2010.07.01 - The Oregonian and Willamette Week not invited to the presser

[Faulkner]

It's just so weird to me... I guess I am just not used to "off the record". I don't know if it's good or bad. I am used to situations where LE has to go and make an arrest before they are ready because the media finds out about the case and intends to report on it... before the arrest is made! They just don't have the same type of working relationship I guess here? Or maybe it's just a select couple of media outlets...

I just know that what I'm seeing in Oregon is totally different than what I have seen in Utah or other states. It is definitely weird. Maybe it is just the different nature of the case itself a missing possibly murdered child....but even with those cases... the media was there every single step of the way with Ethan's case. There was no "we need you to not report on this while we go up Ogden Canyon and bring something down, we will give you the whole story if you'll wait"... We got a play by play of everything and they were just there and taping everything. Maybe it's the difference in confession and already having made an arrest vs this situation.... I don't know.

This whole situation is just foreign after something like that... :waitasec:

Tricia of Websleuths gave an example of this earlier and, IIRC, she gave a hypothetical example of a case we are all familiar with - Scott Peterson. I think she said that a hypothetical 'off the record' briefing consistent with that case would be if the family told the press off the record that Scott was having an affair and was a person of interest even though law enforcement wasn't ready to officially announce that yet.

In that hypothetical case, the media could use that info. to inform their reporting without specifically revealing it since it was the off the record.

That made the logic of throwing some papers out of the press conference even more difficult to understand, IMO, because if Kyron's father thought that some of the reporting was going off in the wrong direction this could have been his opportunity, off the record, to set them on a path more consistent with the findings of law enforcement's investigation that have yet to be officially released.

 

[Razzle]

It's just so weird to me... I guess I am just not used to "off the record". I don't know if it's good or bad. I am used to situations where LE has to go and make an arrest before they are ready because the media finds out about the case and intends to report on it... before the arrest is made! They just don't have the same type of working relationship I guess here? Or maybe it's just a select couple of media outlets...

I just know that what I'm seeing in Oregon is totally different than what I have seen in Utah or other states. It is definitely weird. Maybe it is just the different nature of the case itself a missing possibly murdered child....but even with those cases... the media was there every single step of the way with Ethan's case. There was no "we need you to not report on this while we go up Ogden Canyon and bring something down, we will give you the whole story if you'll wait"... We got a play by play of everything and they were just there and taping everything. Maybe it's the difference in confession and already having made an arrest vs this situation.... I don't know.

This whole situation is just foreign after something like that... :waitasec:

BBM
The weirdness is the Horman's, not Oregon. I have lived here my entire life and I am just as baffled as everyone else. This is NOT typical.

Moo

 

[linus]

On Thursday they will do interviews starting at 4pm but nothing live. Everything taped as has to be held for air until Friday because Kyron went missing on a Friday.[/B]

My jaw is on the floor. This is perhaps the strangest detail in my mind of the entire week. What could possibly be the reason for this?? The given excuse is nonsensical, akin to saying (hypothetically) that search teams can only work on Fridays! Seriously, what rational motivation could there be for withholding and delaying supposedly important information about Kyron? This transcends "cryptic" and verges on... I don't know what.

Most of my brain doesn't subscribe to this theory, but the only way this works to me is if it actually is some sort of ransom/demand condition. This behavior and course of action is very specific, very erratic, and very sudden. Coupled with the expulsion of the O, and under the blessing of LE, this sounds like a crazy list of demands. (Down to giving a schedule of future events and release of details.) The fact that LE is standing by and signing off on it all supports the idea.

Kaine's facial expressions were uncharacteristically cagey after today's event, to be sure. Since this, too, is a new thing, it makes me wonder if he was nervous/anxious about some new strategic phase of the investigation being put into effect.

All conjecture, of course, but it's the only thing that remotely makes sense to me.

 

[Jules71]

I don't know if this has been suggested, but maybe they are using WW and the Oregonian to speak to the possible kidnapper in a ransom situation.

 

[Razzle]

My jaw is on the floor. This is perhaps the strangest detail in my mind of the entire week. What could possibly be the reason for this?? The given excuse is nonsensical, akin to saying (hypothetically) that search teams can only work on Fridays! Seriously, what rational motivation could there be for withholding and delaying supposedly important information about Kyron? This transcends "cryptic" and verges on... I don't know what.

Most of my brain doesn't subscribe to this theory, but the only way this works to me is if it actually is some sort of ransom/demand condition. This behavior and course of action is very specific, very erratic, and very sudden. Coupled with the expulsion of the O, and under the blessing of LE, this sounds like a crazy list of demands. (Down to giving a schedule of future events and release of details.) The fact that LE is standing by and signing off on it all supports the idea.

Kaine's facial expressions were uncharacteristically cagey after today's event, to be sure. Since this, too, is a new thing, it makes me wonder if he was nervous/anxious about some new strategic phase of the investigation being put into effect.

All conjecture, of course, but it's the only thing that remotely makes sense to me.

I agree with what you have written. What is really striking to me is that I never see the family speaking directly to Kyron at the pressers the way that families of missing people usually do. If they really believe he is alive, and especially if this is a ransom case, why aren't they promising HIM that they will find him? I admit that I haven't watched all of footage, so I may have missed something. I apologize in advance if I am way off base here.

Moo

 

[Jules71]

Does anyone have confirmation of a presser for tomorrow? If so what time? TIA!

 

[curiousgal]

BBM
The weirdness is the Horman's, not Oregon. I have lived here my entire life and I am just as baffled as everyone else. This is NOT typical.

Moo

Ditto... I've lived in Oregon all my life, not sure how this became a cluster fuc* mess for "Oregon" but not the case. I remember very well the Ward Weaver case, and it was SO much different from this!

 

[SleuthyGal]

Perhaps KH is trying to take control over something that just is so far beyond his ability to fix. Kyron is missing and likely deceased. That's about as 'out of control' as anything can get for a family.

What he and the family are doing now isn't really going to make a difference one way or the other. LE is still going to try to get TH to break and confess/give up info they believe she has since she is their main suspect (despite what they say publicly). The rest of the actions (by the 'team') in setting up all these rules, is just pointless and not really of much consequence.

 

[raeann]

I have a hard time visualizing LE sitting them down and saying, "OK, here's what we want you to do....Hold and press conference. First, publicly humiliate and eject the reporters from the Oregonian and WW, then tell all the other reporters the rules about how it's going to be from now on, and then publicly throw TH under the bus."

Stranger things could happen, I guess. But that's a little out there. A lot out there, actually.

There was a very noticeable absence of any LE anywhere near this pc today. I find it hard to believe that was a coincidence, when they have carefully protected and ushered the family in on prior appearances. I think there was a change of attitude by LE this week, and it started with the 911 calls. I also think that it is quite interesting that one of Kaine's friends has been the one bringing supplies to TH and her family. This person did this after the divorce filing, and the RO and after speaking with KH following those events. To me, this indicates that he has seen/heard something to make him feel sympathy for TH in this case.

jmo

 

[nomoresorrow]

So let me get this straight...

The news is no longer "news" but an unspoken extension, branch, or arm of the law to be used as a means to knowingly and purposely deliver false or embellished information to the public in order to apply pressure to the potential perpertrator of a crime in hopes that they (the potential/possible perp) will ultimately "break" and surrender themselves to LE (that is if the possible perp/and object of the media/LE directed scrutiny doesn't take their own life leaving questions forever unanswered or it pushes an already mentally compromised individual into taking the law into their own hands thereby speeding up the process...).
If true, this is 100% wrong IMO.

 

[crystalgenie]

Not a bad taste. I just don't understand it. Maybe it's not being used to dealing with the media, combined with this being an extremely difficult time, and they just made a mistake. I'm willing to see what happens going forward.

I know I would say it is not knowing how to deal with the press but geesh!!

When you turn away press outlets you just make a fool out of yourself. Kyron is missing and it seems that some people are more worried about their reputation than a missing child.

The journalism community is a close knit one. Just because KH bounced the WW out of their little "meeting" didn't not preclude WW from finding out from their colleagues exactly what was said.

All his bouncing WW out of that "meeting" did was make him look like a control freak. JMOO.:waitasec:

 

[MsFacetious]

Nothing more till next Tues? maybe a deadline? Is that how long it takes to get back to Oregon from the eastern part of the USA?

I thought there was supposed to be a public LE press conference Friday? One of the news stations (KATU I think?) said that. Did we decide that was not true or did we just not hear anything else about it?

 

[Faulkner]

I have a hard time visualizing LE sitting them down and saying, "OK, here's what we want you to do....Hold and press conference. First, publicly humiliate and eject the reporters from the Oregonian and WW, then tell all the other reporters the rules about how it's going to be from now on, and then publicly throw TH under the bus."

Stranger things could happen, I guess. But that's a little out there. A lot out there, actually.

This post - along with a number of other posts speculating on LE's involvement - raise an excellent question. Does anyone who knows more about how law enforcement might tend to operate in this situation than I do have an informed guess on how LE would tend to act in this scenario? Some people seem to think they signed off on every last detail and some people think they must have at least signed off on the major points of what was covered in the press conference, but does anyone have an informed speculative opinion (and I realize it would still be speculation and opinion) about how LE might tend to handle something this and the extent of their involvement?

 

[defender123]

Well at least now we have a good idea which newpaper Th will release her statements to.

 

[Barry]

This raises an excellent question. Does anyone who knows more about how law enforcement might tend to operate in this situation than I do have an informed guess on how LE would tend to act in this scenario? Some people seem to think they signed off on every last detail and some people think they must have at least signed off on the major points, but does anyone have an informed speculation (and I realize it would still be speculation) about how LE might tend to handle something this and the extent of their involvement?

I am beginning to think they are purposely staying out of a certain individuals way, to see where it ends up. Less of an orchestation role, and more of an "enabling" role.

 

[nomoresorrow]

It's one thing for LE to ask the media to hold back on printing/airing a story as in the case of a body recovery/notification of family members or a pending arrest whereby airing the story would alert the perp causing them to flee, but it's quite another thing (IF this turns out to be the case here) for LE to offer up, to the media to be published or aired, false or embellished information in order to apply pressure to their (unsaid) suspect. JMHO~

 

[MsFacetious]

BBM
The weirdness is the Horman's, not Oregon. I have lived here my entire life and I am just as baffled as everyone else. This is NOT typical.

Moo

I mean the media itself. You would never get the media to be this cooperative in most cases. The very limited footage from searches... the very limited footage of the family... is there ANY footage of the family going in and out of LE's office for questioning??? Those are the types of things that we are used to seeing. We knew every single time Croslin/Cummings/Anthony went into or out of LE's office!

With Ethan Stacy we knew where the defendants were the whole time, we knew when anyone went into or out of the apartment, we knew how many cops were at the apartment and when they started leaving. We knew when they started heading up Ogden Canyon, which LE agencies were there, that they were digging with shovels and had a tent up and they videotaped them bringing him down! I mean really, we normally get a total play by play of every little detail. Right or wrong, that's generally how it works.

The media is normally vultures, even in a missing child case. The media in this case is like little baby woodpeckers... pecking around to see where they can get in. :waitasec:

 

[MD MOMMY]

I guess I'm missing the entire point of even speaking with the media when they can't report what is said. I just don't see how this helps at all? Pointless IMO and absurd.

 

[Emma Peel]

How would you feel if ... today, instead of Kaine giving the press ground-rules introduction, it had been the 3 parent's representative - either a PR/media rep or an attorney. Same exact speech. Same exact calling out of the Oregonian & the WW. Same exact plea from one of those papers (oregonian) for reconsideration - which worked, and the same exact flee & whine-about-getting-kicked-out blog from the other paper.

Close your eyes. Picture this authoritarian press liason figure representing the family, instead of Kaine doing it himself...and go...repeat the day's events.

How would you feel now? And who would you be annoyed with for this media faux pas?

 

[nomoresorrow]

(BBM)

I mean the media itself. You would never get the media to be this cooperative in most cases. The very limited footage from searches... the very limited footage of the family... is there ANY footage of the family going in and out of LE's office for questioning??? Those are the types of things that we are used to seeing. We knew every single time Croslin/Cummings/Anthony went into or out of LE's office!

With Ethan Stacy we knew where the defendants were the whole time, we knew when anyone went into or out of the apartment, we knew how many cops were at the apartment and when they started leaving. We knew when they started heading up Ogden Canyon, which LE agencies were there, that they were digging with shovels and had a tent up and they videotaped them bringing him down! I mean really, we normally get a total play by play of every little detail. Right or wrong, that's generally how it works.

The media is normally vultures, even in a missing child case. The media in this case is like little baby woodpeckers... pecking around to see where they can get in. :waitasec:

I prefer jounalists/media who are persistant and determined to get the real story, rather than a media that is spoon-fed and/or can only air or print what's on the menu, so to say... JMHO ~