Perceptions and reality
Jerry S. Weston suggests in a letter to the editor today that we cut Carr some slack in our coverage because he was one of our own.
For the record, we have written six stories about him, all of which we've published on the local front. That's more than we've written about Sidney Lowe II, although, in fairness, most of the stories about Lowe ran on A1 and he entered the new cycle about two weeks later than Carr.
I don't know Carr and I doubt if many of N&R folk do. Rather than doing him favors, we've written more about the man's legal troubles because he's sort of a local celebrity. I think you could make a case that we have written too much about Carr. And, personally, it seems to me that the local broadcast media has been all over Carr's case.
The absence of reporters thrusting microphones and pad and pencil into Carr's face says much about his disappearance from public view and the local media's aversion to tabloid journalism.
Comments (1)
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What is there to cover? The story has no legs because it's already transparent. There's nothing with which to feed the cycle (see the TRC's endless iterations of navel-gazing), and no splash large enough (see Monica Lewinsky) to demand a cycle to be fed. "Sort of a local celebrity" is too kind by half. There's no hate crime angle, no political intrigue, no plucky community activist. Like Oakland, there's no there there. End of story.
Posted on April 10, 2007 1:24 AM