It exists! There must be double the amount of stories for MAryland then for Virginia in the newspaper and on television. DC coverage I can understand, but why does maryland get all the press?

Be a little more specific...

Generally, the TV news - at least first 3 out five stories they report on, is on crime and violent acts. The old saying "if it bleeds, it leads" is true.

So, violent crime will take up a disproportionate part of the news. And watch carefully.... When they do a piece on violent crime, I believe it will most likely be in DC or Price Georges County; the Oxon Hill, Camp Springs, and Landover areas more likely than not.

But then there is the wild card. I have a theory that when anything truly bizarre happens, it happens in Laurel which is also Prince Georges County. A kid arsonist setting ablaze the same building 3 times, a boyfriend murdering his lover and their infant baby, a shoot out where neither the cops or the criminal can hit the side of a barn from 20 feet away - more than likely happens in Laurel.

Of course my Laurel hypothesis has yet to be proven, but watch the news and see if it requires further investigation.

Radiophile Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Be a little more specific...
>
> Generally, the TV news - at least first 3 out five
> stories they report on, is on crime and violent
> acts. The old saying "if it bleeds, it leads" is
> true.
>

That's partially the case. Obviously PG County is the crime epicenter of the region these days. However, let's not forget that with the exception of Channel 7 and part of WJFK, most of the TV stations and radio stations are based in Maryland and DC (usually near the Maryland border). Odds are most of the people who work at these stations live in DC and Maryland.

it's call crime

WJLA is in Rosslyn.

ITRADE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WJLA is in Rosslyn.


Hence "with the exception of Channel 7," which is WJLA.

JimVance Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It exists! There must be double the amount of
> stories for MAryland then for Virginia in the
> newspaper and on television. DC coverage I can
> understand, but why does maryland get all the
> press?


wierd shit... i was watching fox 5 news last night (not on purpose), i was thinking the same thing; for the most part, it was ALL about maryland!!

woman almost abducted in maryland
apartments on fire in maryland
etc
etc

About six months ago I drove by an accident scene in Virginia. A guy had been run down in the street by a car. I never saw anything about this on the news. Do you think if this kind of thing had happened in DC or Maryland that is wouldn't be all over the news?

The only way Virginia gets in the news is if it ends up being a national story (IHOP shooting, PG cop shooting that guy he followed over to Fairfax, the doctor getting shot by cops for gambling, Virginia Tech shooting, the illegal immigrant jumping from the overpass, etc).

Jim Vance is a fucking pole smoker......

I have often thought that the NoVa police depts and local leadership control the information that gets out to the press, more so than in other parts of the tri state area.
Im not saying Fairfax in anything like PG county and I do agree that only the really crazy shit happens in Colmbia Heights and florida lol. However I believe a lot of the same kind of violent crimes that happen elsewhere happen here too, but they just dont get reported...

Is it because of a Maryland/DC bias in the media and because of this, the local leadership and police in NoVa are not interviewed or investigated by the press..

Or, is it the local police and leadership make a point of it to "clean out the bad news" to protect the image of our wonderful little county ( <--extreme sarcasm noted)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2008 04:01PM by Take a Stand.

Well, Take A Stand, let's do a comparison. How many news stories have there been on TV about the PG Deputy Chief who shot the furniture movers in his house? Now, how many stories have there been about the Fairfax cops shooting the gambling doctor?

I don't know about you, but I think I learned about the gambling doctor on Fairfax Underground while I saw live newscasts from PG county with the Marlo truck outside the cop's house when that shit happened.

WashingToneLocian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, Take A Stand, let's do a comparison. How
> many news stories have there been on TV about the
> PG Deputy Chief who shot the furniture movers in
> his house? Now, how many stories have there been
> about the Fairfax cops shooting the gambling
> doctor?
>
> I don't know about you, but I think I learned
> about the gambling doctor on Fairfax Underground
> while I saw live newscasts from PG county with the
> Marlo truck outside the cop's house when that shit
> happened.


+1

I cant quite tell if your agreeing with me or not, but I would agree with your comparison, I also only heard about the gambling doctor from non-traditional news sources, while the PG Dep. was national news.

My extreme sarcasm was in refrence to protecting the image of " our wonderful little county"

FWIW, the Culosi murder was covered by local news stations.

Take a Stand Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I cant quite tell if your agreeing with me or not,
> but I would agree with your comparison, I also
> only heard about the gambling doctor from
> non-traditional news sources, while the PG Dep.
> was national news.
>
> My extreme sarcasm was in refrence to protecting
> the image of " our wonderful little county"


I'm agreeing with you (apparently my reputation precedes me).

Correct the Culosi murder by Cop was covered by local news, my memory maybe cloudy but it was not covered nearly to the extent the "on-going" coverage of the PG Dep.
Now I know I have no stats to back this up. I wish I did. But just listening to the police scanner one night tells me alot of stuff happens in our county that would normally make it to the local news tv/paper, if it happened in a different county/region..

Does anyone watch The Wire.

"They're dead where it doesn't count." - Fletcher

An Asian dry cleaner gets sued for losing a judge's pants, it makes the evening news in Seoul and they send a reporter to do live shots at the courthouse. An Asian kills over 30 at Virginia Tec, Seoul barely gives it a mention on the evening news.

There was a murder in my neighborhood a few years back, a boyfriend going "Laura Bush and all" on his girlfriend and killing her with his car. The police made it very difficult for the news to get any information before the trial since they had a suspect almost immediately. During the trial it had then become old news.

On the other hand, with many crimes in DC and Maryland, police don't have a firm suspect so they need to get the word out to the public to get more information. In other words, they need to rely on the media (mostly Fox 5) to help them get information. In many cases, Virginia police do not need the media for that role.

If a Jamaican woman's body had been dropped in a dumpster in DC, it would make the news. But, when it happened in South Riding, the police went to her idiot White boyfriend who lived 30 feet away from said dumpster, and arrested him. End of story.

In summary, Perhaps the criminals in the other parts of the area are more invisible, so the police need more exposure for the crime.

That is a interesting point, that maybe the crimes committed are of the open/shut variety.

I think this ultimately will come down to the media itself. Just like Radiophile quoted, "If it bleeds it leads", and covering crime in a white upper class neighborhood is just not going to get as many viewers as a shooting spree in Western PG county.

This maybe be ultra pessimistic but maybe the news media is paying too much attention to the demographics of the viewers. Who wants to hear about something in our own backyard? When there is a perfectly good lead of some hoods blasting each other on Eastern Ave.

We always made a drinking game out of watching the news. Every other story was about PG county. So we had to make separate rules for the TYPES of crimes in PG county. One drink for burglary/B&E/muggings/etc., two drinks for murder, three for rape or arson. Bonus for combinations.

I challenge anyone to try it. You won't last 10 minutes :)

What does he mean by "going Laura Bush?" Did she commit vehicular manslaughter or something?

huh? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What does he mean by "going Laura Bush?" Did she
> commit vehicular manslaughter or something?


Actually, pretty damn close She was never charged, but here are the details...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Dutton_Douglas

There is no bias in the media, and there is no conspiracy. Its true DC and some parts of Maryland do have higher crime rates than VA. How many homicides happen in Fairfax compared to PG, Montgomery and DC? The post publishes some sort of crime statistic for the DC metro area annually, and if i remember it correctly Fairfax had the lowest crime in all of those place even though Fairfax is the largest with 1.3 million.

Jakes, you must be exhausted. You've been up all night.