Tag Archives: #Journolism

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Once again, the Lexington Herald-Leader hides mugshots of two accused murderers who are still on the loose Police say they are armed and dangerous, but apparently not dangerous enough for the Herald-Leader to tell readers how they look

I’ve run enough stories about the journolism[1]The spelling ‘journolist’ 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 … Continue reading of the Lexington Herald-Leader that I sometimes think I should include a subscription box for them!

The Herald-Leader is bound by the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, which prohibits the publication of police mugshots, unless approved by an editor, for serious reasons. One of those reasons is “is there an urgent threat to the community?”

1 man charged, 2 others wanted by Lexington police in separate murder cases

By Jeremy Chisenhall | June 25, 2021 | 3:33 PM | Updated: 4:33 PM EDT[2]Mr Chisenhall’s article was published at 3:33 PM. I have been refreshing the article during the writing of this article, to see if he has updated it with those mugshots. As of 5:00 PM EDT, he … Continue reading

Lexington police identified Friday suspects in two homicide cases and charged a suspect in another slaying, officials said Friday.The three homicide victims were found outside earlier this month.

Police first announced they were searching for Brandon Dockery, 31, who is accused of killing Raymar Alvester Webb. Webb was suffering from a gunshot wound when police found him in a parking lot near North Mill and West Short streets at about 1:40 a.m. on June 19, according to Lt. Dan Truex.Webb was taken to University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital where he later died, police said.

Dockery is considered armed and dangerous, police said.

Armed and dangerous, huh? Certainly seems as though he would qualify under the exception of an urgent threat to the community! And yes, the Lexington Police Department has his mugshot available, on their Homicide Investigation page. If it was available to me, it was available to Jeremy Chisenhall, the Herald-Leader reporter, who is certainly computer-savvy enough to have looked it up.

Kamond D Taylor, from his Michigan arrest record.

Lexington police also charged a man with murder after a fatal shooting outside The Office, which is a gentleman’s club in the 900 block of Winchester Road.Kamond Taylor, 30, was charged with the murder of 43-year-old Ali Robinson, police said. Robinson was shot June 9 outside the club. He was found by police and died at the scene, Lt. Ronald Keaton said.Taylor had already been detained in Detroit on local charges, police said.

Of course, under the McClatchy policy, the Herald-Leader would never publish Mr Taylor’s mugshot, because, already being in custody, he doesn’t constitute an urgent threat to the community. I am not bound by the McClatchy policy, and I do publish mugshots.

But Danzell Cruze certainly does!

Danzell Cruze, from the Kentucky Offender Online Lookup.

Also on Friday, police said a murder warrant had been issued for Danzell Cruse in the death of 38-year-old Jocko Green who was found about 3:50 p.m. June 17 in a parking lot outside an apartment complex in the 600 block of Winnie Street near the University Kentucky Chandler Hospital.He died about 7 p.m. at UK Hospital of gunshot wounds.

Cruse, who is considered armed and dangerous, also faces a charge of possessing a handgun as a convicted felon.

According to the Kentucky Offender Online Lookup, Mr Cruze was convicted on Jaunary 7, 2019, and sentenced to five years in the pokey, plus another year for a second offense. Yet he was released on December 30, 2020, after just two years, or 40%, in the slammer; I guess that the sentences ran concurrently. He is still supposed to be on probation.

If Mr Cruze had been kept locked up for his full five years, he would have been behind bars, and if really is the person who murdered Jocko Green, Mr Green would be alive today. This is precisely the kind of bad guy for whom the McClatchy policy has the listed exception. Did the Lexington Police Department not provide his mugshot to the Herald-Leader? Nope! It is on the Lexington Homicide Investigation page.

It’s simple: in their efforts not to “disproportionately harm people of color,”[3]Quote is actually from the Sacramento Bee, the lead McClatchy newspaper, and the first (as far as I know) to implement the no mugshot policy. the Herald-Leader is sacrificing the public’s right to know.

The paper, of course, has its First Amendment freedom of the press, and can choose not to publish anything the editors so choose. But my freedom of the press allows me to criticize their decisions.

References

References
↑1 The spelling ‘journolist’ 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.
↑2 Mr Chisenhall’s article was published at 3:33 PM. I have been refreshing the article during the writing of this article, to see if he has updated it with those mugshots. As of 5:00 PM EDT, he had not.
↑3 Quote is actually from the Sacramento Bee, the lead McClatchy newspaper, and the first (as far as I know) to implement the no mugshot policy.
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Journolism: We publish what the Lexington Herald-Leader will not.

It has become somewhat of a passion with me to provide the information the Lexington Herald-Leader will not. We have noted the McClatchy Company’s Mugshot Policy and how the local newspaper has honored it by declining to publish mugshots of non-white criminal suspects but doing so when the accused are white. And we noted Robert Stacy McCain’s point that journalists used to refer to the “public’s right to know,” but that such has been subjugated to political correctness, and to what the Sacramento Bee called “perpetuating stereotypes about who commits crime in our community.”

Mr McCain noted last Saturday that the media were, once again, seeking to avoid perpetuating stereotypes.

You might think that when 13 people are shot in downtown Austin, and the gunman is still at large, that it would be a public service to describe this murderous maniac. But you’re not “woke” enough:

Police have only released a vague description of the suspected shooter as of Saturday morning. The Austin American-Statesman is not including the description as it is too vague at this time to be useful in identifying the shooter and such publication could be harmful in perpetuating stereotypes and potentially put innocent individuals at risk.

Oh, if it was a right-wing white supremacist Trump voter who had committed this atrocity, you bet the media would have no qualms identifying the suspect, “perpetuating stereotypes” or not. Because the “woke” media have made themselves utterly useless as a source of facts, we must turn to Breitbart for the relevant information:

A statement from the Austin Police Department states . . . “It is unknown if there is one, or multiple suspects involved. There is one suspect described as a black male, with dread locks, wearing a black shirt and a skinny build.” . . . The shooting follows massive cuts in police funding by the Austin City Council. The council cut $150 million from the police budget . . .

Is it any wonder why people hate the “fake news” media?

The Austin American-Statesman is not a McClatchy newspaper. The Herald-Leader is:

2 more suspects arrested after death of Lexington man who was shot, set on fire

By Jeremy Chisenhall | June 14, 2021 | 11:55 AM EDT | Updated 4:11 PM EDT

Two more people have been charged in connection with a Lexington homicide after the victim’s body was set on fire in a barn, according to court records.

Martae Laron Shanks and Autumn Owens, both residents in the building where 38-year-old Lazarus Parker was allegedly shot and killed, have been charged with arson, abusing a corpse and criminal mischief, according to an indictment from a Fayette County grand jury.

The grand jury alleged that Shanks and Owens either intentionally started the fire or tried to help with the fire by purchasing gasoline in Fayette County and taking it to Bourbon County to burn Parker’s body.

Shanks and Owens were both arrested in Scott County and then transferred to the Lexington-Fayette County Detention Center last week, according to jail records.

Cecil T Russell (Fayette County Detention Center)

Cecil T. Russell, a co-defendant with Shanks and Owens in the case, was previously charged with murder. Russell was charged with killing Parker after a “cooperating witness” told investigators she heard Russell and Parker get into an argument before multiple gunshots rang out and someone screamed, according to an arrest warrant.

Cecil Russell’s mugshot was not published in the Herald-Leader, but I was able to find it in an Associated Press story published by WVLT-TV. The First Street Journal is dedicated to your right to know, and thus we reproduce it here.

Martae Shanks (Fayette County Detention Center)

More, I was able to open account with the Fayette County Detention Center, and get access to mugshots there, thus getting the mugshot of Mr Shanks. There are actually three mugshots of Mr Shanks in the records, dated October 16, 2015, March 4, 2021, and June 9, 2021, so it would seem that he is not unfamiliar with the jail. The record lists only the current offenses with which he is charged.

There were two mugshots for Autumn Owens, one dated March 4, 2021, and the current one June 10, 2021. It’s interesting that both of her bookings came concomitantly with Mr Shanks. As with Mr Shanks, only her current charges are listed on the jail website.

Autumn Owens

Is there something wrong with a mid-sized newspaper, part of a national newspaper chain, subjugating the public’s right to know to political correctness? I think that there is, and that’s why this website goes ahead and finds and published these mugshots. As for the claim that this “perpetuates stereotypes,” please note that one of the three suspects here is white, and that, in my previous post with mugshots, one of the convicted criminals was white, and one was black.[1]I confess: I had originally written that post with the black offender’s mugshot first, and the white offender’s second. Since Twitter tends to pick up the first photo in an article, I … Continue reading

A further note: the Lexington homicide investigations page has not, as of this publication, been updated since May 9th. We had previously noted this, and there have been three additional homicides in the city since that date. Someone needs to start doing his job.

Mr McCain was correct, and the credentialed media, decades ago, were correct: the public does have a right to know these things. The question is: why so small, private websites like Mr McCain’s or mine have to be the ones to

References

References
↑1 I confess: I had originally written that post with the black offender’s mugshot first, and the white offender’s second. Since Twitter tends to pick up the first photo in an article, I switched the order, so that the tweet of the article would show the white offender.
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Well, that didn’t take long! Journolism at its finest!

Well, I didn’t have to wait long! Journolism[1]The spelling ‘journolist’ 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 … Continue reading at its finest!

After posting, at 7:42 AM this morning, on the Lexington Herald-Leader eschewing posting the mug shots of black criminal suspects, at 9:02 AM reported Jeremy Chisenhall posted:

$25k stolen in 1 minute. Thieves hit Lexington shops amid national trading card frenzy

By Jeremy Chisenhall | June 4, 2021 | 09:02 AM EDT

Lexington police are looking for the man pictured here who is accused of breaking into a trading card shop and stealing merchandise. Provided by Bluegrass Crime Stoppers.

It only took about 68 seconds for a burglary suspect to smash through the front door of Jimmy’s Kentucky Roadshow Shop, a Lexington trading card store, snatch about $25,000 worth of cards and take off.

The cops and owner Jimmy Mahan were on the scene within minutes in the early morning hours of April 29, but it was too late to stop anything. The “smash and grab” burglar was gone with a bunch of unopened, untraceable card packs.

In another burglary last month, a man kicked in the glass door of a different Lexington card shop and made off with a “large quantity” of baseball trading cards, according to Lexington police. The shop, Baseball Card Warehouse, posted about the break-in on Facebook, saying it caused “a mess and a lot of issues with inventory.”

There’s more at the original.

Now, there are some differences. In this case, the (alleged) burglar can’t be identified in the photo provided, and published in the Herald-Leader, where the mugshots come with individual identification. And the (alleged) burglar is on the loose. But the Herald-Leader also declined to print the mugshot of Juanyah J Clay when he was on the loose, and charged with the far more serious crime of murder.

The more immediate difference is obvious: Mr Clay is black, and this unidentified (alleged) burglar appears to be white. Though not directly part of the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, the precursor article, in the Sacramento Bee, let us know what the concern really is:

Publishing these photographs and videos disproportionately harms people of color and those with mental illness, while also perpetuating stereotypes about who commits crime in our community.

While I cannot read the minds of Mr Chisenhall, or of Peter Baniak, Executive Editor and General Manager of the newspaper, it almost seems as though the Herald-Leader is attempting to create a stereotype of its own about who commits crime in our community.

But, nahhh, that can’t be it!

References

References
↑1 The spelling ‘journolist’ 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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Political correctness in the Lexington Herald-Leader (Part 5)

Once again, the Lexington Herald-Leader has adhered to McClatchy Company’s mugshot policy.

2 teenagers charged with murder, robbery in the death of another Lexington teen

By Jeremy Chisenhall | June 4, 2021 | 7:00 AM

Michael Rowland. Photo by Fayette County Detention Center.

Lexington police have arrested two teenagers and charged them with the murder of another teen after a fatal shooting in March.

Michael Roland, 18, was arrested Thursday and charged with murder and robbery after the death of 18-year-old Montaye Mullins, according to police. Mullins was shot in the early morning hours of March 11 and found by police at the intersection of Augusta Drive and Raleigh Road.

Mullins was taken to a local hospital where he later died, police said.

Police also arrested a 17-year-old whose name they didn’t release. Lexington police typically don’t disclose the names of defendants who were under the age of 18 at the time of a crime.

There’s more at the original, but what isn’t at the Herald-Leader original is that mugshot; I found that with a simple Google search, and it was on WKYT-TV’s website. WKYT, channel 27, is Lexington’s CBS affiliate. WTVQ, channel 36, the ABC affiliate and the NBC affiliate, WLEX-TV, channel 18, had the mugshot on their websites as well.

As we have previously noted, McClatchy’s mugshot policy is:

Publishing mugshots of arrestees has been shown to have lasting effects on both the people photographed and marginalized communities. The permanence of the internet can mean those arrested but not convicted of a crime have the photograph attached to their names forever. Beyond the personal impact, inappropriate publication of mugshots disproportionately harms people of color and those with mental illness. In fact, some police departments have started moving away from taking/releasing mugshots as a routine part of their procedures.

To address these concerns, McClatchy will not publish crime mugshots — online, or in print, from any newsroom or content-producing team — unless approved by an editor. To be clear, this means that in addition to photos accompanying text stories, McClatchy will not publish “Most wanted” or “Mugshot galleries” in slide-show, video or print.

Any exception to this policy must be approved by an editor. Editors considering an exception should ask:

  • Is there an urgent threat to the community?
  • Is this person a public official or the suspect in a hate crime?
  • Is this a serial killer suspect or a high-profile crime?

If an exception is made, editors will need to take an additional step with the Pub Center to confirm publication by making a note in the ‘package notes‘ field in Sluglife.

So, the policy was followed, again. The odd thing is, the newspaper has made exceptions to that policy, as noted here, here, here, and here, though in every case in which the policy was broken the criminal suspect was white.

Will the paper adhere to the policy the next time a white murder suspect is arrested? They’ve broken it for people charged with lesser crimes! But, as always, I will continue to monitor it.

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Journolism: Newspapers don’t think their readers can handle the truth! Once again, the Lexington Herald-Leader gets racially selective in publishing mugshots

Have you ever heard of JournoList? It was an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, to facilitate communication between them across multiple newsrooms, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term ‘journolism’ frequently when writing about media bias.

As we have previously noted, the McClatchy Company, which owns the Lexington Herald-Leader, has an explicit mugshot policy:

Publishing mugshots of arrestees has been shown to have lasting effects on both the people photographed and marginalized communities. The permanence of the internet can mean those arrested but not convicted of a crime have the photograph attached to their names forever. Beyond the personal impact, inappropriate publication of mugshots disproportionately harms people of color and those with mental illness. In fact, some police departments have started moving away from taking/releasing mugshots as a routine part of their procedures.

To address these concerns, McClatchy will not publish crime mugshots — online, or in print, from any newsroom or content-producing team — unless approved by an editor. To be clear, this means that in addition to photos accompanying text stories, McClatchy will not publish “Most wanted” or “Mugshot galleries” in slide-show, video or print.

Any exception to this policy must be approved by an editor. Editors considering an exception should ask:

  • Is there an urgent threat to the community?
  • Is this person a public official or the suspect in a hate crime?
  • Is this a serial killer suspect or a high-profile crime?

If an exception is made, editors will need to take an additional step with the Pub Center to confirm publication by making a note in the ‘package notes‘ field in Sluglife.

As I have previously stated, despite several Google searches, using various permutations, I have not been able to find this policy in written form. I found this tweet:

and a photograph I have previously used from another tweet, along with the Sacramento Bee’s precursor article. Assistant Managing Editor Ryan Lillis wrote:

The Sacramento Bee announced Wednesday it will limit the publication of police booking photos, surveillance photos and videos of alleged crimes, and composite sketches of suspects provided by law enforcement agencies.

Publishing these photographs and videos disproportionately harms people of color and those with mental illness, while also perpetuating stereotypes about who commits crime in our community.

McClatchy’s headquarters are located in the Sacramento Bee’s building.

And thus we return to the Herald-leader:

Eastern Kentucky man tries to run over a cop, flees police after being shot at

By Jeremy Chisenhall | May 28, 2021 | 8:13 AM

An Eastern Kentucky police officer shot at a suspect Thursday afternoon after the suspect allegedly tried to run the cop over, according to Kentucky State Police.

James Bussell, a 45-year-old from Owingsville, allegedly sped away from a Mount Sterling police officer during a traffic stop, made a U-turn and tried to run over the officer. The officer involved in the traffic stop fired his gun at Bussell, but didn’t hit him. The suspect made another U-turn and tried to run the cop over again, state police said.

After Bussell’s second attempt to run the officer over, his car got stuck, according to state police. He got out and fled on foot, state police said. The altercation didn’t result in any injuries, police said.

Clearly a bad dude. There’s more at the original, including this:

Well, how ’bout that? The Herald-Leader posted another photo, of a criminal suspect, this one coming from the Mt Starling, Kentucky, Police Department’s Facebook page.

Unlike the photos of Jessica Ahlbrand and Ronnie Helton,[1]The newspaper deleted Mr Helton’s mugshot from the article a couple of weeks after publication, by May 16. which the newspaper published, Mr Bussell is still on the loose. The text of the MSPD’s Facebook page and Jeremy Chisenhall’s newspaper article does not make clear that Mr Bussell fits as “an urgent threat to the community,” but he is charged with:

  1. Attempted Murder (Police Officer).
  2. Fleeing or Evading Police 1st Degree (Motor Vehicle).
  3. Wanton Endangerment 1st Degree (Police Officer).

Yeah, those are pretty serious, and I would not disagree with the assessment that Mr Bussell is a threat to the community. But so was Juanyah Jamal Clay, and the Herald-Leader declined to publish his mugshot when he was on the lam.

So, why did an editor approve of publishing Mr Bussell’s photos, but not Mr Clay’s? Mr Bussell is charged with attempted murder, while Mr Clay was wanted on an murder, not attempted murder, but actual murder charge. Why publish the mugshots of Miss Ahlbrand and Mr Helton, both of whom were in custody, but not Mr Clay, who was still on the loose?

Why? Despite my obviously brilliant mind, I am not a telepath, and cannot read the minds of Mr Chisenhall, or peter Baniak, Executive Editor and General Manager of the Herald-Leader, but, when I look at all of the photos of criminals and criminal suspects that the newspaper has published, it has been easy to notice one thing: all of the published mugshots I’ve seen have been of white suspects. Mr Lillis’ article noted that the Sacramento Bee was concerned about “perpetuating stereotypes about who commits crime in our community,” and that could fit in well with the pattern I have noticed in the Herald-Leader.

I am not the only person who has noticed!

We have noted previously Elizabeth Hughes, publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer, and her determination to make her newspaper “an anti-racist news organization,” but has turned it into exactly that, a newspaper more concerned with racial identity and sorting out its news coverage that way than it has been about the “public’s right to know.”

The Society of Professional Journalists published their Code of Ethics; you should read it. It says, among other things, that “Journalists must be free of obligation to any interest other than the public’s right to know the truth.” This is exactly the opposite of McClatchy’s decision to suppress photographs of criminals and crime suspects because publication might cause “disproportionate harm” to one group or another, or what facially appears to be the Herald-Leader’s editorial decisions[2]Remember: an editor must approve all published mugshots. This is (supposedly) not left up to the various article authors. to skew the public’s perception by publishing only the photographs of white criminals and suspects.

It ought to be simple: just tell the truth, and be consistent in publication policies. If the editors are going to decide to publish photos of suspects who are still on the loose. publish photos of all suspects who are on the loose. Be journalists, and not journolists.

References

References
↑1 The newspaper deleted Mr Helton’s mugshot from the article a couple of weeks after publication, by May 16.
↑2 Remember: an editor must approve all published mugshots. This is (supposedly) not left up to the various article authors.
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Journolism and the public’s “right to know”: let sleeping dogs lie! There are things investigative journalists do not want to investigate!

It’s sunny and 86º F outside, and Mochi is like the rest of the critters: sacked out. Click to enlarge.

OK, OK, it’s been a slow day at the farm, and I’ve been lazy. Mochi is on the couch on the screened in porch! And letting sleeping dogs lie is pretty much what today’s journolists,[1]The spelling ‘journolist’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use … Continue reading er, journalists do.

Well, being lazy, and having seen an episode of Roku’s Murder House Flip, I wasn’t online when my good friend Robert Stacy McCain threw me a bone and published this!

Leif Halvorsen: The Only Kind of Mugshot the SJW Media Will Let You See

By Robert Stacy McCain | May 22, 2021 |

Say hello to Leif Halvorsen, who was convicted for killing of three people in Kentucky “in a drug-fueled shooting rampage” in 1983. In order to fight “systemic racism,” the Social Justice Warriors who run the McClatchy newspaper cartel have developed a policy against publishing mugshots of criminals, because of the negative impact the publication of such mugshots allegedly has on “marginalized communities.”

Our blog buddy Dana Pico of First Street Journal notes that the McClatchy-owned Lexington Herald-Leader is apparently not adhering to company protocols, because they published Halvorsen’s mugshot in a story about convicted murderers in Kentucky who may be eligible for parole under a new state policy. To illustrate that story, the Herald-Leader published the mugshots of Halvorsen and four other convicted murderers who, perhaps not coincidentally, shared a certain trait with him. Can you guess what that trait was? I think you can.

There’s much more at Mr McCain’s original, but he added something I hadn’t considered:

Obviously, not every local media outlet has surrendered to the kind of SJW (Social Justice Warrior) mentality that now controls the Lexington Herald-Leader, but as someone who spent more than 20 years in the newspaper business, I must ask this: What happened to “the public’s right to know”?

This was the phrase used by journalists for many decades to defend such controversial decisions as publication of the “Pentagon Papers,” and many other practices. Journalists demanded access to public records (so-called “sunshine laws”) because what government did, in the name of the people, and with taxpayer dollars, ought to be publicly known.

Certainly in matters of law enforcement, the identities of people arrested by police are a matter of public record, as are the mug shots of suspects. No ethical journalist would willingly become complicit in a deliberate effort to conceal such information from the public.

But of course, the unethical SJWs of the McClatchy cartel do not consistently apply their policy of suppressing facts about crime.

Mr McCain was an actual professional journalist, starting at a small Southern newspaper and eventually working for the Washington Times. That pretty much leaves my two years with the Kentucky Kernel in the dust! And his point is spot on: journalists have been using that phrase for as long as I can remember. Consider McClatchy’s statement of policy:

Publishing mugshots of arrestees has been shown to have lasting effects on both the people photographed and marginalized communities. The permanence of the internet can mean those arrested but not convicted of a crime have the photograph attached to their names forever. Beyond the personal impact, inappropriate publication of mugshots disproportionately harms people of color and those with mental illness.

There is a powerful meaning that the executives at McClatchy want to hide, but can’t quite: if “inappropriate publication of mugshots disproportionately harms people of color,” it must mean at least one of two things:

  1. Either ‘people of color’ are arrested for the crimes they commit in a far greater percentage than are white people; or
  2. ‘People of color’ actually commit crimes at a far greater rate than do white people.

Logically, either 1 or 2 can be true, or both 1 and 2 can be true. But the only way that neither can be true is if the publication of mugshots does not disproportionately harm ‘people of color.’ Regardless of which, or both, are true, either one being true is something which ought to generate a whole lot of investigative journalism to find out why it is true.

The problem is that, as far as the executives at McClatchy, and journalists in general, are concerned, the belief is that number 2 is true. Oh, they want to believe that number 1 is the correct answer, which is why you see so many stories about police stopping cars driven by black Americans, but somehow that doesn’t explain why those stops have so frequently led to the discovery of illegally-possessed firearms or drugs.

The executives at McClatchy were quite blatant about it: publishing mugshots would harm communities of color because there would be a disproportionate number of mugshots depicting people of color. Today’s journalists do not want to investigate any of that, because they are afraid, deathly afraid, of the answers they would find. I noted, last year, in This is what Social Justice law enforcement gets us:

Simply put, (Larry) Krasner, who hated the police from the beginning, installed a form of ‘social justice’ law enforcement; he was tougher on the police than he was on criminals. He was oh-so-concerned that “disproportionately high numbers of minority males” were charged, convicted and incarcerated, without ever thinking to consider that perhaps, just perhaps, “disproportionately high numbers of minority males” were the ones committing crimes.

There are two kinds of crimes: crimes of evidence and crimes of reporting. If a man rapes a woman on the streets of Philadelphia, as far as the police are concerned, if it wasn’t reported, it didn’t happen. It is commonly assumed that most rapes go unreported, with some guesstimates being as high as 90% not reported. Crimes like robbery might go unreported if the victims do not trust the police or think it will do any good, or are fearful of revenge by the criminals. When your city is stuck with a District Attorney like Mr Krasner, who doesn’t believe in prosecuting criminals, or sentencing them harshly when they are prosecuted and convicted, what reason is there to report that you were robbed?

But murder is different: it is a crime of evidence. It isn’t easy to dispose of a dead body in a way that it won’t be found, especially if you haven’t carefully planned things. You’re looking at 100 to 300 pounds of dead meat, bone and fat, and something which will put off a strong and nasty odor after very little time. The vast majority of dead bodies get found.

I noted, just two days ago, that in St Louis, a city that is 45.3% black and 44.1% white, 68 out of the then-current 73 homicide victims were black, 53 males and 15 females, only three of the victims were white, and of the two known suspects, both were white. Out of the 34 identified suspects, 2 were white, 2 were Hispanic, and 30 were black. All thirty of the identified black suspects were accused of killing black victims.

The Social Justice Warriors simply have no answer for those raw, very raw, numbers. But one thing is certain: the executives at McClatchy don’t want you to know them. The editors of the Sacramento Bee, the newspaper at McClatchy’s headquarters, and the precursor to the McClatchy policy, put it more directly:

Publishing these photographs and videos disproportionately harms people of color and those with mental illness, while also perpetuating stereotypes about who commits crime in our community.

Stereotypes exist for a reason; they exist because there is usually an element of truth behind them.

For McClatchy, for Peter Baniak, Editor and General Manager of the Herald-Leader, and for the newsroom at The Philadelphia Inquirer,[2]If I seem to harp on those two newspapers, it’s because I have paid for subscriptions to them, so I read them most often. any consideration of the “public’s right to know” has been overshadowed by their desire to manipulate public attitudes, by their desire that the public not hold stereotypes which just might be accurate. The last thing they want to do is the investigative journalism to determine why those stereotypes exist, and just how true they might be, because, deep down, they believe those stereotypes themselves. They are the ones who cannot handle the truth, and they are deathly fearful of what might happen if you knew the truth.

References

References
↑1 The spelling ‘journolist’ 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.
↑2 If I seem to harp on those two newspapers, it’s because I have paid for subscriptions to them, so I read them most often.
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The Lexington Herald-Leader breaks policy and publishes a mugshot of a criminal suspect Could it be that because, once again, the accused is white rather than black?

We have previously noted the Lexington Herald-Leader’s double standards when it comes to posting the mugshots of criminal suspects. The Herald-Leader is supposed to follow McClatchy Company’s standards, as they are listed in the photo to the right.

THC snacks, sex acts: KY woman allegedly abused baby while video chatting with inmate

By Jeremy Chisenhall | May 20, 2021 | 8:15 AM EDT | Updated 12:55 PM EDT

A northern Kentucky woman is accused of letting her toddler eat marijuana snacks and performing sexual acts in front of the child while on video chat with her incarcerated boyfriend, according to the Boone County sheriff’s office.

Jessica Ahlbrand, 22, was arrested Wednesday after investigators reviewed multiple video chats between Ahlbrand and her boyfriend, who is an inmate at the Boone County Detention Center. During the video calls, Ahlbrand said she couldn’t find her marijuana “snacks” and allegedly suggested an 18-month-old child had eaten them.

She showed her boyfriend photos of the child who “appeared to be under the influence and incoherent,” according to the sheriff’s office. The two laughed at the photos.

During the same May 10 video call, Ahlbrand allegedly went into the baby’s room and performed sex acts on herself in front of the child, according to the sheriff’s office’s statement. Ahlbrand and her boyfriend had another video call on Saturday, during which she allegedly performed sex acts on herself in front of the child again.

Ahlbrand was charged with sexual abuse involving a victim under 12 and criminal abuse involving a victim under 12, according to jail records. She was taken to the Boone County Detention Center and held on a $250,000 bond.

Then, further down, the article has the following image from Facebook, complete with the mugshot of Miss Ahlbrand:[1]As of 9:57 PM EDT on Thursday, May 20, 2021, Miss Ahlbrand’s mugshot was still posted on the Herald-Leader’s website. Update! As of 7:05 AM EDT, on Friday, May 21, 2021, Miss … Continue reading

Now, I have to ask: under which of the three criteria listed in the McClatchy policy, was Miss Ahlbrand’s mugshot posted in the Herald-Leader:

  • Is there an urgent threat to the community?
  • Is this person a public official or the suspect in a hate crime?
  • Is this a serial killer suspect or a high-profile crime?

Miss Ahlbrand doesn’t appear to be an urgent threat to the community; her alleged crimes were of a personal nature, and there is nothing in either the Herald-Leader article or the BooneCounty Sheriff’s Department Facebook page to indicate that she has been released. The Sheriff’s Department stated that Miss Ahlbrand is “currently lodged at the Boone County Detention Center and is currently held on a $250,000 cash bond. That was posted at 7:18 PM on Wednesday, May 19th, so it is possible that she subsequently made bail.

Miss Ahlbrand is not a public official, nor charged with a hate crime.

Miss Ahlbrans is not a serial killer suspect, and, as far as a “high profile” crime is concerned, it sure doesn’t seem to be.

The McClatchy policy states that:

McClatchy will not publish crime mugshots — online or in print, from any newsroom or content-producing team — unless approved by an editor. To be clear, this means that in addition to photos accompanying text stories, McClatchy will not publish “Most wanted” or “Mugshot galleries” in slide-show, video or print.

Any exception to this policy must be approved by an editor.

I shall assume, therefore, that an editor approved it. According to the Herald-Leader, the article author, Jeremy Chisenhall, is a reporter, not an editor. That leaves:

  • Peter Baniak, Executive Editor and General Manager;
  • Deedra Lawhead, Deputy Editor, Digital;
  • Brian Simms, Deputy Editor, Presentation:, or
  • John Stamper, Deputy Editor, Accountability

to have approved the publication of Miss Ahlbrand’s mug shot.[2]I left out the two Sports Editors, whom, one would assume, wouldn’t be involved in this. Who did so, and why? Looking at the McClatchy criteria, I fail to see where Miss Ahlbrand fits.

Oh, but wait, I can see one way in which she fits.

Beyond the personal impact, inappropriate publication of mugshots disproportionately harms people of color and those with mental illness.

At least to judge by her photograph, Miss Ahlbrand is not a person of color, though it is at least arguable that the crime of which she is accused is indicative of mental illness.

Is that it? Is the Herald-Leader on some kind of crusade, conscious or otherwise, to publish the mugshots of white suspects, but not of non-whites? I do not know, because, brilliant as I am, I still cannot read other people’s minds. But make no mistake here: such is at least a reasonable conclusion based on the empirical evidence.

References

References
↑1 As of 9:57 PM EDT on Thursday, May 20, 2021, Miss Ahlbrand’s mugshot was still posted on the Herald-Leader’s website. Update! As of 7:05 AM EDT, on Friday, May 21, 2021, Miss Ahlbrand’s mugshot is still posted with the story. I had notified the Herald-Leader, the article author, Jeremy Chisenhall, and the Editor, Peter Baniak, via Twitter, of this inconsistency at 10:12 PM EDT on Thursday.
↑2 I left out the two Sports Editors, whom, one would assume, wouldn’t be involved in this.
Posted on by

Journolism: The Lexington Herald-Leader, which eschews publishing mugshots of black suspects, published five photos of white criminals

For some reason I have been unable to find the text version of McClatchy’s new mugshot policy online, but I was able to find this photo of it. The Kansas City Star, a McClatchy newspaper did mention it, as have several tweets, so I’m going to consider the image I found of it to be accurate.

This leads me to a couple of questions. Why did the Lexington Herald-Leader decline to publish the mugshot of Juanyah J Clay in its story on Mr Clay being sought on a murder charge and still being on the loose? Surely a man already out on bond, and then accused of murder, would fit the definition of being “an urgent threat to the community”. Publishing Mr Clay’s mugshot might have helped the Lexington Police Department locate and arrest Mr Clay, of a reader spotted him.

Was he dangerous? The Herald-Leader reported, after Mr Clay had been captured:

Juanyah Jamar Clay, 19, was arrested and booked at the Lexington-Fayette County Detention Center Tuesday evening after police said he was wanted for the alleged murder of 26-year-old Bryan D. Greene. Greene was found shot to death in January inside his residence at Eastridge Apartments, police said.

Clay was concealing three handguns on him at the time of his arrest, according to an arrest citation. He also had nearly 3.7 ounces of marijuana, more than 10 Percocet pills, cash and a digital scale with him. The officer who filled out Clay’s arrest citation said all the items were indicative of drug trafficking.

According to jail records, Clay faces eight charges: murder, carrying a concealed weapon, giving an officer false identifying information, receiving a stolen gun, tampering with a prison monitoring device, trafficking in less than 8 ounces of marijuana, trafficking in opiates, and violating conditions of release.

Doesn’t really sound like a very nice guy, does he?

McClatchy’s policy states:

To address these concerns, McClatchy will not publish crime mugshots — online or in print, from any newsroom or content-producing team — unless approved by an editor. To be clear, this means that in addition to photos accompanying text stories, McClatchy will not publish “Most wanted” or “Mugshot galleries” in slide-show, video or print.

Any exception to this policy must be approved by an editor.

Which raises the question: why did the Herald-Leader publish the mugshot of Ronnie Helton, leaving it up for at least several days, before taking it out of the article? An editor had to have approved publishing Mr Helton’s mugshot for publication on April 23, 2021, and an editor must have approved taking it back down again sometime before May 16th. Mr Helton was already in custody, so he could not have been “an urgent threat to the community,” he was not a “public official or the suspect in a hate crime,” nor a serial killer or high-profile case suspect? (Nothing in the small town of Corbin is high-profile!)

Of course, the McClatchy policy states that “inappropriate publication of mugshots disproportionately harms people of color and those with mental illness,” and Mr Helton is not a ‘person of color.’

Which brings me to this:

Dozens of convicted murderers to get a new chance at parole in KY after policy change

By Bill Estep | May 18, 2021 | 9:59 AM EST

Clawvern Jacobs kidnapped a college student, Judy Ann Howard, in Knott County in 1986 and beat her to death. Kentucky Department of Corrections. Click to enlarge.

Several convicted murderers who had been ordered to spend the rest of their lives behind bars will get another chance at leaving prison under a policy change by the Kentucky Parole Board.Under the old rule, the board sometimes issued a “serve out” order at the first parole hearing for people serving sentences of life or life without the possibility of parole for 25 years.

Inmates are eligible for a parole hearing after 20 years on a life sentence.

An order to serve out meant the person would never get another parole hearing, dying in prison absent a court decision changing his or her conviction or sentence, or a pardon or commutation.

Last month, the board changed the rule to say it would no longer issue serve out orders at the first parole hearing of inmates serving sentences of life or life without parole for at least 25 years, though it could still do so at their second hearing, according to the Department of Corrections.

Donald Bartley was convicted of taking part in the 1985 murder of a University of Kentucky student in Letcher County.

There’s much more at the link, in describing the policy change. The part that gets me? What my, sadly late, best friend used to call the Herald-Liberal published five mugshots provided by the Kentucky Department of Corrections of convicted murderers who might benefit from the change in policy, and like the published-and-then-gone mugshot of Ronnie Helton, all of the convicts pictured were white.

Jeffrey B. Coffey was convicted of shooting a young couple to death in Pulaski County in 1995.

I would not normally copy and publish all of these photos, but am doing so as documentary evidence; this is what the Herald-Leader has done.

The story noted that there are 22 convicted criminals who could benefit from the change in policy with parole hearings this year, and 23 others who will be now be eligible for parole hearings in the next several years. I’m pretty sure that I’m good enough at math to realize that’s a total of 45 inmates who may benefit, and the odds that all 45 are white would seem to be pretty small.

Now, there is a difference here: the photos published in the article are all of convicted criminals, not of suspects, and all of those convicts are murderers. But, in publishing these photos, was not the Herald-Leader compromising any chances that they would have of getting a job if any of them are released? Not all of them are of an age in which working again would be unlikely.

Stephanie Spitser strangled her 10-year-old stepson to death in Clay County. The crime happened in November 1992.

I have no sympathy for these killers, and believe that none of them should be released before the day that their victims come back to life. But what I see is what I have suspected before: the Herald-Leader is willing to publish mugshots of criminals who happen to be white.

The Sacramento Bee, the lead McClatchy newspaper, wrote of its policy — which was announced before McClatchy’s in general — that:

Publishing these photographs and videos disproportionately harms people of color and those with mental illness, while also perpetuating stereotypes about who commits crime in our community.

Let’s be blunt about this: the editors of the Bee were saying that such publication would show a ‘disproportionate’ number of suspected offenders would be “people of color,” and they did not want the photos of too many black or Hispanic offenders “perpetuating stereotypes” that blacks and/or Hispanics were more likely to commit crimes. It almost looks as though the editors of the Herald-Leader are trying to influence people into believing that murders are primarily committed by white people.

Leif Halvorsen was convicted in the murders of three people in Lexington, Ky., in January 1983.

If you read the entire article, you’ll see that there is a case to be made that the ‘serve out’ orders previously given by the Parole Board aren’t quite legal.

I have no sympathy for the Parole Board, none at all. Cody Alan Arnett was convicted for two robberies in Lexington, on August 7, 2015, and sentenced to five years in prison for each offense. As early as June 26, 2018 he was recommended for parole, and was scheduled to be released on August 1, 2018. This would mean that he served a week less than three years for his (supposedly) consecutive five year sentences. Within two months of his release, Mr Arnett was arrested for the forcible rape at knifepoint of a Georgetown College coed, at a time in which he could have and should have still been in prison. Mr Arnett had five violent felony offenses on his record. Mr Arnett, if he was indeed the rapist, was only able to rape his victim because the Parole Board let him out early. On September 18, 2018, the Herald-Leader published Mr Arnett’s mugshot, but, to be fair about it, that was before the Sacramento Bee article cited above. Then again, the Herald-Leader did publish the mugshot of a criminal suspect, another white guy, on July 21, 2020, more than two weeks after the Bee’s article, though before McClatchy announced its policy in August.

If the editors are truly committed to not ‘disproportionately’ harming ‘people of color,’ perhaps we should ask why the Herald Leader publishes the names of criminal suspects. Let’s be brutally honest again: just seeing the name of Juanyah J Clay, and then the next day as Juanyah Jamar Clay, I knew that the suspect was almost certainly a ‘person of color.’ More, it isn’t the mugshots which hurt, but the names themselves. If Mr Clay happens to be acquitted, and then goes looking for a legitimate job, any human resources department that is worth anything is going to do a Google search of his name, not his photograph, because his name is by far the easier search item.

If Ryan Dontese Jones, is acquitted of the several charges against him, charges reported by the Herald-Leader, when he goes to apply for a job after all is said and done, any company with a responsible human resources department is going to do a Google search for his name, and they’ll find that story, even though the newspaper declined to include Mr Jones’ mugshot.

“Thank you for your application, Mr Jones. We will be in touch with you.”

Journalism supposedly involves finding, and publishing, the truth for that media-outlet’s readers or viewers. But McClatchy in general, and the Herald-Leader specifically, want to obscure the truth, because in some cases, the truth is not politically correct, the truth is not what the bosses want to be the truth.

We had already noted, on May 10th, that the Lexington city government’s shooting investigations page listed 31 then current shooting investigations, in which 24 of the victims were listed as black, 3 as Hispanic, and 4 as white. That, in itself, ought to be news, in that the city is roughly 70.6% white and 14.5% black.

But rather than being news, rather than being something actual journalists would want to investigate, it is something that McClatchy and the Herald-Leader do not want reported, and do want to hide. That’s not journalism, that’s journolism, and yes, I will always call them out on it.

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Journolism: The Brown Daily Herald decides to hide the truth.

The Brown Daily Herald is the student newspaper for Brown University, a hoitiest of the toitiest Ivy League college, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and is the seventh oldest college in the United States. Highly selective, Brown accepts only the best of the best, or president’s daughters, and even they can get kicked out for poor academic performance.

So it was with some amusement that I read this, with a hat tip to my good friend Hube:

Editors’ note: Changing deadnames and pronouns

By 131th Editorial Board[1]Editors’ Notes are written by The Herald’s 131st editorial board: Kayla Guo ’22.5, Henry Dawson ’22.5, Li Goldstein ’22, Emilija Sagaityte ’22, Kate Ok ’22, Emily Teng ’22 and Kamran … Continue reading | Monday, May 17, 2021

In order to respect individuals’ current and lived identities, The Herald has adopted a new policy regarding requests from transgender or nonbinary individuals to replace their deadname and/or change their pronouns featured in previously published work on The Herald’s website. Upon receiving such a request, The Herald will make the gender-affirming changes online in a timely manner and without a correction or editor’s note marking the change.

It is normal journalistic procedure to note corrections made to articles, so the Herald is telling readers that it will not abide by what the journalism students are (supposedly) being taught by their professors.[2]The 131th Editorial Board members, being in their late teens and early twenties, may never have heard of JournoList, from which I have taken the word ‘journolism.’

This policy is intended to respect transgender and nonbinary individuals. We will not include an editor’s note announcing the gender-affirming change(s) made in response to such a request because we believe such a note would risk outing the individual and causing harm. Because the information included in the article was accurate at the time of publishing, we do not feel this raises questions about transparency or accountability.

What does that even mean? If “the information included in the article was accurate” at the time of publication,[3]Note that I have corrected their grammar. Journalism students should not have such poor grammar. then it was accurate, and this editorial change is one which makes the article inaccurate. If “the information included in the article was accurate” at the time of publication, then declining to note such is the opposite of “transparency or accountability.” Accountability means taking responsibility for one’s actions; the Editorial Board are deliberately refusing accountability.

How, I have to ask, does changing a story, without issuing a notice of correction, avoid “outing the individual and causing harm”? Clearly, if the person in question identified as one sex at the time the story was written, and another later on, that story has gone deep into the archives. Almost no one would see the old story unless he were searching for it, and a search for Cindy Brown is not going to result in a story about Carl Brown. The Editorial Board are sacrificing journalistic integrity for no reason at all.

We think this policy reflects both our commitment to accuracy and our ethical obligation to minimize harm. We are eager to see how other newsrooms, both our student peers and at professional news organizations, address this and similar questions in the coming months and years.

As we have noted concerning the Lexington Herald-Leader’s and McClatchy’s (apparent) policies in general, withholding information is both a deliberate inaccuracy and can promote actual harm.

Journalists have a self-assumed duty to the truth; what the Editorial Board are doing is to deliberately obscure the truth. If John Smith was publicly identifying as John Smith at the time of the news story, it becomes wholly inaccurate to change his name to Jane Smith just because he has decided that he is a she now. The news story was about the situation at the time, and includes how other people saw and reacted to John Smith, not Jane Smith.

A great truth of which the Editorial Board may be unaware: people react differently to males and females, and this is part of the news.

One would hope that “how other newsrooms, both our student peers and at professional news organizations, address this and similar questions in the coming months and years,” is to address such issues is by doing something really radical, like telling the truth. The Editorial Board of The Brown Daily Herald have apparently decided that telling the truth is far less important than being #woke and trendy.

References

References
↑1 Editors’ Notes are written by The Herald’s 131st editorial board: Kayla Guo ’22.5, Henry Dawson ’22.5, Li Goldstein ’22, Emilija Sagaityte ’22, Kate Ok ’22, Emily Teng ’22 and Kamran King ’22
↑2 The 131th Editorial Board members, being in their late teens and early twenties, may never have heard of JournoList, from which I have taken the word ‘journolism.’
↑3 Note that I have corrected their grammar. Journalism students should not have such poor grammar.