Well said. Absolutely. I think the families, it’s part of their grieving process, but I think also they are appealing to armchair detectives to solve this case as well as thinking that they’re continuing to put pressure on LE to solve it quicker. As though, like you say, like those guys are sitting around twiddling their thumbs thinking this is no big deal. They don’t need any more pressure to tell them that they need to solve the case.
And then you have LE playing defense here to all the criticism and also the reporters who are out for their soundbites to try to give new nuggets of info. You hit the nail on the head. Loose lips sink ships. It’s counterproductive to the entire process for them to give any information, as much as we would like to know it. You end up giving the killer a heads up and potentially end up turning this case on its head and ruining it. I don’t understand how all these folks are not told that time and time again. I hope that they just stop refusing doing any interviews and just do press releases so maybe those reporters will go home and stop trying to get a sensationalized sound bite for shows for ratings. They have a maniacal killer to put behind bars.
Reporters are not going to just "go home." We live in a media saturated culture with the good and the bad that comes from that.
Having been on the media side, I would say be careful what you ask for. Historically, the media in America has been relied on to inform the public, protect our U.S. Constitutional rights (especially to know what the government is doing, often in secret) & made an informed citizenry possible.
The landscape is changing now with so many outlets for information (most of it unvetted opinion).
There is a necessary tension in a society like ours between police and the media. It is a strength when compared to places like China & Russia where media is historically under government control.
What many see here as manipulation, I see as the natural outcome of competing rights. It is a very good thing to have an LE investigation that is careful. It is a very good thing to live in an open society where LE has accountability.
When LE in the U.S. says releasing info of any kind beyond the barest facts is protecting their investigation, they are overlooking the larger interests of our open society. Withholding probable cause affidavits, for example, is often done by LE when it is a basic glaring violation of the public's right to know. Without the media going to legal expense & great effort, the public would be left in the dark in many, if not most jurisdictions, in the U.S. in most criminal cases.
I understand the passion on both sides of this issue but blanket shut downs of investigative info and complaints about media behavior are part of living in a country founded on principles that create this tension. We need to be glad for it IMHO.
LE needs to be more transparent & stop behaving like no perp can be arrested because their investigations are too compromised by demands for information.
Media could be more respectful & focus on facts rather than gossip in trying to gain an inside edge on their competition.
But that won't change the basic conflict enshrined by our founders in the multitude of "checks and balances" our freedoms rely on.
Any time any government agency is not held accountable by some outside pressure, we are all in jeopardy of losing basic freedoms we are lucky to take for granted in the U.S.
Getting off the soapbox now.
MOO
