose Garcia-Hernandez gets community leader of the year. The African-American community beams when Jammal Jones wins a scholarship to a top university. Will it be "fair" then when a white persons successes are shown as a man or a woman won this. And everything but their social security number given when they've committed a crime?

This has been Standard Operating Procedure in the Seattle mainstream media (print and broadcast) for as long as I can remember. In most crimes and serious injury or fatal traffic incidents, if the person responsible is Anglo, Black, Native American, or Asian the media is quick to name them, hardly ever is a Spanish name mentioned, and if so, they are equally quick to point out the person is Filipino (who often have Spanish surnames.) Then there are a significant number of incidents where no suspect is named.....Gosh, you'd think the Latinos never commit a crime or drive drunk. But, if you dig into the story a little, check other sources, sometimes several weeks later, these are cases that do involve Latinos.

It should be noted that KGW TV (Portland) and NWCN (Northwest cable news) mentioned in PhredE's post are affiliated with KING5 TV, the major news in Seattle, so I assume the policies of censorship are consistent with those entities.

Well, I am in Texas, and I began noticing this trend about 3 years back.