A hypothetical queston for you local news junkies
What kind of coverage do you think the local media outlets would give to the following story?
Two alleged members of a Roxbury gang were arraigned yesterday on charges they stabbed a member of a Dorchester gang as he exited the Godiva Chocolate shop in the Copley Place mall on Feb. 17.
Boston Police, meanwhile are investigating whether gunfire four hours later on Marlborough Street in the Back Bay was intended as a warning to a witness to the stabbing, a source says. The source adds, however, that the gunman fired at the wrong house - taking out an innocent woman's window and leaving her with a bullet lodged in her refrigerator.
They'd be all over it, right? Can't you just picture the Herald front page? And can we assume the mayor and the police commissioner would be busy decrying the violence and ordering increased patrols, while city councilors with an eye on higher office would be demanding even more action?
Hasn't happened, of course. It was only feuding gangs in Hyde Park and Roslindale taking their beef to the South Shore Plaza and to a street outside both their turfs.
Unless you read the Globe's Hyde Park Your Town site, which has done a good job covering the case (update today), you wouldn't know anything about it. The Globe hasn't even posted the story on its Roslindale site. The Herald? They're too busy booking seats on the same plane as Deval Patrick so they can throw spitballs at him during the flight or something.
And since they haven't played it up, neither have any of the TV stations. Location, location, location?
Comments
So True...
Stories like this get missed daily in places like Dorchester, Lynn, Lowell, Lawrence and Brockton. If it happened in Needham or Wellesley you can bet your bottom dollar it would get good coverage.
This also shows how utterly reliant the Boston TV news stations are on ripping stories out of the newspapers, a major pet peeve of mine.
Remember that the media's principal job is
not to report news, but to sell advertising space. And nearly all media outlets now live by the "monkey see - monkey do" rule - i.e. Channel XYZ is there, so we need to be there also - regardless of how important or relevant the "news" story really is.
As for the TV and radio stations parroting what the newspapers are printing, the newspapers do the exact same thing in getting stories. It's why so many local stories show up on the AP wire instead of having a byline from honest to goodness local reporters.
How about the Patriot Ledger?
The crime happened in their territory (Braintree) so that's where I'd expect to find the most coverage.
Mezza mezza
They had the first-day story on the stabbing, but without any gang links mentioned. They followed up last week, after a certain Web site (ahem) and then the Globe reported the gang angle, but they didn't name the gang or where it's from, let alone bring up the Roslindale shooting or the brawl outside a Hyde Park liquor store. The two Globe stories, hidden as they were, had far more details.
It's really an ongoing Hyde Park issue, though, since the gang at the center of it all is from there, although obviously they've been making forays into neighboring 'hoods and towns (as have their rivals, which is how one of them got shot right on his home street).
Try Wellesley
Put the same story in Wellesley and it would be such a big story on the MSM that they would interrupt afternoon cartoons for news updates.
It would be a big media . . .
. . . deal if it happened in Wellesley. But it wouldn't interrupt morning cartoons.
But I bet they would send helicopters to cover the story!
Which was kind of my point in an earlier thread about the absurdity of sending helicopters to cover a story that was taking place in the subway, which is underground. Needless to say, I gave up on local TV "news" shows years ago.
Yeah . . .
. . . I haven't watched local "news" with any regularity for years. I can't remember the last full broadcast of a local news program that I have watched. Local "news" TeeVee is so off the screen that people don't even mock it anymore.
Course- since I don't watch- and know no one who does- I could be wrong though- so if anyone has anything good to say about a local TeeVee news program that they think is good and worthwhile? Let's hear it.
The "news" no longer covers actual news.
It's all infotainment, much of it as relevant as a infomercial.
Like everything else, consolidation ruined everything bu the bottom line for shareholders.
Yay for corporatism!
Could it be that a certain....
...highly-placed local political figure may have hinted that he would not appreciate press coverage of a story that reflected negatively on his part of the city?
Won't anyone think of the
Won't anyone think of the refrigerators?
i get your point, but if it
i get your point, but if it happened routinely on Newbury Street over the course of 2 or 3 decades it wouldn't be the story it once was......
A hurricane hitting Galveston isn't going to be quite the story as one hitting, say, Chicago
I may be a little sensitive...
but I take exception to the idea that shootings routinely happen in Roslindale, especially on Arborfield Road. I have lived there for seven years and, in that time, this is the only gunfire.
The only other violent act of note was about six years ago, when there was a fight between some teens on the foot bridge that crosses the train tracks behind Kelly's Liquors. And even then, the fight happened somewhere else and the kid ran to his friend's house on my street.
And, slightly O/T, but can we call a moratorium on the jokes about the refrigerator being shot? I don't see the humor in an innocent bystander getting her home shot at...do people think these jokes are okay because she wasn't physically injured?
try again
"I have lived there for seven years and, in that time, this is the only gunfire."
Actually, there have been at least 10 murders by gunfire in Roslindale since 2006 (I couldn't find Roslindale-specific crime data from 2004 or 2005).
And how many were on Arborfield Road?
But thanks for the "correction" - clearly, I don't know what is going on in my town, Anon.
And how many were on Arborfield Road?
But thanks for the "correction" - clearly, I don't know what is going on in my town, Anon.
"I take exception to the idea
"I take exception to the idea that shootings routinely happen in Roslindale, especially on Arborfield Road. I have lived there for seven years and, in that time, this is the only gunfire."
Since nobody was implying that shootings on Arborfield Road are routine (the street name was mentioned ONCE in one of the article's links, and never in any of the comments), I felt it was safe to assume that you were talking about shootings in Roslindale in general. Apparently I was mistaken.
Just because the street you live on has had minimal crime in the past decade, that doesn't mean the neighborhood as a whole doesn't suffer from violence.
link to ref please?
I've only ever been able to find Part 1 data - which is reported by district and isn't fine enough to make statements about Rosi-only stats (E5 includes both West Rox and (most of) Rosi). As a civie, going through collected incident reports to tease out this sort of neighborhood data is tedious to the point of impossible. If there is a db available that has more precise and comprehensive breakdown, it'd be great to have a pointer to it. Thanks!
Not that many
Roslindale murder map for the past 4-5 years.
Fortunately, Boston doesn't have so many murders that it becomes difficult to track them all.
Missing one, I think
The guy found dead or dying near Sacred Heart Church (was this mystery ever solved)-- or maybe that happened longer ago than I remember.
If you live there, you should
If you live there, you should know about the history of drug dealing down on Dale st and Metropolitan rd. - it's made the newspapers quite a few times over the years. You don't need gunfire to get a sketchy neighborhood.
At the park?
Is that still happening? And no -- it does not make the newspapers often.
Just curious -- Why do you hate Roslindale so much, Mr. (one of a million) Anon?
depends on the outlet
TV-wise,
Fox typically covers crime, gang violence, would be most apt to follow the story.
7 is hit or miss when it comes to picking up stories on inner city violence.
5 would be less likely to cover it unless it was a slow news day.
4 would make a conscious effort to avoid it > inner city violence is typically not "news" unless innocents are involved.
WBZ radio would cover it depending on the news day.
NECN -- I have no guess on that.
WBZ Radio would cover if if it were in the Globe or the Herald
Especailly if their anchor is broadcasting from their home in Florida.
So the problem is the Herald.
So the problem is the Herald.