Many of us who used to cover crime in Flint are trying to wrap our heads around a series of crimes, five of them murders, that went unconnected for many, many weeks. With the arrest of an Israeli citizen in Atlanta for this series of crimes, it is time to ask some hard questions.
This series of crimes, and there were many more than just the homicides, began in May, but it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that two and two added to four.
There was a time that the Flint Journal sent reporters to the police station every day, two and three times a day, to check on crimes. Not sure if that is still going on, but trust me that a series of five men being murdered, all by the same method, in a short period of time would have created a media firestorm much earlier than this one.
I am far from the newsroom, I don't know if those two and three times a day visits are still being made to the detective bureau at the police station. The reporters who are there are good, competent folks, but again, I don't know how much time they have to dedicate to a beat, or even if there are still beats.
Back in the day, the day police reporter would make an early visit to the detective bureau (7 a.m.) and check on overnight activities and go through police reports for serious activities or accidents over night.
The night cop reporter would stop back at the police department about 5 p.m. and repeat the process for the dayside. Several times during the day and evening calls would be made to the police department to check on current investigations and to see what is going on.
And the police scanner was on in the newsroom and in our cars all the time monitoring police and fire radio traffic. Often to the irritation of the non-police reporters and editors in the newsroom.
There were nights when something would happen as I was leaving at 11 p.m. and I would stay many hours into the night. A few times I would still be there at 5 a.m. when editors began showing up for work the next day.
Editors demanded that crimes be covered like a blanket. That began to erode even during my last years at the Journal, but there was still a commitment to aggressively cover crimes.
I have no idea if crime coverage is still heavily emphasized. I do know there are far fewer reporters to do the job of gathering news than when I was there. Whether this helped lead to a lack of oversight and the missed signals of these crimes is only speculation.
But I do know this, if we had noticed even two men killed in a short time by the same method, someone would have been asking questions. By the time it got to three, four and five men, we would have been running daily and Sunday stories on the "trend." We loved trend stories back in the day.
There is no question I spent many, many hours hanging around the police station, developing relationships with all the detectives and I had the time and freedom to follow stories. That, I am sure, is different today.
Many times, reporters would notice crime trends from one community to the other and we became the conduit that put together similar crimes from those communities.
A running list of traffic accident victims and homicide victims was kept religiously in a computer file at the paper. Those lists were critical to tracking and discovering disturbing crime trends in the area. Those of us who covered crime used to hate the year end wrap up stories we were required to do on each and every murder that occurred.
The old beat method allowed reporters the time and space to develop sources. To be clear, I don't know what happened in this case, but the days of the local television and newspaper media leading the way in coverage is apparently gone.
With the newspaper only printing three days a week, maybe that has had an effect on the daily coverage of the police department. I just don't know. Much of the early online coverage of the arrest was simply links to other news outlets. That would not have been allowed in the "old days."
The reporters now working on the story are doing a good job, I have no argument with that.
Also, the Flint Police Department has taken a heavy hit due to budget considerations. I don't know the status of the homicide bureau and what effect that had on the failure to connect the dots for so long. But it is a question that needs to be asked.
Sorry, just lots of questions and few answers today. It just appears that the watchdogs, public and private, were asleep.
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10 comments:
How can you say that the coverage was just a bunch of links? I did see some stories on MLive that had links to other news sites - but have you looked at the Journal's coverage online? There are many stories from different angles.
http://topics.mlive.com/tag/flint%20serial%20killer/index.html
When you were covering crime - and you were a great reporter - you didn't have to worry about putting stories up online as they happened. You had one, maybe two deadlines.
I'm sure there are still paper deadlines, but MLive reporters are putting up new stories, briefs, news tidbits several times an hour. They are beating out TV, and are putting news out there faster than with the old model.
OK, let's clear this up. I am not criticizing the current coverage. I think I said they are doing a great job. When the news broke about the arrests in Atlanta all I could find initially was some links to coverage in Atlanta and elsewhere. They have done a great job of following. Thursday's dead tree version, although it missed the arrest due to deadlines, was great. It did a wonderful job of catching up on all the stabbings.
And to be clear, very clear, about something else if I had to live under the current rules, I would be fired, because I couldn't do it. I give the folks there a lot of credit for doing all they have to do.
The staff they have is incredible under the circumstances of its size. You are correct that I am a dinosaur, I could not operate under the new system.
The problems may be more on the police end than the newspaper end, but there is a problem.
And so it is clear this is NOT a criticism of the reporters or editors at the paper it is just a reflection on what was and what is.
Hope that clears it up.
What TV is the Journal beating -- the History Channel? Channel 4 in Detroit cleaned the Journal's clock on the arrest.
The paper is published four days a week, not three.
We live in Lapeer. We only get home delivered three days a week. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I gave up looking for the Tuesday paper a long time ago.
Always have to have the last word don't you? You weren't criticizing? How about "Whether this helped lead to a lack of oversight and the missed signals of these crimes is only speculation."
Whatever Jim.... Nothing was as good as when you were there and it was probably BECAUSE you were that it was so good.
Times have changes and the media industry has had to get leaner, more mobile and have had to do more with less.
And it got leaner in all the wrong places.
What it needs is more, and better paid reporters to do the actual work.
Where it could have gotten a lot leaner without much damage was at the top of the Booth food chain.
That hasn't happened yet.
What it needs is more, and better paid reporters to do the actual work.
Don't let them bamboozle ya Jim, you're right on the mark. The "newsroom" usually has 2 or 3 people in it max at any given time. Given what's happening in our corner of the world, it's probably 2 reporters covering everything 24/7/365.
Jim,
You're right to raise this question. I'd like to know the answer. We need people to ask tough questions to both our government and media -- thanks for providing a forum for it.
Sadly, it's probably a combination of police cuts and less media oversight that delayed attention to this important story.
If that's not the case, let's hear otherwise here or in the paper.
Nothing was as good as when you were there and it was probably BECAUSE you were that it was so good.
Times have changes and the media industry has had to get leaner, more mobile and have had to do more with less.
To the anonymous commenter of the above sentences, you are right and you are wrong. Wrong about your insinuation that Jim somehow believes it was better BECAUSE he was there. If you knew Jim, you would know that. He was a dedicated and polished reporter who knew when, where and how to find news.
You are, however, spot on right with your comment about times having changed and leaving the media leaner and having to do more with less. Which...in case you missed it...was the point of the post.
Sad, isn't it?
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