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

[nomoresorrow]

I think they are excluding this paper as they are allowing and announcing that Teri Horman is posting on their site and they are not taking it down. I would too if they were giving this kind of attention to her to distract from Kyron....

Are WW and KATU the same news/media outlet???

Article reads...

Terri Horman posted comments on KATU.com

KATU News has been tracking postings by Kyron Horman’s stepmother, Terri Horman, on KATU.com’s comment section. While there are no bombshells in them it is the first time she has communicated publicly about her stepson’s disappearance.

http://www.katu.com/news/local/97541389.html
*********************************************************
I don't think so.

 

[sofia76]

I'm telling ya. I think the manager of the building that was behind that notice has been bending the families ear. Didn't she also issue that bizarre list of what to do and not to do with the meda to all her neighbors?

Yes, the owner of the church is the one who wrote that list of media do's and don'ts for the Skyline community, which was published in the skyline neighborhood association paper. I'm not sure if she is the same "manager" referred to in the WW article, but the place is so small that I doubt it even has a separate manager. http://srnpdx.org/kyron-vigil-media-advice

 

[Calliope]

And the other outlets probably didn't report it because then they would be banned at the next mini presser.

Bingo. Like cluciano said, how are we to know now if we're only getting Horman-approved 'news' from here on out?

I suspect these other outlets may soon grow weary of being instructed on what and when they can report. It will interesting to see if any more are kicked from (or resign from) the "team".

 

[1Chump]

I don't agree with this. The only stories I saw that made a big deal about this are the WW ones. All of the other press is based around Desiree's plea. That includes big national outlets like CBS, AOL, ABC and CNN.

WW were the only ones banned and not let back in. WW could report that they were banned because they did not agree to the terms of the off-the-record press conference.

The other news outlets agreed to the terms. Therefore, they could not report about WW being banned. If one of them did report about the ban, that would be going against the terms, and they would be banned from the next "off-the-record report what I tell you to report" session.

IMO, every single "news" entity that agreed to their terms gave up their right to call themselves journalists. The minute the family banned any news organization, all news organizations should have threatened to walk. By not doing so, they gave up any pretense of journalistic integrity or ethics.

The press who stayed just sat a horrible precedent especially the major networks. People will remember that they did it once. It will be harder to justify not doing it again.

 

[Donjeta]

If I was part of this family the concern that I would have is

Concern 4. If there is anything scandalous about the family to dig up, the WW and Oregonian reporters may now be twice as determined to get it on the surface, and maybe they will succeed. In case it has nothing to do with Kyron going missing it will hurt the family for nothing and distract from the search for Kyron. If it has something to do with Kyron going missing it might possibly hurt the investigation.

 

[citigirl]

KOIN accidentally uploaded a headline to their server that indicated his body has been found. It was an unlinked headline, meaning that it was only accessible through entering search terms and there was no article attached to the headline. KOIN was not asked to leave the news conference held on Thursday. WW and The Oregonian never reported that Kyron's body had been found.

I did remember that it was a TV outlet that ran the story, but not which one. But I was thinking about the conversations that took place between LE and the news organizations while this was happening. They may all ultimately have decided to pull or not to publish the story.

In my humble experience being the focus of news stories by outlets in different cities in which I have lived, newspaper reporters are more tenacious. I am guessing the newspaper reporters are assigned to particular stories and TV reporters are assigned geographically or to major domains of news. They have to run from story to story. They are very much at the mercy of the "photo op."

Print reporters have time to develop relationships with people involved in a story and most of the time the relationships are somewhat adversarial. I can imagine that police would NEVER see print reporters as "team players" and would pass that feeling along to the family

 

[Lavender]

According to the petition, the entities requesting the records be unsealed are the publishers of the Oregonian, KATU, KGW, KOIN, KPTV, OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting), KXL Radio, and the Associated Press. WW isn't on there at all.

Personally, I don't think kicking out Oregonian and Willamette Week was that well thought out - I suspect what happened is that family member(s) didn't like one or two pieces that they heard from those papers and those papers got put on the **it-list.

Remember that notice on the church doors to the Oregonian? That was a bunch of :waitasec: :waitasec: :waitasec: I'm sure they are preoccupied and probably not sitting down and keeping track of everything each news outlet does/writes. I see it as more of an emotional response, than a calculating one.

JMO!

BBM

I affectionately refer to that as the "STUART, WE DON'T FEEL THIS WAY ABOUT YOU" incident.

Here is a link to the note and a transcript of what it said:

http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2010/06...erence-sheriff-calls-off-kyron-horman-search/

(The note was posted in response to the Oregonian article that questioned the response time of the school and LE.)

"Dear Oregonian:

Your implied criticism of law enforcement effort in this search is not the majority opinion by anyone we've talked to in this neighborhood.

Frankly, your Sunday article on the front page is .

Love,

The owner of this building
Removal of this notice gets media kicked off the property

(Stuart, we don't feel this way about you)"

 

[Trident]

Nope, just that we should not be surprised that the family has chosen not to include the newsoutlet that has been least flattering to them and has continued to stray from the party line.

I am not even commenting on the party line or which side of the fence I fall upon, but simply saying, they ar running this rodeo and we shouldn't be shocked that they have left out a "player" who has not been on their "team" from day one. Not commenting upon the rightness or wrongness of it - simply stating how it is.

A missing child is not a rodeo. Since when do parents of a missing child get to call the shots? I believe(d) the purpose of the press was to print the truth and inform the public. When the press is banned from printing the truth, uness there's a damned good reason, we are devolving into a police state. I do not want to live in a police state where we only hear what we are "allowed" to hear.

My opinion only

 

[RoughlyCollie]

A missing child is not a rodeo. Since when do parents of a missing child get to call the shots? I believe(d) the purpose of the press was to print the truth and inform the public. When the press is banned from printing the truth, uness there's a damned good reason, we are devolving into a police state. I do not want to live in a police state where we only hear what we are "allowed" to hear.

My opinion only

The parents, who are private citizens and not the government, are calling the shots. There is nothing unconstitutional about that. Therefore, they are not causing us to become "a police state".

 

[Faulkner]

I am not even commenting on the party line or which side of the fence I fall upon, but simply saying, they are running this rodeo and we shouldn't be shocked that they have left out a "player" who has not been on their "team" from day one. Not commenting upon the rightness or wrongness of it - simply stating how it is.

I think that highlights the concern that a lot of people have -- that there is a child that is missing and his father seemingly sees this as a "rodeo" to "run".

The only side or team there should be is Kyron's side and team -- not those that offend and don't offend his father, IMO.

And no free press should ever have to filter or censor what they print about anything or sumbit it first to anyone for personal approval as long as they comply with the law.

Also, I just noticed that in the locals thread, that these are both considered to be respected newspapers, not sensational tabloids.

 

[Trident]

The parents, who are private citizens and not the government, are calling the shots. There is nothing unconstitutional about that. Therefore, they are not causing us to become "a police state".

It sounds to me like the Vandersloot(sp) case. LE was allowed to search their property, just not Joran's house or the pond. We all know how that worked out.

My opinion only

 

[Donjeta]

I just feel it's an unreasonable expectation that no reporters show any interest in the family's affairs when the family has demonstrated that they think Kyron's disappearance is a family affair. Of course people are going to be interested in the background of it all. Nothing wrong in asking them not to report but it ain't likely that everybody agrees.

 

[Faulkner]

And as a side note, I only found out about this case because I've been watching Nancy Grace for updates about Joran van der Sloot. I live in NYC and I haven't heard a darn thing about Kyron's case otherwise and I tend to watch a fair amount of CNN and read more than my share of newspapers.

So, in my experience, this isn't that huge nationally - which is what I would describe the Caylee Anthony case as being - and I can see how people could get easily turned off by a parent that seems far more concerned with rules and teams and his own image rather than his missing son. And that's really unfortunate for Kyron.

 

[Calliope]

I think what really ticks me off is thinking back on the written questions "approved" and answered by the family early on, and the ones in this so-called press conference.

I'm sure I'll get blasted for this but I couldn't care less what his favorite color is or that he likes to draw and eat mac and cheese. Those are irrelevant answers to irrelevant questions.

Now... allergic to bees? A distinguishing mark on his forehead? That's the kind of information that should have been out there from the start. I wonder if the SAR teams were aware of this and were carrying appropriate meds just in case? If this was any other missing child case, I'd be willing to bet they were, but with this bunch all bets are off.

If they truly think he's alive and out there somewhere, they need to release all pertinent medical and psychological information. There'll be time to discuss his favorite food and hobbies after he's brought home.

Fire away.

 

[Calliope]

And as a side note, I only found out about this case because I've been watching Nancy Grace for updates about Joran van der Sloot. I live in NYC and I haven't heard a darn thing about Kyron's case otherwise and I tend to watch a fair amount of CNN and read more than my share of newspapers.

So, in my experience, this isn't that huge nationally - which is what I would describe the Caylee Anthony case as being - and I can see how people could get easily turned off by a parent that seems far more concerned with rules and teams and his own image rather than his missing son. And that's really unfortunate for Kyron.

bbm

and until something actually breaks in the case, it's not likely to be either. Kaine shot himself in the foot with his "ground rules" and Kyron is the one who'll end up paying for it.

 

[Donjeta]

Talking about his favorite foods etc. could be a way to humanize him for the benefit of a stranger abductor so he'll take good care of him and not hurt him, but it's a bit late in the game for that and it doesn't really make sense if they think Terri did it because she'd know all that stuff already and chosen not to care.

 

[Emma Peel]

I think that highlights the concern that a lot of people have -- that there is a child that is missing and his father seemingly sees this as a "rodeo" to "run". It's not.

The only side or team there should be is Kyron's side and team -- not those that offend and don't offend his father. And no free press should have to filter or censor what they say about a missing child case through a father, or anyone, for personal approval.

Bouncing off this post ...

BBM -
And, they don't have to! In our country, it's the press' choice. Isn't it wonderful?

So long as they adhere to defamation laws ... they can report anything they wish.

Even with missing child cases, it's been my observation that the press treads very carefully and tends to follow LE's lead and wishes with regard to their reporting during and ongoing investigation. Frankly, with so much of this LE investigation tied to some type of family matter - the press might be caught between a rock and a hard place.

 

[linus]

Are WW and KATU the same news/media outlet???

Not at all. Not under the same conglomerate or anything of the sort.

 

[Faulkner]

Bouncing off this post ...

BBM -
And, they don't have to! In our country, it's the press' choice. Isn't it wonderful?

So long as they adhere to defamation laws ... they can report anything they wish.

Even with missing child cases, it's been my observation that the press treads very carefully and tends to follow LE's lead and wishes with regard to their reporting during and ongoing investigation. Frankly, with so much of this LE investigation tied to some type of family matter - the press might be caught between a rock and a hard place.

I was just editing my post to say that no free press has to seek anyone's approval to print anything as long as they are in compliance with the law.

And the fact is that there are family members everywhere in this case -- even the stepmother is, of course, family.

So, I definitely agree and would even extend that to say that when it comes to many crimes, that both our free press and law enforcement are inevitably going to step on family members' toes in the course of investigation.

If my son was missing, the police would ask me to take a polygraph right away. Part of me would be offended and then, hopefully, that part would be overridden by the larger fact that my son is missing and an understanding that investigations inevitably focus on family members first due to crime statistics. And I see the situation with the press no differently.

 

[1Chump]

The parents, who are private citizens and not the government, are calling the shots. There is nothing unconstitutional about that. Therefore, they are not causing us to become "a police state".

That the press who fights so hard to protect their Constitutional Rights to Freedom of the Press willingly handed it over to a private citizen should scare all of us. The parents needed the press much more than the press needed this story.

I know this is just a little case of the press working with parents of a missing boy. However, there is a much bigger picture here. We only know about this deal because the parents banned another media outlet. It is that media that reported the true story. The media outlets that were not banned never reported that they were only reporting what the parents told them to report. They never reported the deal they made with the parents. They did not want their readers to know that their reporting was being censored even if it was just by the parents of a missing boy. If all the media in that room had agreed to the parents terms, we would not know.

The media who agreed to be censored was not just small town papers but national media as well. If they agree to be censored by the parents who need the media more than the media needs the story for what it nothing more than a press release, what other times are they agreeing to be censored to get a story? What deals are they making and not telling us about?

This puts the entire credibility, integrity and reputation of the media that allowed themselves to be censored for a non-story in question on other bigger stories. Now we have to ask is the story being reported accurately or was a deal made. The public will now question the truth of the reporting.

The Constitutional Right to Freedom of the Press belongs to the people. It insures that the people can trust the press to report accurately and truthfully without the Government controlling what the press reports. So any time the press gives up their Rights for anyone, they are violating the Constituation Rights of Freedom of the Press.

All the above is my opinion and only my opinion.