Are the facts really the facts?

OK, i know this is barely related to sports journalism... but in doing a Lexis-Nexis search for articles, I came across these two articles that appear to cover the same court case, but, well....

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/AF233DFF09470013862573BF001258D1?OpenDocument

From the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat:
http://www.bnd.com/homepage/story/213463.html

So was he sentenced to eight years or 16 years? Was the boy 9 or 11? Is he now 13 or 15?

Personally, I think life without parole would have been too lenient... but just surprised me that two people covering the same sentencing hearing can come up with totally different facts.

 

WOW! You'd think a simple little piece of information like the age of a victim and the length of a criminal sentence would be easy to get and fact check.

Makes you wonder about the accuracy and legitimacy of all the other pieces of information put in a newspaper every day.

 

Just to see what will happen, I e-mailed each paper's editor (or whomever reads the e-mails that go to the "editor" in the online links, since there was no name of an editor) saying I believe the reporter got the facts wrong because it contradicts what was reported in the other paper.

 

Good idea ESJ! I look forward to you posting whatever response you get....

 

I'm debating whether or not to simply e-mail the reporters and ask why they got the facts wrong... or should I leave that for someone else to do?

 

Do you think the readers caught it? I wonder if they care enough about the case to check other paper's coverage of it.

 

Maybe the boy was Danny Almonte, and we have no idea how old he is.

 

got the first of the responses back:

 

Well played.

 

Apropos of nothing, but I'm amused that the prosecutor's name is J. Christ.

 

Yes, the facts really are the facts. It's our job to make sure we have them right.