Tag Archives: #LexingtonHeraldLeader

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At what point do purposeful omissions become deliberate lies? The Lexington Herald-Leader, the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, and the attempt to deceive the public

On The First Street Journal, I frequently refer to journolism. 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.

I have done several searches, over time, to find the McClatchy Mugshot Policy written down as an official communique from the company, without success. I have found it specified in this tweet from Nicole Manna, who described herself as an “Investigative reporter for the @StarTelegram focusing on criminal justice. Dog mom. Florida native. Olive enthusiast. Tip me, please: nmanna@star-telegram.com”. I have reproduced the photo of the e-mail, and you can click on the image to enlarge it for easier reading.

The Kansas City Star, a McClatchy newspaper, noted in this article that “The Star’s parent company, McClatchy, announced this summer that it would stop publishing mugshots unless approved by an editor”, but while I was able to copy that much from a Google search, the article is “subscriber-only content”, so I cannot access it. My digital subscription to the Lexington Herald-Leader, another McClatchy newspaper, does not give me access to other company sites.

The Columbia Journalism Review published an article by Cory Hutchins on October 24, 2018, “Mugshot galleries might be a web-traffic magnet. Does that justify publishing them?“, asking if the publication of mugshots of accused but not convicted criminal suspects is ethical; this was before the McClatchy Mugshot Policy went into effect.

On October 20, 2021, the American Press Institute welcomed Kamaria Roberts to the fold, saying in part:

During her time at McClatchy, Roberts served as a co-chair to the news division’s first Advisory Team, which focused on diversity and inclusion efforts in newsrooms and in the content that they produce. In that role, she and nine other colleagues delivered significant recommendations of many consequential initiatives, including McClatchy’s mugshot policy and the company’s style change to capitalize Black in references to people and culture.

Without an official link to the policy from McClatchy itself, that’s the best documentation up with which I can come, but I believe it sufficient to prove the point.

I documented in “The Lexington Herald-Leader does race-based reporting” how the newspaper’s digital version of “2 died in a robbery, gunfight spree in Lexington. Shooter pleads in 1 case” declined to print the mugshot of Jemel Barber, who pleaded guilty to “one of two fatal shootings during a string of robberies and gunfights in Lexington,” while, in “Hour-long standoff at Stanton gas station leads to arrest of sexual assault suspect“, published only four minutes after the update on Mr Barber’s conviction, the paper did publish the mugshot, a very disrespectful looking photo, of Craig Worm, 50, an arrested but not convicted sexual assault suspect.

It was on that story that I left a comment noting that the Herald-Leader has been publishing the photos of white suspects, but not black convicted murderers. Peter Baniak, the editor, certainly has noted the point, as have reporters Chris Leach and Jeremy Chisenhall, but, as of Monday, November 22, 2021, the photo is still on the story.

The paper did not stop when notified: on Thursday, November 18th, the web edition had Christopher Leach’s story, “Kentucky woman ran to neighbor for help. Boyfriend charged over what happened next.“, with this photo of suspect Mark Anthony Hoover, while on Friday, November 19th, Mr Leach’s story “Corbin man charged after allegedly beating father with pipe” included this photo.[1]For documentary purposes, I have included both the original link to the picture as well as my download of it, stored on this site. I do this in case the paper deletes the photo.

This is hardly something that has happened in just the past week or so. I noted, half a year ago, that the Lexington Herald-Leader does not like posting photographs of accused criminals, even when the suspect is an accused murderer and is still at large, and publishing the photo might help the police capture him. something which ought to have triggered the “Is there an urgent threat to the community?” exception in the mugshot policy.

The McClatchy policy states that any exceptions to the general policy of not publishing mugshots “must be approved by an editor.” The newspaper lists four (non-sports) editors who might be responsible for taking such decisions:[2]This list may be out of date; looking at it, I noted that reporter Daniel Desrochers, who has moved on, is still listed, while Christopher Leach, a recent hire, is not.

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

So, who is approving printing all of the mugshots of white suspects, or white convicted criminals, yet not wanting those of black suspects or convicted criminals published?

But more important than the “who” is the “why”. The answer to that may be found in The Sacramento Bee, the lead McClatchy newspaper, which led the way on the no mugshot policy. While much of the current policy, as stated, can be found in this article, this paragraph includes something not in the stated policy:

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.

It’s that last, “perpetuating stereotypes about who commits crime in our community,” that is the key. The Herald-Leader, or so it seems to me, does not want to perpetuate those stereotypes, and, whether intentionally or otherwise, seems to be trying to reverse those stereotypes. From the Bee again:

(T)he San Francisco Police Department earlier this month announced it will no longer release mugshots, unless the public is in imminent danger.

“This policy emerges from compelling research suggesting that the widespread publication of police booking photos in the news and on social media creates an illusory correlation for viewers that fosters racial bias and vastly overstates the propensity of Black and brown men to engage in criminal behavior,” Police Chief William Scott said in a statement.

I will admit it: I fail to see how publishing the facts “overstates” anything.

The Lexington Police Department’s Shooting investigations page reports, as of November 19, 2021, 120 non-fatal shootings in Fayette County. That page lists the race of the victims, something the Homicides page does not.

Of 120 shooting victims, 19 are listed as white, 11 as Hispanic, leaving 90 victims being listed as black. That’s an even 75.00%, in a city that the 2020 Census lists as being only 14.7% black. While the number of shootings which have resulted in arrests is really too low from which to draw numbers, we do know that most murders and attempted murders are intraracial, not interracial, in nature. In the vast majority of cases, white people kill other white people, and black people kill other black people. Unless there has been a substantial deviation from that norm, something which neither the Herald-Leader nor any other Kentucky media have reported, 75% of all shootings in the city having black victims means that a similarly high percentage of the shooters are black as well.

So what are the editors of that newspaper doing? Whether intentionally or otherwise, the paper’s coverage of crime and their choices in which photos to use appear to be aimed at persuading readers that the perpetrators of crimes in the region are primarily white. While in the eastern Kentucky areas of the Herald-Leader’s circulation area, that’s probably true, given that the percentage of the population in that area is very low, when you get to the city of Lexington, the numbers say that no, that’s not the case.

This is journolism, not journalism, this is the skewing of information to produce a false impression. If the editors are aware of what is being done in the newspaper and website they control, they are deliberately lying to their readers; if the editors are somehow not aware of what they have been doing, then they are not competent in doing their jobs, and need to be replaced.

 

References

References
↑1 For documentary purposes, I have included both the original link to the picture as well as my download of it, stored on this site. I do this in case the paper deletes the photo.
↑2 This list may be out of date; looking at it, I noted that reporter Daniel Desrochers, who has moved on, is still listed, while Christopher Leach, a recent hire, is not.
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Lock him up!

Aramis Murray, 30, is not your quintessential good guy. Despite his claim that it was self-defense, a jury in Fayette County convicted Mr Murray of murder:

    ‘Senseless act.’ Jury convicts man in Lexington murder despite self-defense argument

    by Jeremy Chisenhall | Wednesday, November 17, 2021 | 3:49 PM EST | Updated: Thursday, November 18, 2021 | 8:13 AM EST

    Aramis Murray, photo by Fayette County Detention Center, and is a public record.

    A Fayette County jury on Wednesday convicted a man of murder in a Lexington shooting death despite the defendant’s claim that he fired in self-defense.

    Aramis Murray, 30, stood trial this week for murder in the death of 30-year-old Jason Lemer Smith in April 2018. Murray claimed self-defense, alleging that he believed Smith had a gun. But prosecutors said in court there’s no evidence to support Murray’s claim and this shooting was “another senseless act of gun violence.”

    The jury agreed with prosecutors and convicted Murray after several hours of deliberation Wednesday.

    Murray shot Smith on the front porch of Smith’s home, a residence on Corral Street where Murray had also been staying, according to court testimony. Prosecutors alleged that Smith was trying to confront Murray because Murray threatened his and Smith’s girlfriends with a gun. Murray had been arguing with the women and making threats to them all day, prosecutors said.

    Jurors had been told they could convict Murray of murder, second-degree manslaughter or reckless homicide if they found him guilty.

There’s more at the original. The mugshot in this article was not in the Herald-Leader website.

The Lexington Herald-Leader used to publish mugshots of accused criminals, and did so on April 23, 2018, before the adoption of the McClatchy Mugshot Policy. The newspaper used a slightly older mugshot, dated February 22, 2018, rather than the one taken the date of his reported arrest. The jail website also has mugshots of Mr Murray dated July 27, 2017, December 21, 2017, and December 28, 2017.

Mr Murray, it seems, had a bad habit of getting himself arrested. Sadly, whatever got him arrested on February 22, 2018, didn’t keep him behind bars on April 23, 2018, when he murdered Jason Smith. If he had been behind bars on that day, Mr Smith would (probably) still be alive today. More, Mr Murray would not be looking at spending the next 25 years of his miserable life, the sentence recommended by the jury, in prison. Lenient treatment, in the end, did Mr Murray no favor.

This is the problem with the left’s continual complaints about “mass incarceration.” The really bad guys are almost always the people previously treated leniently by the system, the people who could have, and should have, already been behind bars for a lesser term. when they committed the acts that got them the big time sentences.

The mugshot? Why of course the newspaper didn’t print the photo of a convicted killer! The photo of an accused, but not yet tried or convicted suspect, a white suspect, is still up on the newspaper’s website, because they engage in race-based reporting.

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The Lexington Herald-Leader does race-based reporting A white man accused, but not convicted, has his photo published; a black man who has pleaded guilty to killing a man, no mugshot published

Jemel Barber. Photo by Fayette County Detention Center, and is a public record.

Jemel Barber is not a nice guy. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported this afternoon that Mr Barber has pleaded guilty to manslaughter:

    2 died in a robbery, gunfight spree in Lexington. Shooter pleads in 1 case

    by Jeremy Chisenhall | November 16, 2021 | 7:44 AM EST | Updated: 4:16 PM EST

    A Central Kentucky man has pleaded guilty in one of two fatal shootings during a string of robberies and gunfights in Lexington.

    Jemel Barber, 22, pleaded guilty last week to manslaughter and second-degree robbery more than four years after he shot and killed 40-year-old Tyrece Clark, according to court records. He was initially charged with murder and first-degree robbery, but his charges were amended down after a plea agreement was reached.

    Barber told police after the deadly shooting on July 23, 2017, that he showed up at a Lexington motel with a rifle, intending to rob Clark of narcotics and/or money, according to court records.

    But Clark started shooting after Barber knocked on his door, Barber told police, so he shot back. The plea agreement was reached after attorneys disputed whether or not Barber could claim self-defense. Barber maintained that Clark was the aggressor and his attorneys continued to blame Clark as the court case played out.

Prosecutors recommended a sentence of 15 years on manslaughter, and 10 years on the robbery conviction; sentencing is scheduled for February 11, 2022. Not yet determined is whether the sentences will run concurrently or consecutively.

There’s more at the original, but what is not at the original is the convicted killer’s mugshot. The McClatchy Mugshot policy holds that:

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.

Mr barber, however, is not someone who has been arrested but not convicted; he’s guilty.

Nor was he a very nice guy prior to his latest arrest. The Fayette County Detention Center page on Mr Barber had five separate mugshots of the malefactor, dated September 28, 2017, November 14, 2017, February 14, 2018, April 19, 2018, and then his last arrest, on May 2, 2018. Born November 25, 1998, he was just 18 when he was first arrested, at least as an adult, and wasn’t yet 19 when arrested the last time. He was still 18 when he killed Tyrece Clark.

However, while the Herald-Leader kept Mr Barber’s mugshot out of their website, they applied their mugshot policy rather inconsistently in the next story:

    Hour-long standoff at Stanton gas station leads to arrest of sexual assault suspect

    by Christopher leach | November 16, 2021 | 4:20 PM EST

    Craig Worm, photo by Stanton Police department, and published in the Lexington Herald-Leader, November 16, 2021.

    A sexual assault suspect from South Dakota was arrested at a gas station in Powell County after a nearly hour-long standoff with police Tuesday morning, according to a Facebook post by Stanton Police Department.

    Police said they were called to Airport Market in Stanton just before 8:30 a.m. for reports of a man who was firing a gun inside the store. When police and deputies with the Powell County Sheriff’s Office arrived, they found a man with a handgun inside a vehicle.

    That man was later identified as Craig Worm, 50, of South Dakota, according to police.

    Worm asked to buy cigarettes before firing at the store’s ceiling and saying, “now call police,” the store owner told WAVE 3.

    Worm barricaded himself inside his vehicle for approximately one hour before surrendering, police said.

There’s more at the original, including Mr Worm’s mugshot.

Unlike Mr Barber, who has been accused of a serious crime, but not convicted of anything, the editors at the Herald-Leader decided to publish his photo, despite their concern about “those arrested but not convicted of a crime hav(ing) the photograph attached to their names forever”. Mr Worm could still be acquitted.

The difference? Mr Barber, now a confessed killer, is black, while Mr Worm, accused but still innocent until proven guilty of sexual assault, is white. If there is another distinction, it certainly isn’t obvious.

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#MaskMandates and fewer fans in the stands Maybe if the Lexington Herald-Leader told the unshaded truth, the newspaper would have more subscribers

If there is one thing that keeps the Lexington Herald-Leader in business, it is the newspaper’s reporting on University of Kentucky sports. In our poor state, UK’s men’s basketball team has been a source of pride for decades, winning eight NCAA championships, the first in 1948. Rupp Arena, where the Wildcats play, was once the nation’s largest basketball venue.

Crowds were extremely limited last season, due to COVID-19 restrictions, and the team had an unexpectedly poor season. This year, with some veteran players returning, along with some experienced transfers and top freshmen, much is expected of the Wildcats.

The Herald-Leader has now noted that attendance has been unexpectedly low:

    Empty seats in Rupp Arena are sending UK a message. Is anyone listening?

    by Mark Story | November 15, 2021 | 4:14 PM EST

    One of the pressing questions this year as America’s mass-spectator sports moved out of 2020’s pandemic-inspired attendance restrictions is whether the crowds were going to come back en masse to the ballgames?

    Locally, University of Kentucky football fans have answered with an emphatic yes.

    In the 61,000-seat Kroger Field, UK sold out three of its four home Southeastern Conference games this fall — Florida (announced attendance of 61,632), LSU (61,690), Tennessee (61,690) — and just missed on its fourth vs. Missouri (58,537).

Skipping further down was the impetus for the story:

    While the sample size is small, attendance has so far this season been soft for UK basketball games in Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center.

    For the Wildcats’ 2021-22 exhibition opener against Kentucky Wesleyan, the announced attendance in Rupp — the number of tickets distributed to the event — was 17,133 in the 20,545-seat venue.

    The figure for the second exhibition, against Miles College, was 17,814.

You can follow the link to read the rest for yourself.

Mark Story, one of the newspaper’s sportswriters, suggested that part of the reason was worry over the COVID-19 panicdemic. But, in the end, he said that it was his guess that paying customers were disappointed in the cupcakes UK was playing in the early part of the season, and that we’d see something different when the hated University of Louisville Cardinals come to town on December 22nd.

But it was this photo, accompanying the article, which caught my attention. If I counted correctly, there are 38 fans depicted whose faces can be seen clearly, and only 17 cam be seen wearing face masks correctly. Several others can be seen with masks below noses, below chins, at least one with a mask hanging down from one ear, and others with no masks visible at all. Yet UK mandates the wearing of facemasks at all indoor sporting events:

    Among the policies, fans will be required to wear a face mask as they watch the game and move around Rupp Arena, regardless of vaccination status. The policy also applies to staff and vendors.

We have reported, more than once, that despite individual venues requiring the wearing of face masks, those ‘requirements’ are being honored in the breach. Just yesterday, at the Kroger on Bypass Road in Richmond, Kentucky, despite this sign being posted by the interior door of the vestibule, requiring masks of all customers, around half, and possible more, of the customers were not wearing masks. Another sign, outside the exterior doors, said “Masks strongly encouraged for fully vaccinated individuals,” meaning that the signs were inconsistent with each other, but there was, of course, no attempt made that I saw, or have ever seen, to enforce either sign.

Kentuckians just don’t like those masks!

Mr Story’s story? While he mentioned the COVID-19 panicdemic possibly having something to do with lowered attendance, he never wrote the first word about the mask mandate potentially contributing to fewer fans in the stands.

This is just poor journalism, or typical journolism,[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 from the Herald-Leader. To have mentioned that the mask mandate might have possibly caused lower attendance would have wholly violated the paper’s editorial stand in favor of masks. Whether Mr Story actually mentioned it, and an editor removed it, or he simply ignored it due to what my best friend used to call the Herald-Liberal’s editorial stand, I do not know, but the newspaper is not telling the whole truth to its readers.

Media bias does not normally come in the form of outright lies to readers. Rather, it is far more likely to come from the choices of what facts to report, and what facts to conceal. In this case, the Herald-Leader omitted a major potential cause in reduced attendance, when that major potential cause contradicted its editorial stance. Perhaps Mr Story sneaked that in, with the photo chosen to illustrate the article, but no mention of the mask mandate was made in the story; the source I used to note the mandate came from WLEX-TV.

Newspapers are suffering from reduced readership all across the country; maybe if they told readers the unvarnished truth, they’d have more subscribers.

References

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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The Lexington Herald-Leader mugshot policy They love to print photos of Capitol kerfufflers being sentenced to just probation, but hide the photos of convicted sex offenders!

The Lexington Herald-Leader adheres to the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, which begins:

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.

Though I disagree with that policy, its basis is clearly and explicitly stated protection of those charged with crimes, but not yet convicted. Why, then, is what my best friend used to call the Herald-Liberal not publishing the mugshots of those convicted of serious crimes?

2 sentenced to prison time over ‘very disturbing’ sexual assault of a Lexington child

Crystal Secrest. Photo by Fayette County Detention Center, via Lexington Herald-Leader, December 8, 2018.

by Jeremy Chisenhall | Monday, November 8, 2021 | 12:04 PM EDT | Updated: 4:04 PM EDT

A Lexington woman and an Indiana man will each spend more than a decade in prison after entering pleas to sex crimes against a child.

Crystal Annette Secrest and Patrick Christopher Noble were both sentenced in Fayette Circuit Court Friday after pleading guilty in the same case; Secrest was accused of repeatedly forcing the victim to perform oral sex on Noble. Judge Thomas L. Travis, who sentenced Secrest to 16 years in prison and Noble to 18 years in prison on Friday, said the case was a “very disturbing situation.”

“I must say this is one of the more disturbing things that I’ve had the occasion to see and read about while I’ve been here on the bench,” Travis said prior to imposing Secrest’s sentence.

There’s more at the original. Miss Secrest is 32 years old, so if she serves the 13 years remaining on her full sentence — she was credited for time served since her arrest in December of 2018 — she won’t get out of prison until she’s 45 years old. I would like to think that she’ll serve the full term, but don’t really have much confidence of that.

Patrick Noble, photo by Fayette County Detention Center, a public record.

Then there’s Patrick Noble. Mr Noble has been locked up since March 12, 2019, so he’s already served 2¾ years, of his 18 year sentence. Since he’s already 56 years old, we can at least hope he won’t be released until he’s 71 years old.

Mr Noble entered an Alford plea, in which he did not admit guilt, but conceded that there was enough evidence against him to be convicted in a jury trial. Nevertheless, Mr Noble maintains his innocence, and his attorney, Shannon Brooks-English, said that he would appeal. Rosa Noble, his wife, said that she supported her husband 100%, and she knew that he did not commit the crimes.

Uh huh, right.

So, why did the Herald-Leader, which wasted bandwidth on a stock illustration, not publish the mugshots of these two malefactors? Surely their offenses were far greater than those of some of the Capitol kerfufflers, people whose crimes were so heinous that they were allowed to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge, the maximum sentence for which is six months, and some of whom have received probation!

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Court-ordered idiocy

So far, 11:30 AM EDT, the Lexington Herald-Leader has nothing on this story, but if they do publish it, watch them not publish the offender’s mugshot, not try to help the police catch the malefactor.

    Lexington Police search for missing inmate

    By: Web Staff | Posted at 10:50 AM, Nov 07, 2021 and last updated 10:50 AM, Nov 07, 2021

    Alan Tatman. Photo by: Division of Community Corrections.

    LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Lexington Police are searching for a missing inmate named Alan Tatman.

    According to the Division of Community Corrections, Tatman did not return to jail on Saturday after a court-ordered pass.

    In a press release, Lieutenant Richard Frans said Tatman was released at 9 a.m. and was supposed to return at 5 p.m. but failed to do so.

    Frans said Tatman is being held on two counts of theft by unlawful taking and one count of failure to appear for a charge of burglary in the third degree.

    He is also being held on two warrants for probation violations out of Jessamine County.

    Tatman is 47-years-old, 5-foot-7, and weighs 185 pounds, has brown hair and hazel eyes.

Mr Tatman is already a convicted criminal, as the fact he was being held for probation violations attests. But, more incredibly, why would any judge issue a “court-ordered pass” to someone being held on a failure to appear warrant? Isn’t that pretty much the definition of a flight risk?

Any items he steals, any damage he causes, and any expenses he incurs in the police locating and apprehending him should be borne by whichever oh-so-wise judge ordered a day pass for him. Hold the judge accountable!

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Update: 5:53 PM EDT

As predicted, when the Herald-Leader did finally cover the story, in an article by reporter Jeremy Chisenhall time stamped at 4:45 PM, the fugitive’s mugshot, which was freely available to it, did not appear in the article, as screen captured on the right; you can click on the image to enlarge it.

Mr Tatman is not someone who has simply been charged but not convicted; he has previous criminal convictions. Now he’s a fugitive from justice, and if WLEX-TV, Channel 18, the NBC affiliate in Lexington could show his mugshot, and perhaps have some random citizen spot the fugitive and recognize him as such, why couldn’t what my best friend used to call the Herald-Liberal? Perhaps, just perhaps, a reader of the newspaper’s website might be the one top spot the man and call the cops.

The Herald-Leader is more concerned with protecting the anonymity of convicted criminals and fugitives from justice than with the safety of its readership.

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The Lexington Herald-Leader makes another exception to the McClatchy Mugshot Policy . . . for a cute (?) white girl * Updated! *

Emily Darnell lives in Paducah Kentucky, at the far western end of the Bluegrass State. A story about a non-lethal stabbing, a domestic violence episode in the county seat of McCracken County, wouldn’t normally attract much interest in the Lexington Herald-Leader, but in this very ordinary case, it was ‘important’ enough for one of the newspaper’s reporters to write about it himself:

    Kentucky woman charged after boyfriend stabbed during fast food argument

    by Christopher Leach | Tuesday, November 2, 2021 | 7:39 AM EDT | Updated: 7:44 AM EDT

    A Paducah woman has been charged with second-degree assault after allegedly stabbing her boyfriend in an argument over fast food, according to the city police department.

    Police were called to a home on Goodman Street at 11:05 p.m. Sunday where they found a wounded man walking away from the home, according to a department Facebook post. He accused his girlfriend, Emily Darnell, 23, of stabbing him with a kitchen knife.

    According to police, the victim said he was asleep when Darnell woke him up, wanting to go to a fast food restaurant. The man declined and went upstairs to get away from Darnell.

There are a couple more paragraphs in the original.

Ordinarily this is not a story which would have caught my attention, other than Miss Darnell’s mugshot; the photo to the right is a screenshot of the picture at the bottom of the referenced story, taken at 9:14 AM EDT. We have noted, many times, that the Herald-Leader follows the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, but is very is inconsistent in its application:

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.

According to the Paducah Police Department, Miss Darnell “was arrested on a charge of second-degree assault/domestic violence and booked into McCracken County Regional Jail”, but no note has been made, anywhere that I could find, which stated that she had been convicted of anything. She had been previously arrested, on May 3, 2020, for “menacing” and Indecent Exposure, 2nd degree, but I found no records of a conviction.

So, I have to ask: under the three conditions that editors for McClatchy Company newspapers are supposed to ponder when publishing mugshots, was Miss Darnell’s arrest considered? Is she an “urgent threat to the community”? Is she “a public official or the suspect in a hate crime?” Is she “a serial killer suspect or a high-profile crime?” The policy states that an editor has to approve the decision to print such.

What my best friend used to call the Herald-Liberal refused to print the mugshot of a previously convicted felon arrested for shooting two people in Lexington, a local teacher accused of raping a minor, and even accused murderers still on the loose, yet they had to show the mugshot of a woman who is not local, and has been accused of a domestic violence assault.

Would I be alone in thinking it’s because she’s a cute (?) white girl?

————————————–

Benjamin William Call, photo by Fayette County Detention Center, and is a public record.

Update: 12:55 PM EDT

Sometimes it really gets too funny. At 11:55 AM EDT, the Herald-Leader published the story “Judge won’t lower bond for man accused of fatal assault in Lexington parking garage,” about the request of the attorney for Benjamin Call, accused of beating John Tyler “Ty” Abner to death. As usual, I looked up Mr Call’s mugshot, a matter of public record, and published it here. Yet, as of 12:51 PM EDT, the newspaper’s website still has Miss Darnell’s mugshot attached to the story about her, despite me having notified both the Herald-Leader in general, and reporter Christopher Leach individually, via Twitter, of their odd choice to publish her mugshot.

The article on Mr Call being denied a bail reduction from $750,000 to $150,000 noted that Fayette District Court Judge Lindsay H Thurston stated:

    This court cannot ignore the seriousness of the allegation that has been placed against you. It is murder. It is a Class A felony. It is the most serious allegation in the Commonwealth.

Yet the Herald-Leader is doing what little it can to protect Mr Call’s privacy. Editor Peter Baniak needs to do a better job.

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Two Capitol kerfufflers sentenced The January 6 'insurrection' was so serious that they received probation!

We have previously noted the tremendous, tremendous! seriousness of the January 6th ‘insurrection’ in our nation’s capital, what I have frequently called the Capitol kerfuffle.

And now we see the draconian sentence to which Thomas and Lori Vinson were subjected following their guilty plea three months ago:

    Kentucky couple who were part of mob that stormed the Capitol receive sentence

    By Karla Ward | Friday, October 22, 2021 | 8:22 PM EDT

    A Western Kentucky couple who participated in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol were sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

    Both Thomas and Lori Vinson were sentenced to five years’ probation, fined $5,000 and ordered to pay restitution of $500, court records show.

    U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton also ordered the Vinsons to perform 120 hours of community service, the Associated Press reported.

There’s more at the original.

Like the majority of the Capitol kerfufflers, Mr and Mrs Vinson were initially charged with four offenses:

  • 18 U.S.C. § 1752(a)(1) – Knowingly Entering or Remaining in any Restricted Building or Grounds Without Lawful Authority. Since the Vinsons were not accused of harming anyone or carrying a deadly weapon, the maximum punishment under (b)(2) is a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, in any other case.
  • 18 U.S.C. § 1752(a)(2) – Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds. Since the Vinsons were not accused of harming anyone or carrying a deadly weapon, the maximum punishment under (b)(2) is a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, in any other case.
  • 40 U.S.C. § 5104(e)(2)(D) – Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building: utter loud, threatening, or abusive language, or engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress, or the orderly conduct in that building of a hearing before, or any deliberations of, a committee of Congress or either House of Congress; The penalty for violating 40 U.S.C. §5104(e)(2) is a misdemeanor conviction punishable by a maximum fine of $5,000 fine or up to six months in prison, or both.
  • 40 U.S.C. § 5104(e)(2)(G) – Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building; The penalty for violating 40 U.S.C. §5104(e)(2) is a misdemeanor conviction punishable by a maximum fine of $5,000 or up to six months in prison, or both.

The Vinsons were allowed to plead to only the fourth listed offense, which has been the case with almost all of the kerfufflers. The Vinsons said that they were very sorry for their actions, and the judge found their actions so serious that they were sentenced to spend exactly zero days in jail.

Attorney General Merrick Garland absotively, posilutely hates Republicans, because then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused to allow the Senate to even consider President Obama’s nomination of then-Judge Garland to the Supreme Court seat left empty when Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died, yet even Mr Garland couldn’t find the ‘insurrection’ serious enough to seriously push felony charges against most of them.

Lori Vinson provided this photo of herself and Thomas Ray Vinson outside the U.S. Capitol to a local news station, according to the FBI. Photo via an FBI Statement of facts.

We have previously noted the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, and the Herald-Leader’s very biased choices in making exceptions to it. The paper decided against publishing mugshots of two black accused murderers on the loose, but has been perfectly willing to publish photos of white criminal suspects who are already in custody.

And so we have the photo to the right of Lori and Thomas Vinson. Yes, they have now been convicted, but the Herald-Leader published the same photo in their story of their arrest, before they were convicted of anything.

Marlon Griffin. October 19, 2021. Photo by Fayette County Detention Center, and is a public record.

Still, the Vinsons have been convicted of a single misdemeanor count, sentenced to probation, and what my late best friend used to call the Herald-Liberal went ahead and used their photo, again. Yet the paper declined to post the mugshot of Marlon Griffin, 23, charged with eight felony counts for shooting two people on Endon Drive, and Mr Griffin is already a convicted felon with at least two prior arrests.[1]One of Mr Griffin’s prior arrests occurred just three months after he turned 18. Juvenile records are, of course, sealed, and while it’s not a matter of public record, I would say that … Continue reading

Why, it’s almost as though the only real newspaper in Kentucky’s second largest city, which covers most of central and eastern Kentucky, has an agenda or something!

Amusingly enough, the Herald-Leader is running a fund-raising campaign, saying:

    Your friends and neighbors — people across our communities — are seeking complete and accurate information as they navigate the news, their lives and the changes around us.

    And information is more complex than ever. That’s why we at the Lexington Herald-Leader are launching a new fall fundraising campaign to boost our coverage. We are asking for your support of our health reporting as well as Eastern Kentucky coverage in partnership with Report for America.

    Your tax-deductible donation can help make it happen.

    What this means for you, our readers: More eyes on issues that need more attention. More fair and measured coverage of all of our communities. A boost to our clear-headed watchdog approach.

    And we’re stronger when the voices of all members of our community are part of the conversation.

    Will you join our newsroom campaign to help support more local journalism in this critical area?

    Thank you for supporting our newsroom and the future of local journalism. And thank you for being a contributor to this community-funded effort on local reporting.

“More fair and measured coverage of all of our communities,” huh? It seems as though the newspaper’s coverage is anything but fair, exhibiting a distinct and documented, by me, lack of fairness.

I would love to see the Herald-Leader have some expanded coverage, but it needs to be fair coverage, unbiased coverage. I’m not seeing that yet.

References

References
↑1 One of Mr Griffin’s prior arrests occurred just three months after he turned 18. Juvenile records are, of course, sealed, and while it’s not a matter of public record, I would say that the probability of him having a juvenile record is not low.
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The Lexington Herald-Leader on mugshots again!

As we noted previously, the Lexington Herald-Leader does not like publishing mugshots of accused criminals. Nevertheless, they did print the picture of Randolph Morris, a former University of Kentucky basketball player, in the story reporting that he had just been acquitted of three counts of wire fraud and eight counts of making false statements in his income tax returns.

Now, there’s this:

    Two charged with murder in 2020 killing of Lexington teenager

    By Christopher Leach | September 28, 2021 | 11:19 AM EDT

    Tayte Patton, Fayette County Detention Center.

    Two suspects have been charged with murder in the 2020 killing of teenager Mykel Waide, court documents show.

    Tayte Patton, 22, and Antonio Turner, 19, were both booked into the Fayette County jail as of Monday evening and charged with murder, according to the jail’s website. Both are being held with a $750,000 bond.

    According to court records, Waide was shot and killed after an altercation at the Residence Inn on Newtown Court in August 2020. During the investigation, a witness spoke to police and said they observed Patton and Turner shooting into the crowd of people out of the back of a vehicle.

Antonio Turner, Fayette County Detention Center.

There’s a little more at the original. While what my best friend used to call the Herald-Liberal does not print mugshots, The First Street Journal does. They are public records, freely available through the jail website. The reporter, Christopher Leach, noted that he accessed the jail’s website, and opened the booking records there, so he had their mugshots available. That, after all, is where I got them!

This was not Mr Patton’s first time at the Fayette County Detention Center; his ‘page’ included a previous mugshot, from November 11, 2020.

The paper did not have much information on the death of Mr Waide. The internally referenced story stated that officers were called to the Newtown Pike area at about 1:30 AM on Sunday, August 16, 2020, on a report of a large disorder with shots fired. Mr Waide died at the scene, while three others were wounded with non-life threatening injuries. A subsequent story on uncooperative witnesses mentioned Mr Waide’s killing, but offered no further details on why he was shot.

Messrs Patton and Turner were fingered by a witness, information which the Lexington Police Department corroborated with other evidence prior to their arrests. Mr Leach’s report, however, that “The witness account matched evidence compiled by the police, such as surveillance tapes and electronic evidence in reference to Patton and Turner, according to court records,” is just terribly written. “(S)uch as” is not an accurate description of anything; was the evidence compiled “surveillance tapes and electronic evidence,” or was it something else?

The Herald-Leader needs to do better. I get it: the McClatchy Mugshot Policy is opposed to printing the photos of those accused of crimes, but not yet convicted, but the paper thought nothing of splashing Mr Morris’ photos all over its website[1]I am a digital only subscriber to the Herald-Leader, in part because they don’t deliver the dead trees edition out in the sticks where I live! when he was accused of crimes, and even in the story in which it was noted that he was acquitted of the charges.

References

References
↑1 I am a digital only subscriber to the Herald-Leader, in part because they don’t deliver the dead trees edition out in the sticks where I live!