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Truth in Blogs and Reporting
I just read most of legaleze about blogs with the Tehachapi News. The first had to do with stating facts. Made me think back to the article about the Stallion Springs Police Officer involved in a fatal collision with a motorcyclist at Tucker and Tehachapi. That article had what I thought were opinions paraded as facts. The reporter wrote that the officer did not slow down for the intersection as he should have. Yet the photo plainly showed the Police vehicle after the accident at it's place of rest within the intersection. If he didn't slow then he must have been going awfully slow to begin with. The story went on to say that the motorcyclist could not have possibly heard the approaching siren as his motorcycle was too loud. The inference being that police must be aware of people riding vehicles that are louder than common sense would dictate. The article did not state that other vehicles had observed the approaching police car and had yielded the right of way to the emercency vehicle approaching with red lights and siren on. That omission seems like selecting which truths to report. There was one follow up article about the motorcyclist family being upset at Stallion Springs for not apologizing for the accident. I understand that the family has retained an attorney. I think another follow up article is called for. 6 comments from 6 users
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posted by
teresr
on Oct 20, 2007 at 11:09 AM
You have my vote. Being objective is an art and a science I would like to see practiced more often here and not reporting on hearsay evidence.
posted by
christibdce
on Oct 20, 2007 at 08:08 PM
Amen. I really wish we (as in "the world") had objective media. I don't think that's too much to ask on a pretty straight-forward, facts-only-needed case.
posted by
rm6
on Oct 20, 2007 at 08:11 PM
I agree with the need for objectiveness in the media, but I think we should leave that incident where it is, in the past, and not start the entire fiasco over again.
posted by
awsmom8
on Oct 21, 2007 at 12:39 AM
I feel for the officer who hit him. It was an unintentional mistake he made and he will have to live with it the rest of his life. A heavy burden to carry...Let sleeping dogs lay.... posted by
arvinedsed
on Oct 21, 2007 at 02:27 AM
Im a relative of Cals and I read and re-read all of the articles done by the tehachapi news as well as the californians and the mountain signal's article. I didnt remember any of those things mr carter mentioned in any of the tehachapi news articles so i read them all again. I've never done this befor and it took me half the nite to figure out how to do this, but it was the mountain Signal was the paper that wrote about Cals last private words and said the cop blew through the intersection. Seems like carters the one who cant tell the difference between a blog and articles or selectively reporting the truth or parading opinions. I don't really know why mr carter wants to poke at this but you can all read them for yourself. What i want to see followed up with is the final CHP report. http://www.tehachapinews.co... http://www.tehachapinews.co... http://www.tehachapinews.co...
posted by
robertcarter
on Oct 21, 2007 at 08:46 AM
To arvinedsed - I am sorry that you lost a family member in this incident - I too have lost family members and know the sense of loss you feel. Perhaps my recall was of more than one article (I did my blog from recall) - I can assure you that I kept to the facts. I have asked to read the final report at Stallion Springs CSD but was told they do not have a copy yet. I think the report will show the primary collision factor to be failure to yield to an approaching emergency vehicle. I agree with awsmom8 that this was a horrible incident and I am sure the officer involved deeply regrets that this occurred. But the news report at the time could have been one heck of a lot more objective.
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