First up, MyFox8 WGHP. Without attribution or citation, Lindsey Eaton reports of last Saturday night:
"Nearly 400 people were involved in the several fights that happened along Elm Street."Wow! That's a lot of people to be fighting in downtown Greensboro. Hard to believe, actually, which might explain the lack of attribution. Come on, Lindesy, were 400 people really fighting in downtown Greensboro on Saturday night? Are you sure you don't have Greensboro confused with, oh, I don't know, Cairo, maybe?
Eaton continues:
"Greensboro police arrested 11 people ranging in age from 16 to 20-years-old."Again, there is no source or attribution, but the claim is at odds with the public record which shows that, from 4:00 p.m Saturday to 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning, there were five arrests for fighting in what appear to be three different fights. Three fights over 12 hours; five arrests. Not 400 people and 11 arrests.
Eaton introduces her unsubstantiated story by telling us that the "massive fight" has "some city leaders taking a hard look at bringing back the teen curfew."
What city leaders? Eaton doesn't say. I emailed the news department at WGHP this morning to ask just who are these city leader for whom the "massive fight" has them reconsidering a downtown curfew. They have not yet replied, although a "Notice of emergency meeting" of the Greensboro City Council called by Mayor Robbie Perkins to reconsider reinstatement of a teen curfew reached my inbox a little while ago.
Next up, Joe Gamm of the News & Record. Gamm offers this single paragraph so full of unsourced and undocumented claims it's worthy of the National Enquirer.
"The incident, for some [who?], brings to mind something that happened in Center City Park several hours after the downtown Fun Fourth Festival ended last year. Reports [where?] said 22 officers on duty after the event had to use tear gas to control a defiant crowd. Witnesses [who?] said some in the crowd taunted police and provoked dozens of fights."Dozens of fights?
Hmm.
Reports of the kind one can actually read for themselves (whoohoo a hyperlink!) told of one fight resulting in two arrests, one for disturbing the peace, the other for disorderly conduct. This contradicts Gamm but corresponds to the public record.
Gamm also "reports" of last year's use of tear gas that:
"Police were trying to enforce a curfew, which requires visitors to leave the park by 11 p.m."That is also at odd with reports, the kind we can actually read (whoohoo another hyperlink!) that tear gas was used to disperse a crowd in the Jimmy Johns restaurant, three blocks from the park.
I think Gamm is being played by a manipulative or sloppy source. While he writes that police deployed tear gas to enforce an 11:00 p.m. closing time for the park his own paper reported that tear gas was deployed at 10:45 p.m..
Buckle up Greensboro, a media fueled panic is underway. Have at it Mr. Gamm and Ms. Eaton.
[How about a post script kudos to WFMY for, atypically, not jumping on the hysteria bandwagon?]
The Riot is now on Drudge. As for WFMY, it could be that a press release that was easily copied could not be found.
ReplyDeleteGreensboro in national news!
ReplyDeleteWe should anticipate a bunch of new companies expressing interest in relocating here very soon.
Glad to see you are on this one pointing out the truth.
ReplyDeleteLocal media are ass clowns. Remember the nutmeg sniffing reports? That teens were sniffing nutmeg to get high? I didn't think so. That epidemic never materialized. They're sitting on enough scandals and incompetence to make Woodward and Bernstein happy and all you hear are crickets chirping...
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't get it, Ron. Someone could really launch a career here as an investigative reporter if they wanted to by digging and doing some real reporting.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as if everybody prefers not making waves instead as if CNN or the New York Times is going to call one day and say, "Great piece you did on that 400 kid riot, even if you got all the facts wrong. Are you available?"