Firefighting & Rescue Social / Professional Network
Straight To the Point
Breaking news: This morning, December 1, 2009, Maurice Clemmons was shot and killed by Seattle Police. Clemmons was wanted in connection with the murders of the four Lakewood Washington police officers. Several of his family members were arrested for assisting Clemmons with his escape from the murder scene and during the days since the murders.
I’ll get straight to the point.
Disclaimer: So that my comments will not be taken out of context, I must point out that there are some very honorable and disciplined people who work for the news outlets. But, just like firefighters and cops, the bad ones spoil it for the good ones.
To those “good” journalists, I will simply say: Welcome to our world!
I think that it is a sad day in our country when a story involving a world famous golfer http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,577325,00.html " target="_blank">http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,577325,00.html and his car accident and insinuations that it was caused by a jealous wife over an extra-marital affair is gaining more coverage than the execution of four police officers from Lakewood, Washington http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,577325,00.html" target="_blank">http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,577325,00.html.
Why is that?
My theory is that, for some twisted reason, the news media has taken it upon themselves to declare and anoint themselves as the moral compass and judge of the people whom they proclaim as newsworthy.
I can guarantee you that if there was word that four police officers had been over-zealous with an arrest and there were claims of brutality, the media and their leading and speculative questions would come in rapid fire succession. The TV networks including cable would be flush with stories from people who know one of the police officers, to a former teacher of one of them, to a former wife of one of them to the guy at the convenience store who gives them free coffee and doughnuts (That’s another exclusive). The suspect is out, has retained attorney and we now go live to Geraldo Rivera standing by.
They also seem to have a particular zest for destroying our heroes or at the very least, people held in high regard by millions of fans from around the world. The media will just as dutifully come out swinging like Rocky Balboa caught by a swarm of bees against anyone foolish enough to attack THEIR heroes, however. It appears to me that there aren’t many of them left either.
Has anyone else noticed that lately, the news media has been driving criminal investigations? Has anyone else noticed that many of the cases are being tried in the news media? Have you noticed that police are getting blasted with compromising questions and are again blasted if they don’t answer them? Apparently, the news media believes that a criminal is too busy killing and running to watch TV-i.e. the news conferences, where the wrong question might tip law enforcement’s hand, thereby giving the criminal an advantage.
Where was it ever written that ALL information could be freely obtained with a request? When did the sliding scale slide so far to the left that it now compromises on-going criminal investigations and military strategies in two wars? Anymore; the enemy needs only to watch CBS, CNN, MSNBC or NBC to know what’s coming.
The media has somehow confused our right to know with their need for a story. You only need to watch an impromptu news conference and their rudeness towards the people at the microphones to know that they will stop at nothing to get what they want. Even if it includes filling in the blanks or at its very worst; making it up all together.
And on a day when we are begging for information on the four slain heroes from Lakewood, Washington, the news media are tripping over themselves trying to destroy someone who is hero to many kids in this world.
Yeah; I don’t like to use that word, “hero” to describe a professional athlete, but Tiger Woods is not your typical professional athlete. It is as if some in the news media can’t stand the fact that he is so good at what he does, is a very intelligent businessman, is married to one of the world’s most beautiful women and is a billionaire already. There HAS to be more to the story and the media will not rest until they get it.
In the meantime, a police department that has never had a line of duty death is reeling from four on the same day. Families are without their loved ones. A community is living in fear. At this writing, the suspect has not been captured. But that’s OK; we need to find out why Tiger won’t talk to the police about his fender bender.
I can’t speak for the rest of you, but I am not comfortable with someone else deciding what is and isn’t newsworthy. Are you OK with someone who is willing to sell out for an interview with the White House dinner crashers, the balloon hoax, the Runaway Bride and Jon and Kate? No thanks.
The news media should have enough respect for the consumers to know that we can read all about Tiger’s problems in the next issue of you name it, but right now, it should be in everyone’s hearts and minds that there are four families without their loved ones, a community without four of their finest and a scumbag who perpetrated this heinous crime that is still on the loose.
And nothing else is newsworthy at the moment.
Please take a moment to remember these fine law enforcement officers, their families, police department and their community of Lakewood.
TCSS.
This article is protected by federal copyright laws under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and cannot be re-produced in any form without the expressed written permission of Art Goodrich aka ChiefReason.
I’ll get straight to the point.
Disclaimer: So that my comments will not be taken out of context, I must point out that there are some very honorable and disciplined people who work for the news outlets. But, just like firefighters and cops, the bad ones spoil it for the good ones.
To those “good” journalists, I will simply say: Welcome to our world!
I think that it is a sad day in our country when a story involving a world famous golfer http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,577325,00.html " target="_blank">http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,577325,00.html and his car accident and insinuations that it was caused by a jealous wife over an extra-marital affair is gaining more coverage than the execution of four police officers from Lakewood, Washington http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,577325,00.html" target="_blank">http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,577325,00.html.
Why is that?
My theory is that, for some twisted reason, the news media has taken it upon themselves to declare and anoint themselves as the moral compass and judge of the people whom they proclaim as newsworthy.
I can guarantee you that if there was word that four police officers had been over-zealous with an arrest and there were claims of brutality, the media and their leading and speculative questions would come in rapid fire succession. The TV networks including cable would be flush with stories from people who know one of the police officers, to a former teacher of one of them, to a former wife of one of them to the guy at the convenience store who gives them free coffee and doughnuts (That’s another exclusive). The suspect is out, has retained attorney and we now go live to Geraldo Rivera standing by.
They also seem to have a particular zest for destroying our heroes or at the very least, people held in high regard by millions of fans from around the world. The media will just as dutifully come out swinging like Rocky Balboa caught by a swarm of bees against anyone foolish enough to attack THEIR heroes, however. It appears to me that there aren’t many of them left either.
Has anyone else noticed that lately, the news media has been driving criminal investigations? Has anyone else noticed that many of the cases are being tried in the news media? Have you noticed that police are getting blasted with compromising questions and are again blasted if they don’t answer them? Apparently, the news media believes that a criminal is too busy killing and running to watch TV-i.e. the news conferences, where the wrong question might tip law enforcement’s hand, thereby giving the criminal an advantage.
Where was it ever written that ALL information could be freely obtained with a request? When did the sliding scale slide so far to the left that it now compromises on-going criminal investigations and military strategies in two wars? Anymore; the enemy needs only to watch CBS, CNN, MSNBC or NBC to know what’s coming.
The media has somehow confused our right to know with their need for a story. You only need to watch an impromptu news conference and their rudeness towards the people at the microphones to know that they will stop at nothing to get what they want. Even if it includes filling in the blanks or at its very worst; making it up all together.
And on a day when we are begging for information on the four slain heroes from Lakewood, Washington, the news media are tripping over themselves trying to destroy someone who is hero to many kids in this world.
Yeah; I don’t like to use that word, “hero” to describe a professional athlete, but Tiger Woods is not your typical professional athlete. It is as if some in the news media can’t stand the fact that he is so good at what he does, is a very intelligent businessman, is married to one of the world’s most beautiful women and is a billionaire already. There HAS to be more to the story and the media will not rest until they get it.
In the meantime, a police department that has never had a line of duty death is reeling from four on the same day. Families are without their loved ones. A community is living in fear. At this writing, the suspect has not been captured. But that’s OK; we need to find out why Tiger won’t talk to the police about his fender bender.
I can’t speak for the rest of you, but I am not comfortable with someone else deciding what is and isn’t newsworthy. Are you OK with someone who is willing to sell out for an interview with the White House dinner crashers, the balloon hoax, the Runaway Bride and Jon and Kate? No thanks.
The news media should have enough respect for the consumers to know that we can read all about Tiger’s problems in the next issue of you name it, but right now, it should be in everyone’s hearts and minds that there are four families without their loved ones, a community without four of their finest and a scumbag who perpetrated this heinous crime that is still on the loose.
And nothing else is newsworthy at the moment.
Please take a moment to remember these fine law enforcement officers, their families, police department and their community of Lakewood.
TCSS.
This article is protected by federal copyright laws under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and cannot be re-produced in any form without the expressed written permission of Art Goodrich aka ChiefReason.
Tags: clemmons, execution, killed, lakewood, maurice, police, shot, tiger, washington, woods
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Comment by Russ on December 4, 2009 at 8:22pm - i allways thought that cops have a hard job and being the lone firefighter in a family of cops i have observed that my relatives like their work but when i asked they would say 95% of their job was dealing with criminals they were familair with. whenever i see cops accused of misconduct i pray for them because the media likes to mix blood in with the ink...why tell the facts when you can jazz up a story? my favorite is how the media in my town does not identify criminals by race. i understand that this is nothing more than political correctnes but the facts are the facts reguardless of race, espically if the criminal has not been caught. how arew you going to beware unless you have a description and by the way media, when you publish a description its a good bet that by the time he or she is caught....they will have changed clothes
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Comment by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on December 1, 2009 at 3:14pm -
I keep seeing the video from when the guy in California stole the SUV, was flying down the freeway, lost control, was ejected onto the freeway and then run over by another vehicle. They must have played it thousands of times, not only in actual speed but slow motion as well. And that is kind of the exclamation point on what viewers can expect to see in the news.
I get a lot of news via on-line as well.
And even then, you may have to search to find an article on a story that in all likelihood should be on the front page of every newspaper.
There has been some discussion about what is newsworthy lately. Maybe an epiphany.
But, I am still not sure that what is shown is driven by market demand.
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Comment by Jack/dt on December 1, 2009 at 1:29pm -
RIP to our brothers in blue.
As for the media, you can no more blame them for what they do than you can a shark for doing what it does. Actually a rather apt analogy. They both go for blood in the water.
But let's put this into perspective, I googled the following: worcester cold storage - 31,100 results,
super sofa store - 2,900,000 results, tiger woods accident - 25,100,000 (yup, 25 million). So what draws the most interest, and viewers?
The media feeds us what we want to eat. Four cops killed, nod of the head and move on. tiger woods, accident, affair, domestic dispute? Cool! I want to know more. god bless the u.s.a. CNN is (in my opinion) the most to blame. 24 hour news coverage 7/52, that's a lot of air time to fill. With "correspondents" all over the country and the world breaking news is seldom more than minutes away from a film crew. I don't know how they do it but a lot of people must be watching cnn for them to still be on the air. Same goes for all of the other network and cable "news" stations.
Let's face it, if any one of us goes down in a fire, who's going to know? Moreover, who's going to care? Our families, brothers and sisters in the fire service and that's about it. A head line or two in the local paper, a minute or so on the local news channel and it's gone. Family and friends are left to pick up the pieces and move on.
I'm not (and am the furthest thing from being) callous, nor am I being flip. The media doesn't give a rats ass (about us, about the slain offices or (fill in the blank)) they simply live and die on the ratings. I don't watch tv/cable news. I don't want someone telling me what they think is (most) important. I get all my news online, from a variety of sources. From which I can (somewhat) discern the facts, if not the truth.
Seldom is there a better example than this of, it is what it is.
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Comment by Chief Mike France on December 1, 2009 at 7:12am - Art- the media is the root of the problem today more so than ever , they are Judge and Jury and convict before anything else happens, they blow issues up and make worse. i read the paper every day, and it is sickening, i only watch the news for the weather [Ha Ha] . They need to get a life .
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Comment by Lt. Caleb French on December 1, 2009 at 12:42am - The world of News Media, is a beast that cannot be tamed, unfortunately.
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Comment by Edward Fleming on November 30, 2009 at 11:45pm - This just remindes me why i don't watch the news.
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Comment by Rusty Mancini on November 30, 2009 at 10:24pm - Your so right Art! Even the general talk around town is all about Tiger, due to the facts that you have pointed out! I mention the four police officers story to a few folks and their like, what are you talking about?
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Comment by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on November 30, 2009 at 9:10pm
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Joel:
The sliding scale had to go one way or the other. Saying "to the left" just comes natural for me.
Fox is just as guilty as the rest. They had Bernie Goldberg on explaining why America is fascinated with Tiger Woods and they had Huckabee on explaining his decision when he was governor to commute Clemmons sentence.
Clemmons is already being referred to as Huckabee's "Willie Horton".
When all else fails, throw out a good cliche'.
So, viewers would change the channel if a story about multiple cop killings came on?
I remember not that long ago that many news channel stayed on a certain weather balloon the ENTIRE day until the balloon came down on the SPECULATION that a young boy was on it. It was suspected as a hoax from the very beginning, but they wouldn't leave it alone.
Sad, really.
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Comment by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on November 30, 2009 at 8:40pm
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Let the record show that: A) There was a disclaimer and B) References were directed at the national news media. Examples were given.
Here is the latest: Most of the national networks including cable are really pushing the issue of Tiger Woods' continued silence and refusal to meet with police.
On the flip side; again, very little in the way of coverage of the shootings; however, Gov. Mike Huckabee is under attack for granting clemency to Clemmons. Why? Because it is churning up more speculation about how this Clemmons should not have been on the streets in the first. However; he was recently arrested again and even though he has a record including 8 felonies, he is given bail on the charge.
But, where are the retrospectives on the slain officers? Local coverage no doubt. Where is Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC?
Chumming the waters for a feeding frenzy.
Isn't it interesting high quiet the airwaves have been lately in regards to the Ft. Hood shootings?
A.D.D.
Where are the priorities?
Misguided at best.
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Comment by Joel C Kelley on November 30, 2009 at 8:39pm -
You lost me when you parroted the talking point about the media going to the left. Like you, I am appalled that the Washington Cop killings have been on the back burner of the news cycle, but don't blame the media for that. Blame the viewership and advertisers, who drive the ratings of news shows and force the economy of advertising to pay. Let's face it, the average TV viewer has little more than a high school education, is not really capable of critical thought or abstract reasoning, and cannot pay attention to a hard news story for more than a few seconds. This appalling lack of attention span, coupled with a cultural desire to see the rich and famous torn down, creates a news atmosphere where coverage is skewed toward the undoing of our cultural icons, and leaving the so-called 'hard news' for those who dig. If news coverage was not ratings driven, this might change, but until that time, the ratings drive and the advertising revenue will drive the news machine. This story isn't about 'Liberal', or 'Conservative', but about a very real human tragedy that is apolitical in nature. Using terms like "left" or "right" unfairly politicizes the tragic story. Staying focused on the infallable tendency of the news media to go for the ratings rather than to report the most news worthy stories is a good way to honor these fallen officers.
I am curious, did Faux news devote more time to the story than anyone else? They are the 'unliberal' media, so I would expect that they would have hours of coverage on this story.
In every other respect, Art, I agree with you. This should be on the screen of every home in the US, this is an incredible tragedy, and an event that should make us examine the health of our American culture.
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