Reporters attacked, but it's not news

What fascinated me were the reader comments. Five pages worth, and there was exactly one vague comment that could possibly be construed as supportive of the paper's stance. The rest just excoriated the paper in pretty harsh terms, and even if you filter out the obvious tea-partiers, it's still a pretty damning commentary on how the public views the Virginian-Pilot on this issue. The overwhelming majority of them believe the paper is lying to them, and that's a real bad sign for this paper.

 

Too bad they were not in Florida and had guns, then they could have killed all of their attackers. That solves everything.

 

I'm tired of all this racial shit. Bottom line, the asshole reporter should've used his common sense and not try to go against a mob. It was an ass kicking in waiting. And do people distrust the paper? Yes. Show me a paper that isn't thought about negatively by the masses.

 

Maybe it was both.

 

Horseshit. If a couple of any race was attacked by 30 youths of any race, with reports of 70 or so more watching, it should be news for any newspaper, regardless of where the victims worked.

 

Did I mention anyone's race, at all? Maybe the reporter showed questionable judgement, but that doesn't justify being assaulted by a mob, then having your boss pretty much sweep the incident under the rug in the name of political correctness instead of doing his job, which is investigating why a riotous mob of 100 youths was running loose on a city street attacking innocent people for no good reason, why the 911 system was slow to respond and why the Norfolk police downplayed the incident in the police report. In this case, the "masses" are completely justified in not trusting the paper on this issue. They dropped the ball, and this editor's excuses on why they did so are comically pathetic.

 

No doubt the ball was fumbled several times. No doubt if it were two African-Americans attacked by a white mob, there would be an outcry.
But again, common sense could've avoided this. 1 vs. 100 loses every time.

 

Drip,

It's fine and logical to say that. But in emotional/scary/unusual/threatening situations, it's a fact that common sense often just doesn't kick in. The simplest things, the best solutions -- easily seen and realized and accomplished in calmer times -- can go right out the window in times of life-threatening stress. You simply do not know for sure how people are going to react in such situations until they happen, and that's especially true of your everyday, average, normal people who usually don't have any special training in handling emergencies.

This is the the reason that it is recommended that emergency phone numbers, and even your own address, nearest major intersection and phone number be posted near your house phones. So, when somebody collapses from a heart attack in your home, or somebody is choking, or somebody is breaking into your house, you don't forget your own darn address and phone number that you would know by heart at any other time.

Oh, and the guy who threw a rock at that car window -- while people were in it, no less? He wasn't an asshole?

I'd say he was asking/looking for trouble, too, and what's more, that knew he was going to be causing some.

MisterCreosote has this right.

EDIT: OK, as MisterCreosote pointed out in a post below this one, hondo has this right.

 

Please explain how that makes this situation not newsworthy.

 

I never said it wasn't newsworthy. All I'm saying is that the reporter didn't use common sense to avoid a bad situation. No doubt the rock thrower was an ass hole but come on, 1 vs. 100 is a losing proposition. He should've moved to an area where he was safe and reported it. That would've avoided the beat down.

 

Fucking troll.

 

I thought this discussion was about the newsworthiness of this event and whether the paper screwed up or was justified in not reporting it, not about how the reporters could have avoided getting beat up.

And, BTW, even that might not have been as simple as you think. What if a bunch of the people surrounding the car were standing right in front of and behind it, keeping the car from driving off without taking then out?