Comments on: Being up-front with readers ‘no long applicable’ at the Journal Star

By: Media wallowing in misery | Peoria Pundits

Media wallowing in misery | Peoria Pundits — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 15:55:59 +0000

[...] incident is less offensive than what happened recently in Peoria, but not by a much. It’s no big deal for an editor to assign a reporter to attend funeral [...]

By: POLLYPEORIA

POLLYPEORIA — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 04:18:05 +0000

Evil scum. Years ago, Sharon Faulkner (wife of slain police officer Jim Faulkner) told me that a photographer crawled on the ground and then scurried under a chair all in order to snap a picture of one of her sons crying at his father’s funeral. As cruel as it is, a funeral shot on the front page sells newspapers. The more pain shown on the faces of grieving family the more money there is to be made. In this case, corporate greedmongers are the only members of the public being served.

By: Ryan Johnson

Ryan Johnson — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 22:56:14 +0000

Bill, this is gonna be one of the few times we agree. While the PJS has every right to be out on the street taking pictures (being inside a private ceremony is something entirely different), if the family isn’t ok with it, you shouldn’t be there. A lot of times, families will ask cameras to be there because they want their love one to be remembered. Sometimes, families want to grieve privately.

I don’t agree that anyone has been intrusive and I’m sorry the family feels that way. From what I’ve been told, the family is upset that the facts have been reported in this case. That IS public knowledge and needs to be reported. This is one case where money isn’t going to shield them and that may be hard to deal with, but they did ask for the media not to be present. Everyone else respected that wish and in my opinion, did the right thing by doing that.

By: Terry Towery

Terry Towery — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:45:26 +0000

C’mon Billy, you can’t have it both ways.

One minute, you’re slamming the mainstream media (usually the Journal Star) as old-fashioned, unethical, slow and slipshod while saying bloggers are more vital and representative of media’s new wave.

And now you’re claiming bloggers are really just low-budget, poorly trained amateurs who don’t relay information fairly and accurately?

Which is it?

By: Billy Dennis

Billy Dennis — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:21:57 +0000

Most blogs aren’t owned by multi-million dollar corporations, nor are they operated by highly trained professionals who stake their success on being able to reliably relay information fairly and accurately.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:17:55 +0000

And bloggers don’t?

By: Knight in Dragonland

Knight in Dragonland — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:55:25 +0000

The sad truth is that the media often hides behind claims of the publicâ€™s right to know when all the media is doing is satisfying consumers urge for voyeurism.

Amen.