Missoula Newspaper Protects the Privileged

A 20-year old fell to her death this last week. She fell during the commission of a crime. She was trespassing, and she was D I S T U R B I N G the P E A C E.

Rather than show a little respect for the hard-working people living in the slum hovels above the bars in that neighborhood, she chose to rattle and shake a fire-escape, whooping and hollering just to be sure she woke everyone trying to get a good night sleep for work.

But the real crime is the Missoulian's spin on this tragic event. Rather than call her actions "criminal", or even "selfish", their reporter chose to glorify her behavior, publishing quotes about what a "free spirit" she was.

If she'd been impoverished or a street person, you bet the Missoulian's byline would have read something more like: Intruder Falls From Building in Downtown Missoula.

And rather than wax on about what a sweet person the crook was, they would have reported the problems we have in downtown Missoula with public drunkenness, trespassing, and our never-ending battle trying to stop intruders from gaining access to the upper stories and roofs of our downtown buildings.

Tags: Jennifer Ness, Sherry Devlin, Missoulian, cover-ups, criminal trespassing,

Link: http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_bd68b7d4-864a-11df-ad3c-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=story

Links to this Post: http://theoddneighbor.blogspot.com/2010/07/newspapers-and-bias.html