Wow. The March 14 Mercury News story about the Fresno polygamist child murder that Atrios originally linked to has been extensively rewritten (see my previous post about all this). I went back to look at it because it described policemen carrying dead children out of the house and weeping, and quoted a police chief holding back tears, saying "this sort of thing doesn't happen in Fresno" or the like, and was very slim on details of what actually happened. The police reactions seemed pretty over-the-top (even for such a tragic crime) and I wanted to reread the account, in light of allegations that the cops had negligently given Wesson time to go into the back of the house and shoot the children while the gendarmes stood on his doorstep, ignoring the pleadings of relatives who knew what Wesson was capable of. Well, all that detail about the crying cops is gone from the story, sucked down the memory hole, and Fresno Police Chief is suddenly dry-eyed, in control, and quoted as saying "what happened at the house is under the investigation." So much for an independent press--obviously this story was rewritten to placate the authorities. Nowadays you have to save every story you read to your hard drive. (A copy of the rewritten story is here.)UPDATE: It looks like the article was rewritten several times after publication. Mark found another version, posted in the comments.
UPDATE 2: Mark found the "crying, child-carrying cops" version I read, slightly differently worded, on the Mercury News website, as an AP story dated March 13, under a different byline. So it's not down the memory hole (yet). I really do wonder why the article was rewritten several times, omitting more and more detail each time about the emotional state of the cops.
Tom, is this what your were looking for ...
[Update ... that link is a Kansas City Star link to a Contra Costa Times copy of the SJ Merc article. Registration required. In the next comment I have a direct link to the SJ Merc article. All three are Knight-Ridder newspapers.]
Posted on Sun, Mar. 14, 2004
Man accused of killing nine may have fathered grandkids
By David E. Early and Rodney Foo
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
FRESNO - The gruesome scene inside a Fresno building that had been converted into a family home was so horrific that a police official, hardened by nearly three decades of work, was shaken to tears.
"I've been with the Fresno Police Department for 25 years, and I've never experienced anything of this nature," said Chief Jerry Dyer, wiping his eyes while recalling a nightmarish bedroom where stacked corpses, mostly of children, were snared in a mass of clothing.
Charged with responsibility for the worst mass slaying in the city's history was Marcus Wesson, 57. Initially investigators estimated seven bodies, but after hours of untangling the horror, it turned out to be two females, ages 24 and 17, and seven children from ages 1 to 8.
The primary question that authorities could not answer: Was there something that the first officers on the scene could have done to prevent the apparent mass killing?
"We don't know if the deaths occurred before the officers arrived or after the officers arrived," said Dyer, obviously frustrated by the confusion hanging over the incident.
The question results from reports that police were called to a family disturbance shortly after 2 p.m. and were met by two women who said their four children were being held inside by Wesson. The police knocked and spoke with Wesson, who then returned to the house and barricaded himself in a bedroom.
At least one neighbor told the Associated Press he heard two gunshots moments before police arrived, but the officers on the scene didn't hear anything.
The two women warned officers Wesson had weapons, so not wanting to "inflame" a situation where children were at risk, the officers called for a SWAT team and hostage negotiators who came immediately and set up outside the house. An hour passed and suddenly Wesson calmly walked out and surrendered.
This time, unlike the first time officers saw him, Wesson was covered in blood. Inside police found the nine bodies and another oddity: 10 caskets stacked along a wall.
When asked how the victims were killed, the chief would only say, "the cause of death is unique and consistent." Past 10 p.m. Friday, bodies were still being removed. Robert Hensel, Fresno's chief deputy coroner, said his office was having trouble identifying some of the victims "because some of them are so young, we have no fingerprints." He said confirmed identities probably won't be available until Monday.
Authorities said several Fresno-area funeral homes have offered their services free of charge.
Dyer said the investigation was in too early a stage to determine what happened in the house, when it happened and what role the two original officers on the scene could have played in the outcome.
The chief said early indications are that Wesson carried on a maze of complex and unorthodox physical relationships with his family. Dyer said Wesson may have fathered two grandchildren with his daughters -- two of the 1-year-old victims. Police intend to perform myriad DNA tests to clarify such questions, and they will interrogate 10 to 12 relatives and others who might have been at the house before police were summoned. As for the caskets, Dyer said they didn't seem to play any role in the incident and that the officers, whose names were not released, have been put under the care of a police chaplain and psychologist.
Meanwhile, Wesson is expected to be charged with nine counts of first-degree murder. Dyer said that in one night Fresno's homicide rate quadrupled from three to 12.
"We have not ruled out any other suspects in this case," the chief said. "We haven't determined if this is a cult, a sect or a different belief system."
According to neighbors, Wesson lived at 761 Hammond Ave. for about eight months. He was described as aloof, tall and bulky. He wore thick cords of graying dreadlocks so long they dangled below his waist.
"He's a type who could see right through your skin, your body, clothes," said a shaken neighbor, Barbara Alec, 61, about Wesson, who has lived in Fresno, police say, for about three years. Alec said Wesson and his large family, at least twice a week, would burn items in the yard behind the home that would produce an indescribable stench.
"What are they burning?" she wondered all those days.
But on Friday night, she knew exactly why she felt so upset.
"Now I'm very scared," she said. "It's very spooky and weird knowing it was right at my back yard."
Dyer described Wesson as "intelligent, very articulate, very well-spoken." He said Wesson, who has no visible source of income, was calm and cooperative during questioning. The four adult women who live in the house were all employed and gave their money to Wesson to manage. The chief would not comment on what jobs the women held.
Records indicate Wesson was married in 1974 in Santa Clara County. His bride, Elizabeth Solorio, was 15 years old at the time. Wesson lived in East San Jose in the mid-1990s. Neighbors indicated that the house was a Victory Outreach drug and alcohol recovery facility around the same time.
Marcus and Elizabeth Wesson at one point also lived in Watsonville, according to records.
Parked close to the front door of the Wesson home in Fresno is a school bus that had its rear ceiling cut away to resemble a porch.
Neighbors said Wesson and his common-law wife and their two young adult daughters often could be heard at 1 or 2 a.m. drilling, hammering and sawing as they added chrome striping to the bus. The women were always seen wearing large black blouses, long black dresses or loose-fitting slacks.
"He never said 'Hi,'" said Linda Morales, another neighbor. "I'd drive by and he'd make a point to turn his face."
Although the article still exists on in the SJ Mercury news data base, it can not be found at the Merc via their own seach engine nor via news.google.com.
Thanks for helping me with this, Mark. It looks like multiple versions of the Mar. 14 article appeared online. It reminds me of all the versions of the "snipers on the rooftop" stories that ran after the Feb. 15 peace rally in the NY Times last year. Version 1, which Atrios originally linked to and I've been thinking about for several days, told of cops carrying bodies out of the house and sobbing. It mentioned a "standoff" situation but said there was considerable confusion about the exact chain of events. It had the detail of Dyer drying the tear in his eye.
The one you found is Number 2, which has the Dyer tear but no references to other cops crying or carrying bodies.
It also has some initial speculation that the cops might have screwed up, which I think was worded differently from Version 1, which seemed to place no blame. I don't remember this sentence being in Version 1, but I could be wrong: "'We don't know if the deaths occurred before the officers arrived or after the officers arrived,' said Dyer, obviously frustrated by the confusion hanging over the incident." [Update: it's not. Here's what Version 1 said: "The police chief declined to say how the victims died, but the scene was so gruesome some of the first officers into the house were placed on administrative leave and were being counseled Friday night."]
Version 3, the one the Atrios link now points to and the one I saved, features Dyer, uncrying Man of Iron, and is in many respects identical to Version 2. It is really different from Version 1. Again, it looks like the cops crying and carrying bodies would "compromise the investigation," so the paper took it out. Even though it happened, and they reported it. Some Fourth Estate. Unfortunately I have only my memories of what I read and no screen shots, etc. I emailed atrios hoping he might also remember the text of the original article.
That's Version 2 (see my comment above).
Here's an AP version which ran in the Merc on the 13th. It has some of the same quotations.
Thanks, that's largely the version I remember (Version 1) (also here now), almost word for word, except for some of the details about the son, martial arts courses, etc. I'm really confused now. Did reporters Early and Foo copy the Skoloff (AP) article and then start modifying the text for "their" version(s), or did I read the AP article on Mar. 14? And why were Version 1 (whether AP or Early/Foo) and Version 3 at the same URL? Is this all just sloppy recordkeeping, or is something going on, as I suggested? I really do wonder why the article was rewritten several times, omitting more and more detail each time about the emotional state of the cops.
I suspect that the Merc may have substituted their version for the AP article. The AP article does not appear in a Merc search for "Fresno" and "Dyer". I found it through Google.
This is the footer on the version 3:
Mercury News Staff Writer Dan Stober, the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times contributed to this report. Contact David E. Early at dearly@mercury news or (408) 920-5836.
Thanks. I now have screen caps of all three versions of the story. Version 1 says: "The police chief declined to say how the victims died, but the scene was so gruesome some of the first officers into the house were placed on administrative leave and were being counseled Friday night." (This isn't in version 2 or 3.)
Version 2 and 3 say: "'We don't know if the deaths occurred before the officers arrived or after the officers arrived,' said Dyer, obviously frustrated by the confusion hanging over the incident." (This isn't in Version 1.)
Any opinion on this? Is this just journalism as usual? The "fog of journalism"?
I'd attribute it to the "fog of journalism". This is a big story, with a bit of a local angle, so the Merc couldn't let the AP version stand by itself. Then perhaps the writers were told to tone down the blood and tears aspect. Don't know for sure. Although I think I'll send an email to the writer to ask him "what up?"
In the past, I've spent time digging through old microfiches looking up old newspaper stories. There's something tangible about photos of the actual newsprint. The ephemeral nature of journalism in the web age is disturbing. To have articles appear, and then disappear, or be rewritten is just strange.
They say journalism is the first draft of history, but it looks like we're only keeping the third draft in this case. The practice of burying the first draft is a policy I intend to question the Merc about.
Thanks. I'd be curious to hear whatever response you get. I'd email him, but then I feel I'd have to rewrite my post to make it less accusatory (i.e. offputting to the writer). You, however, could say, "The rewriting has led at least one person on the internet to reach the worst possible conclusion..."
I haven't written to them about this one yet. I thought I'd soften them up with some "praise" first ...
I admire the Mercury News’ willingness to admit to being duped (March 16) by the propaganda campaign of the taxpayer-funded, Chalabi-led Iraqi National Congress during the build up to the US invasion of Iraq. The best reporting I’ve seen about the pre-war gullibility of the US press is in two places: the Columbia Journalism Review, and the Merc. I offer kudos to Knight-Ridder for listing the 108 stories planted by Tricky Chalabi, and kudos for admitting their own error in syndicating three of those stories.
People talk about this or that bias. I can read past spin. The bias I’m worried about is the “Laziness Bias.” What has happened to US journalism over the past 10 years? Reporters can’t be trusted to get second sources. Editors can’t be trusted to fact check their reporters. Publishers can’t be trusted to fund their own bureaus, and lean on syndication, adding to the echo chamber effect.
I consider this admission of falling prey to propagandists, of publishing misleading material, and of misleading the news reading public about justification for war to be a sign of journalistic integrity -- but only if Knight-Ridder and the Mercury News use this lesson to achieve a new focus on the highest standards of reporting, editing and publishing.
Someone beat me to the punch on the Merc-Chalabi issue. His letter is earily similar in content, but quite different in style. More succinct, less confrontational.
Whoa. That guy shouldn't complain so much since he gets his ideas from Digital Media Tree.
No reply to this ...
March 23, 2004
Some of us are old enough to remember going to the
library and using microfiches to find old newspaper
articles. The image of the actual newsprint carries a
certain weight and provides a stable, tangible record
of events.
For news and analysis written after circa 1995 the web
provides a new, fast, ubiquitous way to retrieve old
articles, but it has a few problems. In particular,
it's ephemeral.
I've become fond of the idea that journalism is
history's first draft. But it seems like only the
second or third draft makes it into the archive
sometimes.
This comes up due to concern expressed by a friend
from NYC regarding three different drafts of the
coverage of the shooting in Fresno. He read an
article at mercurynews.com that really stuck with him.
When he went back a week later, that article was
gone. The tone of initial article revealed more of
the confusion and raw emotion of the police at the
crime scene. That article was replaced by one that
conveyed similar information, but was completely
different in emphasis.
This piqued my curiosity. I did some digging using
various internet search resources, and found three
different versions, written in close succession.
Curiously, the search function at mercurynews.com
found only one of these when I searched under "Fresno"
and "Dyer", so the first two were effectively
withdrawn from the Mercury News archive.
The first was an AP version written by Brian Skoloff
(http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/mercurynews/8174631.htm)
This is the freshest, starkest, and perhaps reveals
the most emotional reaction on the part of the Fresno
PD.
The second was a Merc version I found at a sister
Knight-Ridder publication.
(http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/8184032.htm)
This was written by David E. Early and Rodney Foo,
with contributions by Dan Stober and the AP.
The third version, and the only one visible to the
Merc search engine had a lede which focused on the
killer rather than the confusion and emotions of
police.
(http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/8184125.htm)
This was written by David E. Early and Rodney Foo,
with contributions by Dan Stober, the AP, and the LA
Times.
My own opinion is that burying the initial version of
the article is just part of the "link rot" that
afflicts the web in general, and was not part of a
plan to make the Fresno police look better. Others
may assume the worst when there's a rewrite.
But, I go back to the concept of a stable, tangible
record. Shouldn't the Mercury News make an effort to
keep a solid archive of the first draft of history?
So here's my non-rhetorical question, what is the
Mercury's policy for the completeness and integrity of
its on-line archives?
I wonder if the print version version of the paper ran the AP draft? Maybe papers will adopt a policy that online coverage is "breaking news"--like the tickertape at the bottom of a TV news screen, which I doubt is archived, at least for the public. Considering how unstable online naming conventions and archiving are, that's probably the most realistic policy. Then only the print edition would be the "real" version.
Even then, a question arises: would amateur "saves" of journalistic accounts be valid evidence in court?
Let's say an attorney for the deceased children brings a wrongful death action against the city for negligence in protecting the kids. And let's say the "AP version" of this story never ran in print. Would our "saves" of contemporaneous journalistic accounts of emotional reactions by the police be admissible? Would the paper have to vouch for them?
These are rhetorical questions because I'm too lazy to hunt up the answers. I suspect it's a "developing area" of the law.
|
Wow. The March 14 Mercury News story about the Fresno polygamist child murder that Atrios originally linked to has been extensively rewritten (see my previous post about all this). I went back to look at it because it described policemen carrying dead children out of the house and weeping, and quoted a police chief holding back tears, saying "this sort of thing doesn't happen in Fresno" or the like, and was very slim on details of what actually happened. The police reactions seemed pretty over-the-top (even for such a tragic crime) and I wanted to reread the account, in light of allegations that the cops had negligently given Wesson time to go into the back of the house and shoot the children while the gendarmes stood on his doorstep, ignoring the pleadings of relatives who knew what Wesson was capable of. Well, all that detail about the crying cops is gone from the story, sucked down the memory hole, and Fresno Police Chief is suddenly dry-eyed, in control, and quoted as saying "what happened at the house is under the investigation." So much for an independent press--obviously this story was rewritten to placate the authorities. Nowadays you have to save every story you read to your hard drive. (A copy of the rewritten story is here.)
UPDATE: It looks like the article was rewritten several times after publication. Mark found another version, posted in the comments.
UPDATE 2: Mark found the "crying, child-carrying cops" version I read, slightly differently worded, on the Mercury News website, as an AP story dated March 13, under a different byline. So it's not down the memory hole (yet). I really do wonder why the article was rewritten several times, omitting more and more detail each time about the emotional state of the cops.
- tom moody 3-20-2004 6:38 pm
Tom, is this what your were looking for ...
[Update ... that link is a Kansas City Star link to a Contra Costa Times copy of the SJ Merc article. Registration required. In the next comment I have a direct link to the SJ Merc article. All three are Knight-Ridder newspapers.]
Posted on Sun, Mar. 14, 2004
Man accused of killing nine may have fathered grandkids
By David E. Early and Rodney Foo
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
FRESNO - The gruesome scene inside a Fresno building that had been converted into a family home was so horrific that a police official, hardened by nearly three decades of work, was shaken to tears.
"I've been with the Fresno Police Department for 25 years, and I've never experienced anything of this nature," said Chief Jerry Dyer, wiping his eyes while recalling a nightmarish bedroom where stacked corpses, mostly of children, were snared in a mass of clothing.
Charged with responsibility for the worst mass slaying in the city's history was Marcus Wesson, 57. Initially investigators estimated seven bodies, but after hours of untangling the horror, it turned out to be two females, ages 24 and 17, and seven children from ages 1 to 8.
The primary question that authorities could not answer: Was there something that the first officers on the scene could have done to prevent the apparent mass killing?
"We don't know if the deaths occurred before the officers arrived or after the officers arrived," said Dyer, obviously frustrated by the confusion hanging over the incident.
The question results from reports that police were called to a family disturbance shortly after 2 p.m. and were met by two women who said their four children were being held inside by Wesson. The police knocked and spoke with Wesson, who then returned to the house and barricaded himself in a bedroom.
At least one neighbor told the Associated Press he heard two gunshots moments before police arrived, but the officers on the scene didn't hear anything.
The two women warned officers Wesson had weapons, so not wanting to "inflame" a situation where children were at risk, the officers called for a SWAT team and hostage negotiators who came immediately and set up outside the house. An hour passed and suddenly Wesson calmly walked out and surrendered.
This time, unlike the first time officers saw him, Wesson was covered in blood. Inside police found the nine bodies and another oddity: 10 caskets stacked along a wall.
When asked how the victims were killed, the chief would only say, "the cause of death is unique and consistent." Past 10 p.m. Friday, bodies were still being removed. Robert Hensel, Fresno's chief deputy coroner, said his office was having trouble identifying some of the victims "because some of them are so young, we have no fingerprints." He said confirmed identities probably won't be available until Monday.
Authorities said several Fresno-area funeral homes have offered their services free of charge.
Dyer said the investigation was in too early a stage to determine what happened in the house, when it happened and what role the two original officers on the scene could have played in the outcome.
The chief said early indications are that Wesson carried on a maze of complex and unorthodox physical relationships with his family. Dyer said Wesson may have fathered two grandchildren with his daughters -- two of the 1-year-old victims. Police intend to perform myriad DNA tests to clarify such questions, and they will interrogate 10 to 12 relatives and others who might have been at the house before police were summoned. As for the caskets, Dyer said they didn't seem to play any role in the incident and that the officers, whose names were not released, have been put under the care of a police chaplain and psychologist.
Meanwhile, Wesson is expected to be charged with nine counts of first-degree murder. Dyer said that in one night Fresno's homicide rate quadrupled from three to 12.
"We have not ruled out any other suspects in this case," the chief said. "We haven't determined if this is a cult, a sect or a different belief system."
According to neighbors, Wesson lived at 761 Hammond Ave. for about eight months. He was described as aloof, tall and bulky. He wore thick cords of graying dreadlocks so long they dangled below his waist.
"He's a type who could see right through your skin, your body, clothes," said a shaken neighbor, Barbara Alec, 61, about Wesson, who has lived in Fresno, police say, for about three years. Alec said Wesson and his large family, at least twice a week, would burn items in the yard behind the home that would produce an indescribable stench.
"What are they burning?" she wondered all those days.
But on Friday night, she knew exactly why she felt so upset.
"Now I'm very scared," she said. "It's very spooky and weird knowing it was right at my back yard."
Dyer described Wesson as "intelligent, very articulate, very well-spoken." He said Wesson, who has no visible source of income, was calm and cooperative during questioning. The four adult women who live in the house were all employed and gave their money to Wesson to manage. The chief would not comment on what jobs the women held.
Records indicate Wesson was married in 1974 in Santa Clara County. His bride, Elizabeth Solorio, was 15 years old at the time. Wesson lived in East San Jose in the mid-1990s. Neighbors indicated that the house was a Victory Outreach drug and alcohol recovery facility around the same time.
Marcus and Elizabeth Wesson at one point also lived in Watsonville, according to records.
Parked close to the front door of the Wesson home in Fresno is a school bus that had its rear ceiling cut away to resemble a porch.
Neighbors said Wesson and his common-law wife and their two young adult daughters often could be heard at 1 or 2 a.m. drilling, hammering and sawing as they added chrome striping to the bus. The women were always seen wearing large black blouses, long black dresses or loose-fitting slacks.
"He never said 'Hi,'" said Linda Morales, another neighbor. "I'd drive by and he'd make a point to turn his face."
- mark 3-21-2004 3:26 am
Although the article still exists on in the SJ Mercury news data base, it can not be found at the Merc via their own seach engine nor via news.google.com.
- mark 3-21-2004 3:32 am
Thanks for helping me with this, Mark. It looks like multiple versions of the Mar. 14 article appeared online. It reminds me of all the versions of the "snipers on the rooftop" stories that ran after the Feb. 15 peace rally in the NY Times last year. Version 1, which Atrios originally linked to and I've been thinking about for several days, told of cops carrying bodies out of the house and sobbing. It mentioned a "standoff" situation but said there was considerable confusion about the exact chain of events. It had the detail of Dyer drying the tear in his eye.
The one you found is Number 2, which has the Dyer tear but no references to other cops crying or carrying bodies. It also has some initial speculation that the cops might have screwed up, which I think was worded differently from Version 1, which seemed to place no blame. I don't remember this sentence being in Version 1, but I could be wrong: "'We don't know if the deaths occurred before the officers arrived or after the officers arrived,' said Dyer, obviously frustrated by the confusion hanging over the incident." [Update: it's not. Here's what Version 1 said: "The police chief declined to say how the victims died, but the scene was so gruesome some of the first officers into the house were placed on administrative leave and were being counseled Friday night."]
Version 3, the one the Atrios link now points to and the one I saved, features Dyer, uncrying Man of Iron, and is in many respects identical to Version 2. It is really different from Version 1. Again, it looks like the cops crying and carrying bodies would "compromise the investigation," so the paper took it out. Even though it happened, and they reported it. Some Fourth Estate. Unfortunately I have only my memories of what I read and no screen shots, etc. I emailed atrios hoping he might also remember the text of the original article.
- tom moody 3-21-2004 4:08 am
- mark 3-21-2004 4:11 am
That's Version 2 (see my comment above).
- tom moody 3-21-2004 4:17 am
Here's an AP version which ran in the Merc on the 13th. It has some of the same quotations.
- mark 3-21-2004 4:36 am
Thanks, that's largely the version I remember (Version 1) (also here now), almost word for word, except for some of the details about the son, martial arts courses, etc. I'm really confused now. Did reporters Early and Foo copy the Skoloff (AP) article and then start modifying the text for "their" version(s), or did I read the AP article on Mar. 14? And why were Version 1 (whether AP or Early/Foo) and Version 3 at the same URL? Is this all just sloppy recordkeeping, or is something going on, as I suggested? I really do wonder why the article was rewritten several times, omitting more and more detail each time about the emotional state of the cops.
- tom moody 3-21-2004 5:08 am
I suspect that the Merc may have substituted their version for the AP article. The AP article does not appear in a Merc search for "Fresno" and "Dyer". I found it through Google.
This is the footer on the version 3:
- mark 3-21-2004 5:25 am
Thanks. I now have screen caps of all three versions of the story. Version 1 says: "The police chief declined to say how the victims died, but the scene was so gruesome some of the first officers into the house were placed on administrative leave and were being counseled Friday night." (This isn't in version 2 or 3.)
Version 2 and 3 say: "'We don't know if the deaths occurred before the officers arrived or after the officers arrived,' said Dyer, obviously frustrated by the confusion hanging over the incident." (This isn't in Version 1.)
Any opinion on this? Is this just journalism as usual? The "fog of journalism"?
- tom moody 3-21-2004 5:59 am
I'd attribute it to the "fog of journalism". This is a big story, with a bit of a local angle, so the Merc couldn't let the AP version stand by itself. Then perhaps the writers were told to tone down the blood and tears aspect. Don't know for sure. Although I think I'll send an email to the writer to ask him "what up?"
In the past, I've spent time digging through old microfiches looking up old newspaper stories. There's something tangible about photos of the actual newsprint. The ephemeral nature of journalism in the web age is disturbing. To have articles appear, and then disappear, or be rewritten is just strange.
They say journalism is the first draft of history, but it looks like we're only keeping the third draft in this case. The practice of burying the first draft is a policy I intend to question the Merc about.
- mark 3-21-2004 9:07 pm
Thanks. I'd be curious to hear whatever response you get. I'd email him, but then I feel I'd have to rewrite my post to make it less accusatory (i.e. offputting to the writer). You, however, could say, "The rewriting has led at least one person on the internet to reach the worst possible conclusion..."
- tom moody 3-21-2004 9:23 pm
I haven't written to them about this one yet. I thought I'd soften them up with some "praise" first ...
- mark 3-23-2004 10:54 am
Someone beat me to the punch on the Merc-Chalabi issue. His letter is earily similar in content, but quite different in style. More succinct, less confrontational.
- mark 3-24-2004 5:41 am
Whoa. That guy shouldn't complain so much since he gets his ideas from Digital Media Tree.
- tom moody 3-24-2004 6:12 am
No reply to this ...
- mark 4-04-2004 6:00 am
I wonder if the print version version of the paper ran the AP draft?
Maybe papers will adopt a policy that online coverage is "breaking news"--like the tickertape at the bottom of a TV news screen, which I doubt is archived, at least for the public. Considering how unstable online naming conventions and archiving are, that's probably the most realistic policy. Then only the print edition would be the "real" version.
Even then, a question arises: would amateur "saves" of journalistic accounts be valid evidence in court?
Let's say an attorney for the deceased children brings a wrongful death action against the city for negligence in protecting the kids. And let's say the "AP version" of this story never ran in print. Would our "saves" of contemporaneous journalistic accounts of emotional reactions by the police be admissible? Would the paper have to vouch for them?
These are rhetorical questions because I'm too lazy to hunt up the answers. I suspect it's a "developing area" of the law.
- tom moody 4-05-2004 6:18 pm