Headline Prediction. I erroneously predicted that this issue of the Register would feature a screaming headline announcing a solution to world hunger, a way around energy shortages, an improved state budget, better community development, an effective anti-mosquito pill, shoring up one police chief’s over-rated reputation through a checklist of tasks.
Discard the meaningful accomplishments, and what’s left is…accreditation.
There’s a whole week, though, to devise a story about how Albert Einstein wrote the standards for accreditation, women find men in accredited departments more handsome, those who worked on accreditation are genetically superior to normal humans, etc.
Stabbing at Eastsider. Editor Carrie Dampier reports on a stabbing on June 10th at the Eastsider. Two teenagers were injured, and their two alleged assailants taken into custody that same evening.
The account in the Register is fragmentary, although Dampier might believe that remarks from the chief of police are enough to make her story.
Other than his quoted remarks, there are no other reported statements, comments, or observations from anyone else.
Why not interview someone at the Eastsider, or those who knew the victims, neighbors, anyone? That would seem like a reporter’s first instinct. If the reporter tried to contact someone and couldn’t get a reply, why not say so?
Chatting up one police official is hardly reporting, in a small town paper or any paper.
Break-in at the Water Tower. There a second story about an alleged crime involving a break in at our water tower. A UWW student was charged with damage to property, battery, and carrying a concealed weapon. A municipal employee restrained the student, at personal risk to the employee’s own safety.
What’s missing is any significant background on the student. The story relies only on the police complaint, and (again) statements from Chief Coan. Has the student been ill, in some way, or is the reference to drinking whiskey the only clue to his behavior?
Why not ask someone who knew him? Did no one know him? (That might be interesting, too.)
Campaign Announcement. On page six of the paper, there’s a story on Rep. Kim Hixson’s re-election announcement. The story is the story, not the campaign or the candidate. (I support neither Hixson nor his opponent in the race.)
Take a look at the story, and ask yourself: What’s odd about this story?
What’s odd is what’s missing – there’s no byline or dateline. Who wrote this story? When? Is it a re-worked press release? It seems like one – it’s far more like a campaign statement than a news story.
It’s entirely one-sided, and told only from the candidate’s point of view. (I don’t care which candidate – it’s the failure itself that catches my attention.)
Even a cub reporter would know that a story on a candidate, incumbent or challenger, should have a byline and dateline, and have more than one source.
The Register touts its legacy to readers with each issue (“Our 152nd year”), but misses even the simplest journalistic standards.
The Register has, however, other uses:
Quick Note: My post’s title is an obvious play on the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes story, “Silver Blaze”:
Detective: “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
Sherlock Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
Detective: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
Sherlock Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”
