It's Not What "15 Finds Out", It's What 15 Leaves Out.....

Media does not give you the whole story. Why? Inept reporting and/or fear of losing advertising revenue are usually the top two reasons for this malfeasance. 

Last night's parking lot shooting at Piere's Entertainment Complex is a near textbook example. 

21Alive/WPTA/ Indiana's News Center story accurately identifies Piere's, but misspells the name. 

WANE TV's story give a generic address but does generically mention a night club on their Facebook story, but conveniently leaves that out of the story on their WANE.COM web page.

The Fort Wayne Police Department press release, as it should, provides the exact address, names the nightclub, misspelling it as Pierre's (that's where WPTA copied it from). Press release courtesy of http://www.aroundfortwayne.com/blog/

So, the Maven draws these conclusions: 

WPTA did no original reporting on this, they just copied the FWPD press release, including the misspelled business name.....and used that ugly generic "bullet" picture as a graphic. 

WANE did some actual reporting providing a photograph of the parking lot, but for some reason, WANE saw fit to "protect" the name of the business. 

The cynics among us must conclude that WANE reporters/employees must have large, unpaid bar tabs at Piere's, or WANE management is afraid of losing existing/potential advertising revenue from Piere's. 

Many will remember how, for many years, media "protected" the golden advertising goose known as Glenbrook Square mall. If a purse snatching took place there, the media dutifully reported it at "4201 Coldwater Road". A similar purse snatching at Southtown Mall was always reported as "Southtown Mall on Fort Wayne's south side", often times mentioning the specific name of a store. 

That reporting dilemma no longer exists, as FW media presided over the death of Southtown and continues to exploit crime stories, which apparently, only take place in the Southern half of the city. 

Where's the "WHERE"?

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY. The essentials of a complete news story. Leave one out, and a news story is of little value to readers and listeners. 
Last week it was the News Sentinel. This week, it's the kids in the WOWO News room. 

The story does note a "Fort Wayne home..." that does not satisfy the WHERE aspect. Most every news story that WOWO covers does include, at the least, the name of the street name and block number of the incident. 

What's troubling is that WOWO News had all the information they needed. According to our friends at aroundfortwayne.com/blog, the Fort Wayne Police Department press release contains the exact address of the incident. A close look will also show that the third paragraph of the WOWO story is simply an edited version of the FWPD's press release. Look for yourself...

Barricaded Subjects

Date/Time of Incident: 06-28-2014 4:40 PM

Location of Incident: 1631 Hinton Drive

On Saturday June 28,2014 at approximately 4:40 pm, the FWPD responded to a house located at 1631 Hinton Drive in reference to a 911 hang up call. As 911 dispatchers were on the telephone with someone inside the residence, dispatch believed that there was some type of disturbance coming from this address. As officers arrived on the scene, they spoke with an individual outside the residence who told police that a male who was identified as Jeremy C Elder Sr was inside the residence and was wanted in reference to a previous domestic battery investigation. Officers on the scene made several attempts to make contact with Elder which failed. Officers with the Fort Wayne Police Departments Emergency Services Team and Crisis Response Team were dispatched to the scene.

Officers with the Crisis Response Team spoke with Elders on the telephone for several hours in an attempt to have him exit the residence and surrender to police. At approximately 10:30 PM, Elders came out of the residence as he did not comply with officers orders as less leathal ammunition was used to take Elders into custody. Elders was transported from the scene to the Allen County jail and charged with felony domestic battery.

This incident remains under investigation by the Fort Wayne Police Department and the Allen County Prosecutors Office.

The moral of the story is that if you're going to regurgitate a news release, it would be helpful to regurgitate ALL of the details. FWPD Press Release courtesy of aroundfortwayne.com.