A Good Year for the Outlaw

My first reaction to the story about the 25-year old who died on his motorcycle the other night is the sadness I feel for the family who lost a loved one way too young. My second reaction is, upon reading that he was not wearing a helmet, frustration that people can’t get it right, both bikers AND lawmakers.

My third, and probably my strongest, reaction is a bit of anger at the police AND the Journal Star for the misleading and incorrect headline to the story:

“Excessive Speed MAY Have Caused Crash”

Um, yeah, maybe so. But I could just as easily add the words “or may not” right after “may” in that headline and it would say THE SAME THING.

It’s a generic headline with no real evidence or making no accusation against “excessive speed”, but it is a headline that immediately skews the readers’ opinion as to what might have happened.

And I blame the police for making the statement. When it doubt, blame it on speed, right? In reality, it may have been a malfunctioning suspension on the bike, or a blown tire, or a slick spot on the road, or a small animal darted in front of him, or he struck a large enough stone on the roadway to disrupt the bike…all of these things, and just like excessive speed, MAY be true. But they only say that “speed MAY be to blame”.  To which I say…or it MAY not.

I’m not condoning “excessive speed” while helmetless on a motorcycle. Nowhere in my post do I do that. (That was for Mouse, to preempt any comment in that vein). But what I’m condemning is the poor choice of words used by both the agency that reported the accident to the media, and the media outlet that chose the headline. 

Oft times, as I’ve learned over the nearly 30 years I’ve been in the media, the reporting agency will try to skew the story to fit their needs as to what they see as a problem. They, of course, deny this vehemently. But it’s true. A long time ago, I had a lengthy discussion with a dispatcher in Nevada that turned into a closed door yelling match between me, my radio station owner, and the Captain of the local State Police office over their reporting of auto accidents.

I’d noticed that they were very quick to jump on the “he wasn’t wearing a seat belt” story whenever that was the case in an accident with injury or fatality. I also noticed they never said “he was wearing his seat belt” when the driver WAS, they just, shall we say, failed to mention it. Why? Because the seat belt lobby had an agenda. They wanted everyone to start wearing them, and as we all know fear can be a great motivator. So they’d report – at EVERY opportunity – when a driver failed to have his seat belt on.

I was fed up with this selective reporting, so I called the dispatcher on it one morning at 4:30 am while making beat calls.

“I didn’t hear you mention whether or not the driver was wearing a seat belt,” I said.

 ”Hmm, let me see, nope, nothing to report on that,” she responded.

“Nothing IN the report, or is it in the report that he was belted, you’re just choosing NOT to report that to me?” I asked.

“I’m just saying I don’t see in the report that he didn’t have his seat belt on,” she said.

“So it’s safe to assume, since you always mention when they DO NOT have their seat belt on, and that you don’t see anywhere in the report  that he didn’t have it on, I can assume that this driver DID have his belt on,” I pushed. I was wrong to assume that without fact, but I was cranky.

She hemmed and hawed. “No, I wouldn’t say that. I don’t think that’s a safe assumption.”

“So does it say anywhere that the driver wasn’t wearing his seat belt?”

“No, it does not say that.”

“So does it say he WAS wearing his seat belt?”

“We’re very busy here this morning, sir, do you have what you need.”

“Yes, I will, I’m going to say that he was wearing his seat belt.”

“Fine.”

“Would I be wrong if I said that?”

“Technically, no.”

“Great, thanks.” I hung up.

I then reported it all morning. And the Captain came unglued. Showed up at the studios, demanding I be punished. My boss stuck up for his people, in this case me, and said “will you confirm whether or not our story was true as it was reported?”

“That’s not the point,” the Captain yelled. “The point is your guy added to the story that we don’t want reported.”

And there you have it. I failed to help them skew the story to fit their needs. The Journal Star did not fail in that this morning. They helped the skew.