Media Trivializes Tragedy, Again

School violence is planned next week?

Must be true, ABC21 WPTA News published this Thursday on Twitter.....

Maybe Quincy Newspapers should re-think the open bar and Happy Hour in the newsroom. 

OK, WPTA, Which Is It?

Media elite like to complain that their audience is ignorant and confused, and must depend on them for information and direction. 

Then the media elite do something like this. 

They tease their news story with a factually ignorant Tweet:

But their news story says something different:

So, who officially ruled the death a homicide? New Haven PD, or the Allen County coroner? 

To be clear, by Indiana statute, only the county coroner can make the official determination when it comes to cause of death (blunt-force trauma) and manner of death (homicide). While the New Haven police are reliable professionals, they are not entitled by Indiana statute to make the determination that WPTA indicates they did in the Tweet promoting their story. 

Simply stated, the media elite are either lazy or just as confused as the audience they like to ridicule.

Ignorance or arrogance? Maven thinks its a little of both.  

Captain Obvious and The News Whisperer

The Maven checked in on WPTA 21's 6pm newscast tonight. 

All the Maven can say is, it would make a hell of a drinking game.

For every mispronounced street name, take a sip. 
Pettit Avenue is now pronounced "petite".

For every relation to the obvious, take a swig. 
Weather guy telling us "lightning can be deadly". 

For every ad lib gone wrong, take a gulp. 
Female anchor, attempting to sound knowledgeable and credible, does neither, and calls Fort Wayne "a relatively small town".

For every ignorant "fact" announced, take a chug. 
Sports guy thinks college football teams play in "leagues" instead of conferences. 

And just for fun and extra credit, carefully watch the "B roll", that's video shown while the reporter or anchor reads a story. 

Tonight, WPTA did a story about an accident-prone stretch of I-69 near Indianapolis. What viewers saw was easily identifiable video of I-69 in Fort Wayne, with many local landmarks. 

Also, during the obligatory Monday "gas price" story, WPTA 21 talked about Fort Wayne gas prices dropping, but viewers saw video of people fueling cars....with California licenses plates at gas stations that don't exist in Indiana, or even the Midwest. 

Sure miss Melissa, Curtis and Tommy. 

FW Media Does Not Disappoint

When it comes to idiocy and ineptness, one can always count on Fort Wayne media to deliver giggles and grins.

First up, for all our "typo" fans, WANE TV does not let us down. Watch out for those "slicks roads"....

Now, on a more philosophical level, WPTA's story about a suspicious death, this morning, at a local motel seems to indicate that, 9 hours later, police are still swarming the scene, and the coroner's staff are still on the scene, after established business hours. The reality is that everyone has gone home with the exception of a lonely security guard watching the scene.

 This story was added to the WPTA website just after noon today and has not been updated since....even after the story was mentioned during the 6:00pm news cast. It's incredible that the kids at WPTA would lead their audience to believe that 9 hours later, police are still present, in full force at the scene. 

While this does not rise to the trendy term of "fake news", it does qualify for the Maven's category of "stupid news".