We have said it before: the journolists[1]The spelling ‘journolist’ or ‘journolism’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their … Continue reading of the credentialed media don’t outright lie to us, but they are very good at not mentioning politically incorrect facts. For instance, we recently reported that The Philadelphia Inquirer, our nation’s third oldest continuously published daily newspaper, made no mention at all of the murder of 19-year-old Nafiese McClain in a bodega on the corner of 55th and Master Streets on January 29th, nor of the arrest of a 16-year-old juvenile, Jahsir Walke, for that killing.[2]As of 9:28 AM EST today, site searches of the Inquirer’s website showed no returns at all for the names of the arrested, alleged killer or the victim, even though Fox 29 News had the story of … Continue reading We previously reported how the Lexington Herald-Leader concealed the sex of the victims of a female teacher, administrator, and coach in Floyd County, even though two of the known victims came forth publicly, and yup, they were girls.
Well, here the media go again. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Philly has the largest jump in average cost of car insurance in the country in 2024
The average full-coverage premium costs in the Philadelphia metro area jumped 154% this year from $1,872 to $4,753.
by Ariana Perez-Castells | Wednesday, February 7, 2024 | 5:00 AM EST
Drivers in the Philadelphia metro area are spending a larger share of their income on car insurance than many in the nation, according to an annual report released this month from Bankrate, a consumer financial services company.
On average, Philly drivers are spending $4,753 on their annual car premium, 5.65% of their household income.
According to Bankrate, the average full-coverage premium costs in the Philadelphia metro area — which includes Camden and Wilmington — jumped 154% this year. It is the largest increase of any of the 26 metros examined by Bankrate.
Only drivers in the Tampa, Miami, and Detroit metros are spending a larger percentage of their household incomes on their car premium than those in the Philly metro area, according to Bankrate’s analysis.
Four paragraphs follow, telling Inquirer readers that premiums have increased nationwide, and then we get to this paragraph, below its own subtitle:
Why the large increase?
Insurance premiums are, for the most part, reactionary, Martin said, and a lot has happened in the last few years that has affected rates including inflation, an increase in the price of car parts, more fatalities when people got back on the road in 2021, and refunds insurance companies issued customers during the pandemic.
Sounds reasonable, right? But you know what is not mentioned in the article? Carjackings!
- Where Are You Mostly Likely to Get Carjacked? Charting a Meteoric Rise in Philly Channel 10, Philadelphia, July 28, 2022
- Records show car thefts are skyrocketing in Philadelphia. Police say they lack resources CBS News – Philadelphia, October 17, 2023
- Philly carjackings way up, homicides slightly down: For the first time ever, carjackings in Philly have topped 1,000 this year, but the city’s DA says homicides are down slightly from this time last year. PBS, WHYY, October 3, 2022
- Philadelphia reports sharp spike in carjackings in 2021 Axios, Philadelphia, January 20, 2022
It’s not as though the Inquirer somehow missed all of that, given this story in that august newspaper:
- DA Larry Krasner announces new carjacking unit: Carjackings hit an all-time high in 2022, with more than 1,300 reported, the Philadelphia Police Department told The Inquirer. That figure represents a 53% increase over last year. By Nick Vadala, Friday, December 29, 2022, 3:31 PM EST
More, Miss Perez-Castells is listed as one of the three authors of the article “Car thefts at the Philadelphia Airport have risen sharply since before the pandemic: So far this year, 112 cars have been stolen from the Philadelphia airport, a spike of 5500% from the same point in 2019,” published on Friday, October 13, 2023. She cannot have not known about the terrible car theft and carjacking problem in the City of Brotherly Love.
We reported on a worse-than-usual carjacking in South Philly, one which the newspaper covered, in which the carjacking victim was killed, but in a story in which the newspaper told us that the suspects three “young men, appearing to be between the ages of 15 and early 20s, dressed in dark clothing,” concealing that the suspects were three black young men.
There isn’t even the slightest hint in reporter Ariana Perez-Castells’ article that carjackings, or even auto theft in general, played even the barest part in automobile insurance premiums. If the report she cited stated specifically that carjackings and theft did not contribute to the increase in premiums, Miss Perez-Castells did not mention such.
So, the question becomes: did Miss Perez-Castells omit any mention of the possibility that Philly’s high automobile theft and carjacking rates could have contributed to the dramatic increase in full coverage insurance rates, or did she include it, only to have it blue-penciled[3]Blue penciled is an old copy-editing term, which shows how old I am! by an editor following publisher Elizabeth Hughes’ dictate that the newspaper would become an “anti-racist news organization,” and her promises that the Inky would be closely examining its crime reporting which “portrays Philadelphia (minority) communities, which have often been stigmatized by coverage that over-emphasizes crime,” and “includes countless stories focused on minor crimes and disproportionately affect people of color”? I don’t know the answer to that, but one thing is certain to me: such should have been included in the story. If the reporter didn’t include it, her editor should have noticed it and asked why it was omitted.
The non-inclusion of this very serious Philadelphia problem took a decent bit of reporting, and mostly trashed it. It’s difficult for me to believe that I’m the only subscriber who would have noticed that glaring omission, because it practically leapt off the page my monitor screen at me. The Inquirer has every right to omit that consideration from its story, for whatever reasons the writer and/or editors had; that’s part of the newspaper’s freedom of the press. But it’s also the right of the readers to notice, and take judgements on the newspaper’s journalism due to it.
References
| ↑1 | The spelling ‘journolist’ or ‘journolism’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term ‘journolism’ frequently when writing about media bias. |
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| ↑2 | As of 9:28 AM EST today, site searches of the Inquirer’s website showed no returns at all for the names of the arrested, alleged killer or the victim, even though Fox 29 News had the story of the arrest two days ago. |
| ↑3 | Blue penciled is an old copy-editing term, which shows how old I am! |
