Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
David Safier regularly goes after the Arizona Daily Star's creative headlines department, as have I on occasion. But the Arizona Daily Star really stepped in it this time.
Here is the above the fold page A1 headline story in the Arizona Daily Star for Monday, April 3, 2010:
The nut graph of the original article by reporter Brady McCombs, consistent with the headline, stated:
The killing of a Southern Arizona rancher that sparked an outcry to secure the border was not random, and investigators are focusing on an American suspect, the Arizona Daily Star has learned.
Well surprise, surprise. Later in the day on Monday, the Arizona Daily Star published a "correction" to the story online:
An article and headline Monday on A1 incorrectly referred to the possible suspect in the Krentz killing investigation as "American." The story – as originally reported – said the suspect is believed to be in the United States. It was changed to "American" in the editing process. While the suspect is believed to be in the United States, the nationality is unknown.
The story has now been recaptioned online as Focus in Krentz killing on suspect in US
This is the kind of f#@kup that editor's get fired over. Probably not at the Daily Star, however.
What was wrong with this story is not just the sensational (and inaccurate) headline, but the editorial decision to publish this story as the front page above the fold headline story in the first place.
Here is the substance of the article:
High-ranking government officials with credible information spoke to the Star, citing a desire to quell the fury over illegal immigration and drug smuggling set off by the shooting death of longtime rancher Robert Krentz on March 27.
They said Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever is investigating a person in the United States, not in Mexico, in connection with the shooting.
The Star's policy is not to use unnamed sources except in instances in which the information is of high public interest.
That's it. The rest of the story is purely historical, reciting what has happened in the investigation to date. No new information.
So the Daily Star's editors ran with a story from "unnamed sources," i.e., "high-ranking government officials" who told the Daily Star that Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever is investigating a suspect in the United States in connection with the shooting. No further details. This is news meriting a front page headline?
No, the narrative meriting the front page headline for the editors of the Daily Star was their sensational (and inaccurate) claim that the suspect is an American citizen, not a Mexican national, in a "desire to quell the fury over illegal immigration and drug smuggling…" This reveals much about the editors of the Arizona Daily Star. This is irresponsible "journalism" (sic) at its worst.
Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever on Monday denounced the news report that said the March murder of southern Arizona rancher Robert Krentz was not random and was committed by an American or a person recently in the United States. News report on rancher's killer irks Cochise sheriff:
Carol Capas, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office, said Dever characterized the story in Monday's Arizona Daily Star as "inaccurate and irresponsible."
The newspaper, quoting unnamed, "high-ranking government officials," at first reported that the killer is believed to be an American. That was corrected with an editor's note saying that the nationality of the shooter remains unknown. A subsequent Associated Press story, also based on an unidentified source, said the killer is a Mexican citizen.
Still, the Star's report appears to conflict with statements by Dever and others who have speculated that the assailant was an undocumented immigrant working for Mexican drug cartels.
In an e-mail, Star executive editor Bobbie Jo Buel said the paper maintains that "Cochise County is investigating a person in the United States, not in Mexico. . . . The Star's sources have not identified the person's nationality to us."
Capas said detectives have no leads on a suspect – not even the person's nationality or gender. "The information that we have is still the same as what we released early on," she added. "The investigation is active and ongoing."
I also find highly questionable the information that everyone appears to be relying upon in this case.
Krentz was gunned down March 27, one day after his brother, Phil, helped the Border Patrol arrest eight suspects and seize nearly 300 pounds of marijuana on the family ranch. Phil Krentz told authorities that, a short time before the slaying, his brother made radio contact and said something about an "illegal alien."
That statement, and the discovery of footprints leading 20 miles to the Mexican border, promoted the theory that Robert Krentz's assailant was of Mexican origin. Capas said deputies still believe the tracks belonged to the shooter.
This is purely supposition and conjecture causing people to jump to conclusions not supported by any hard evidence or facts. As Capas said, there are "no leads on a suspect – not even the person's nationality or gender." They've got bupkis. But the media keeps "waving the bloody shirt" to enflame public opinion. This is a major failure of our Arizona media. They all should be ashamed.
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Mikki,
Just so you know, the business model is to keep the right wingers stirred up. This leads to more visits to the comment section and thus it leads to the end goal — more advertising revenue.
The imbalance in letters? Two reasons: One, the vast majority in Tucson are sick of supply-side economics that doesn’t work, so there are a plethora of letter writers who complain about such things as our state legislature giving corporations another huge tax cut while we struggle to dig our way out of a deficit and can’t even keep public schools functioning. Everything the legislature and governor did deserved comment because it was all asinine and almost everybody is sick of it.
Kind of like your guy Kozachik. First thing he suggested after his election was to lower the room tax in Tucson. Everybody thought: “The city has a huge deficit, and he thinks lowering the room tax one dollar is going to spur more visits and raise revenue?” It is exactly this kind of stupidity that spurs so many letter writers to the Daily Star.
Two, it keeps the right wingers populating the comment section complaining, and driving up add revenue for the Star.
Now, if your were intellectually honest, you’d recognize that the the vast majority of editorials published by the Star are from Conservative writers: Jonah Goldberg, Charles Krauthhamer, Kathleen Parker are the regular, daily fare in the Star. The Left gets one guy, and he is a small-timer from Miami Herald, Leonard Pitts. A very occasional piece by Garrison Keillor, even more occassional piece by Paul Krugman. Also, you’d realize that the Star is very selective in the AP stories it selects to publish – it only publishes the right leaning stories; we all have to look in other papers to find other left leaning stories from the AP.
So your assertion that the Star is blatantly pro-democrat is nonsense. The facts don’t support your assertion.
To:
From: Mikki Niemi niemicat@hotmail.com
Arizona Daily Star discriminates against people who don’t agree politically with the editors.
Fact: On November 3, I posted a letter from a candidate which was sent to me with instructions to forward to at least 10 people. I placed this in the comment sections of the online star. The letter was critical of Rio Nuevo and Trasoff. This letter had been paid for by the candidate for a campaign add and was published in the Star on November 2. Someone online complained about the post and I reposted it. Again this was taken off by readersOn the next day I could not post I received this from Debbie Kornmiller the Star’s “reader advocate”
Mikki:
Commenting privileges were removed from this account on Monday because posts reported for moderation were reposted. The reported posts were content that was not original in nature. When you post someone’s else’s published material you are violating their copyright, which has legal ramifications. You continue to have read privileges.
Debbie Kornmiller
Reader Advocate
I wrote a e-mail to her stating that I had permission to post this letter and it the copyright was transferred to me by the candidate she sent this email and took my wife off from commenting also. My wife had not made any comments for several weeks. But was taken off as punishment for what she perceived that I did.
My wife wrote several e-mails, she told them that I never commented on her sign in. Debbie Kornmiller wrote that Dorothy who had done nothing was taken off permanently because she refused to agree to rules that other people didn’t have to agree to.
Thank you for your patience. I’ve talked to my bosses about your request that commenting privileges be restored to your email account.
Please know that we rarely restore commenting privileges once that function has been removed.
We agreed that I would restore your commenting privileges with the provision that you not allow others to use your account and that your posts stay within our guidelines. Any breach would mean an automatic and permanent suspension. A third chance would be out of the question.
I need to hear back from you that you will abide by our guidelines, that you will not allow others to use your account and that you understand the consequences. At that time commenting privileges will be restored.
Debbie
This address as well as your yahoo and msn accounts no longer have commenting privileges. Posting copyrighted material is against the law. The ban is permanent.
Debbie
We protested to her boss John Bolton and this was his response.
I’m not inclined to overrule Ms. Kornmiller. She keeps a close eye on the reader comment moderation and is tasked with enforcing the guidelines on a consistent basis, and I see nothing to suggest a different outcome is warranted.
John Bolton, online editor
I then wrote to the publisher John Humenik requesting a face to face meeting with all three of them and this was his answer.
Mr. Niemi,
I’m sorry. That will not be possible.
John
I then wrote to the CEO of the Star Mike Jameson and this was his response.
I wrote to Kornmiller and showed her that under her rules for having permission to post another persons letter I had not violated them, also the star published this letter on November 2, and the rules say posting something from Star is ok.
John Bolton her boss wrote back that there were other problems with me. She made up rules as she went along and finally slandered me by saying I made sexual slurs, moderation of reposting. No were in there 10 pages of rules does this say about reposting.
John Bolton
You did not respond to several calls from Roberta Young, our editor and publisher’s administrative assistant, when she tried to set up a conference call with you. In that unprecedented opportunity to speak to Mr. Humenik, Debbie Kornmiller and me, you would have heard that your banning was related not only to the posts of the Kozachik material, but also to some posts involving sexual slurs, and for your actions to undermine our moderation process, including the resposting of material that had been removed.
We’ve considered and reconsidered your case in much detail. We’re not going to restore your reader comment posting privileges. You still have privileges to log in and read the site.
There are no further appeals available to you, and we will not respond to further communication on this issue.
John Bolton, online editor Arizona Daily Star / StarNethttp://www.azstarnet.com(520) 618-7868
These accusations are false. Kornmiller lied and just told Bolton what he wanted to hear
I never received any calls as he says I did. I stopped my Cox home phone in December, because it had not been working so I was unable to receive these “messages” they knew my cell phone and e-mail and could have contacted me that way if they had actually tried.
As an interesting point last month I circled pro Republican letters to the editor in red, and Pro Democrat letter in red. I did this for a period of 18 days. The score was 3 Red to 73 Blue. My wife and I have not been able to get a letter to the editor at all in the last two years.
The star is blatantly pro democrat and Kornmiller has been leading the way to unfair and unbalanced reporting since 1981.
Don’t advertise in the star, we have dropped two subscriptions to the Star.Sell you stuff on Craig’s list, is Free. http://tucson.craigslist.org/