Friday, February 8, 2008

Stray Bullets and the El Paso Times

This is not a serious entry, but illustrates why I should not leave the radio on when I wake up (just like I should not turn it on when I am getting ready for bed--see entry on Alan Colmes earlier today.

I woke up today to a radoi "minute" provided by the El Paso Times to a local radio station (I live in El Paso, and the El Paso Timnes is the hopeless local newspaper).

Now you have about a minute, right?  Presumably you put on the most improtant stories.

What I heard was a story about a STRAY bullet hitting a "transient" (homeless?) woman in the leg.  Now El Paso, despite being a border city, does not have that much crime.  But is this really the IMPORTANT "news" of the morning?  I don't think so, but that is not what bothers me most. 

STRAY BULLET?  You mean like a STRAY DOG.  This story was delivered for all of teh world like there are all kinds of stray bullets flying around out there, and this women had the bad luck to encounter one.

So help me, I can't make this stuff up.  Would you not be curious WHERE THE BULLET CAME FROM?  Tonday's "journalist" is not.  There was not even the standard:  "Police are investigating the source of the bullet."

You say that is why the story is interesting?  Well, then why IGNORE that issue (as if the "stray bullet" was normal, and the woman being injured in the leg was the point of the story)?

Nope. From local to national, "journalists" today seem to be incurious about actual facts and details, in preference for just throwing anything out there.  On a national level, of course, "journalists" PREFER speculation.  Facts just get in the way.

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