Greetings,
I worte the following letter to KOIN 6 as I felt that something needed to be said. Maybe if many of us send similar e-mails they will get the message. At the very least they will know that their reporting is being held to higher standards (which in my day as a journalist was considered standard practices and prodcedures).
I feel outraged by the fact that the family and loved ones have to see Kendra's face in the news looking like a refugee from a "COPS" repeat. To me they are trying to bias the public's opinion that Kendra was a criminal and derserved what she got.
Further I think (my personal opinion here) is that the broadcast networks, whom I now call network "shadow-casters" have not only grown way to powerful (well duh!?) but more importantly we as a the people need to be that much more assertive to them as to the fairness, balance and ojectivity that the title journalist used to imply.
These corporate shadow-casters need to be brought into the light. They are all really just and interconnected house of cards that continue to report each others stories. Once one of them has the courage to print or say the truth the others will have to follow or risk looking stupid.
Its like this. (told to me by and old CBS editor now retired) " Owning a network is like having a lisence to print $100 bills. Don't think that for a minute that all that cash just goes to fancy new equipment and salaries".
The point here is the networks cannot afford to loose ratings (read tons of advertising dollars) on their news divisions( the news divisons already operate at a loss).
To look stupid by not reporting what other networks have discoverd, or worse yet not to discover it themselves (the so called breaking news) is to have ones $100 bill printing press become permantly broken.
My letter to KOIN 6 follows.
Love & Blessings,
William-
Hi,
This page on your web site:
 http://www.koin.com/webnews/20032/20030509_shooting.shtml
Is in very poor taste. First the poor woman is dead (and most obivously the victim of police brutality to the point of being possibly murdered), and this is the best photo you could find? I do not think you tried very hard.
Second, you mention she was the subject of an arrest warrant. Does this mean that at the time of her death she had outstanding warrant? Or now that she is dead the warrants are meaningless?
Or is it that sometime in the past she was arrested or had warrants issued but at the time of her death they were not active.
This is at the very least sloppy reporting, and at worst you are trying to paint a picture that conforms to some kind of agenda and cannot be considered unbiased journalism.
I am an old very published journalist of numerous name brand print publications, and I think that given the high tension in the community about this issue you could have done a better job at reporting the facts. Frankly it does not look to be that you even tried.
Sincerely,
William-
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