JG tries but doesn't answer the question

What follows is an e-mail exchange between Lex and an editor at the local fish wrap. Regular readers will know that recently Lex fired off a letter asking why the JG focused on the background of vets who run afoul of the law but not others. Here’s that note:


Re: War vet gets 50 years…& A different court for vets?

As it seems one’s service to one’s country can have a direct influence on one’s behavior, I’m okay with identifying Anthony Ochs and Justin York as veterans in the Saturday and Sunday headlines of the JG.

Will the JG extend the policy of identifying the backgrounds of all criminals?

How about these:
Lifetime welfare addict convicted of fraud.
Illegitimate son of lifetime welfare addict gets 25 years for drug dealing.
High school drop out and 4th bastard son of lifetime welfare addict gets 50 years for murder.

Military service, welfare dependency, illegitimacy and high school drop outs are backgrounds that all correlate to overall higher crime rates. I’ll wager that of those groups, veterans far and away return more to society than any of the others – probably combined.

So, why is the JG’s emphasis only on veterans’ crime?

The JG responded with the following note that doesn’t even try to explain why the background of the other criminal classes inquired about in the note above are never exposed in the JG.

Hello Doug,

Thanks for your interesting questions via email.

In those stories Sunday, the individuals named had cases where their post traumatic stress or injuries related to service were relevant to the cases. In all stories, we try to make determinations based on what information is relevant to telling the story at hand. We believe readers deserve and desire such context.

I recognize that you and other readers may not always agree with the choices we make. But we do to give these specific and sensitive situations the conscious thought that we should before naming names and providing background.

Thanks for being a reader.

Lisa Green

So, Lex gave it another try here:

Hi Lisa,

Nice try. As stated in my letter, I don’t have a problem identifying veterans who run afoul of the law as veterans. Although, I do believe PTSD is used as a crutch by some vets who hit a period of bad luck, are anti-social by nature or just don’t want to get up in the morning. The question I pose is why ONLY veterans? Why not, welfare recipients, illegitimate children or high school drop outs? All of those groups are statistically more likely to be involved in criminal activity.

For example, in Saturday’s JG there is a story on one Arriaga Walker who received an “8 year sentence for neglect of his daughter.” Neglect? That’s a nice term for one who beats and burns a helpless child. Wouldn’t “abuse” be a better word?
What was Mr. Walker’s background? What would you like to wager that Mr. Walker wasn’t born into a home where his father was present, that his family wasn’t receiving some type of government assistance or that he didn’t finish high school? I’ll wager that one or more of those conditions were present in Mr. Walker’s background. Don’t “the readers deserve and desire the context” of Mr. Walker’s background?

And while we’re on the subject of abused children, what does the JG staff know about this “doctor” Kermit Gosnell character? If Gosnell had used an AR-15 to gun down a dozen or more babies in the maternity ward of a hospital, would the JG be mute about that? It is a very sick mind that considers the death of a baby by a gun shot murder and the death of baby having its spinal cord severed at the neck with a pair scissors a “procedure.”

Who knows, maybe they will get Gosnell for neglect.

But hey, as long as everyone in the Ft. Wayne area knows that Colin Chaulk is retiring from the Komets, the staff at the JG can rest knowing that they have done their level best to print all of the news that matters most to the Summit City.

Very Respectfully,
Doug Schumick

The last reference is to a long time Ft. Wayne minor league hockey player who announced his retirement and recieved a four coulumn above the fold picture and story on the front page of the Saturday JG as well as wall to wall coverage in the sports section.