Media mis-reporting in Phoenix

T

thaddeus

New member
Was the media protecting a Police investigation by not giving out the truth, or did the Police give the media wrong information? Or did the media just act on the story too quickly before they got all the facts? Was the media just irresposible, or flat out lying? You be the judge.

This is an interesting case that I know about in Phoenix. I can't decide if it is an example of the media trying to make gun owners look bad, or not reporting all the facts because the Police didn't tell them all or what.

Last month, a 14 year old girl was found dead in her backyard of a gunshot wound to the head. On the news, they report that someone in the neighborhood was recklessly firing bullets into the air and one came down and struck her and killed her in her backyard. They went on with this report, putting it in the headlines, for a number of days, and to my knowledge they have never corrected it.

Well....this is where it gets interesting. My friend works at a store right next to the girl's home. The Police came in and asked for copies of the store's exterior security cameras. It turns out that the girl was exectued after being raped. She was shot in the top, back of the head, after being placed on her knees....after being raped.
There are more juicy details to this story, which could show that this is related to serial killing spree in Phx, but this is all that matters here right now to this story.

It seems to me that the media made gun owners look really bad and plastered them all over the news as irresponsibly killing this girl. I have not been in Phx for over a week, but I have never heard a retraction of the facts on this story. People still belive that she was killed by a reckless person shooting bullets into the air.

I went to a friend's home in Phx and his wife was all bent out of shape about this. She was talking about how evil guns are and she was aghast that we brought loaded guns into her home. Anyway, she was ranting about this "accidental shooting" and my friend who works at the store corrected her story. She refused to believe him, but got mad and said "But the NEWS SAID that it was from someone shooting a gun in the air". My friend said "Well, the NEWS LIED...the FACTS are that she was executed!". She could not seem to fathom that it was possible that she had gotten faulty news from the television! Apparently everything she hears on the TV is true and factual no matter what anyone says. Oh yeah, and she loves the Rosie show (thought I would mention that ;) ).

First of all, I am disappointed that so many people put so much faith it the media. She was hell-bent that my friend was wrong because she had heard otherwise on the news. Second, there are now at least a million people in Phoenix, (probably twice that), that think that this girl was killed by an accidental bullet. Chock up another one against guns, it is just one more straw on the pile to convincing people that "guns are bad"

thaddeus

[This message has been edited by thaddeus (edited July 08, 1999).]
 
Moral of the story: take EVERYTHING you hear on TV with a grain of salt. Even if the reporters have integrity and don't mean to mis-represent the story, they often report a story with only half the facts, and fill in the rest as they see fit.
 
Or as in the case of 60 minutes, they will flat out lie to make a story. I was the accountant for a guy that 60 minutes did a piece on several years ago. He refused to be interviewed by them. As a result they just made things up to fill in their story. After watching this I will never watch that show again, or the network on which it ran. They reported that the guy was driving a $60,000 towncar... hell I wrote the check for it. It was a used rental car from hertz. He paid $7,000 for it. And these mis-representations like this went on and on... The sad part was as a result of this article... the FBI, the IRS and the BATF all started investigating him. This was as a result of congress getting pressure put on them by the sheeple who then put pressure on the agencies to do something about this. They hounded him for months until they were able to get him for bounching a check. Once they had done that they plea bargened with him to admit to tax fraud. He did, as they guaranteed the sentances to run concurrent so there was no more jail time and he did not have the money available to fight it. Talk about political prisoners. No I don't watch or pay attention to the main stream news, have not in years.

Richard
 
The media is part of the entertainment industry. That said, let's not confuse their objective of selling air time (or ad space) and informing the public. The two are distinct and the disbursement of information is merely incidental to their primary mission.

Lest we forget, the Boston Massacre was deemed by an American Jury to have been justifiable self-defense. The name escapes me now, but one of our founding fathers and signers of the Declaration of Independence got those poor redcoats acquitted. Just an early example of being misinformed by the media.


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Vigilantibus et non dormientibus jura subveniunt
 
The murdered girl is the daughter of a friend of a friend. First I've heard of this rumor, and I'll try to check it out.

I will point out that rumors are often no more trustworthy than the news. We'll see.

Unfortunately, another girl in Phoenix was hit with a 'descending bullet' around July 4 - they recovered a bullet from inside her right nostril - came down, through the nose / cartilage.

Let's keep busting the damn bozo's - irresponsible gun owners are a real pain.
 
Call me skeptical...

If this is true then it would have to be a lie the police created. I find it hard to believe that all the radio, television, and print media would conspire to create this story.

If there is a possible serial killer(s) in the Phoenix area why would the police want to hide the fact from the people. If the act was caught on video why aren't the faces of the killers plastered in the media so that they can be found?

According to media reports she was speaking to her friend on the phone when she was struck by the bullet. Her friend said she stopped speaking in mid sentence. Wouldn't her friend hear something if she was being attacked? The phone wasn't hung up...Or is the friend part of the conspriracy too?

[This message has been edited by HarryB (edited July 09, 1999).]
 
I have no faith in the media anymore. If they say the sky is blue, I look outside to check for myself. That being said, I don't know if this would be a conspiracy as much as some LEO on the scene, with a microphone stuffed in his face, saying something like, "We don't have many details yet, we're still gathering evidence, we're not sure where the shooter or bullet was or came from." A typical ratings-hyped media type, hoping to make it to the "big time anchor desk" says, "police speculate the bullet fell out of the sky from a random gunshot," and there you have it, further reprehensible, irresponsible reporting that incites panic and paranoia in the unknowing masses.

Did the police try to clear things up? Maybe not, if they're trying to build sufficient evidence for a case. Responsible? You tell me. Did the news media follow up for more details? Most likely no. Responsible? Hell no! Don't look for a clarification or apology from them, either.

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Don LeHue

The pen is mightier than the sword...outside of arms reach. Modify radius accordingly for rifle.
 
There is an old saying that goes something like this:"Believe nothing that you hear, and only half of what you see."
When I see movies like Jurassic Park where T-Rex is brought back to "life" via computor, I don't even believe in what I see on the tube. Especially if it presented by Rather, Jennings, and Brokaw, three well known liars. Just my humble opinion.
Paul B.
 
Exactly right,Paul. There really is no "news" anymore. It is merely entertainment now for ratings. That's why we have all of these cross-over news/tabloid shows now.The vast majority of Journalists should be renamed Propagandists as that is what they really are.
 
Are we now labeling all journalists as dishonest people with an agenda? Why thats like... um all gunowners are [insert stereotype here.]

I used to work in the business and found that most if not nearly all were quite objective and felt a responsiblity to convey the truth. It is a shame that the actions of a few can tarnish the majority. Kinda how us gun owners are labeled due to the actions of a few a-holes.

<<Donning flameproof suit>>
 
HarryB - Just to answer your questions: There was no mention of anything being on the tape, the Police said that is what they were looking for, and asked for the tapes, no one said it was there or not, as the Police took the tape and that was that. The cameras point near her home, and they were taking a longshot. It is the same store that someone else was raped and murdered at not long ago.

No one is talking 'conspiracy'. Read my post, I said that it could have been that the reporters were just reporting on info that they didn't know the details about and jumping to conclusion. Let's not make this into some great conspiracy, it could be a mistake. But, mistakes like this are made in reporting, I hear of them too common, so I take all reports with a grain of salt.


I don't know anything about the phone, but are we talking about the same incident?


In regard to the serial killer(s), have you ever noticed that the FBI says that "there are at least 50 serial killers on the loose at any time in America"? Yet, they never tell us anything about where they are working or what to look out for. Why? Because they don't want to panic the populace. Once they have enough specific info, such as on Andrew Martinez, then they give out details to warn people. Until they have a good description, possibly a name, and several accounts to work from, they don't tell anyone that there is a serial killer in an area because they don't want to panic people. It may not surprise anyone, but there is a serial killer acting out in LA right now, doing horrific killings that would make a gruesome movie plot look tame, but no one will hear about it for a while.

I know for a fact that there is a serial killer (believed to be more than one person) on the loose in Phoenix. I know this because someone I know was murdered by the serial killer(s) and the Police are on the look for the killers who have a standard MO. You won't hear about it until they have a description, several deaths to lay out a firm MO, possibly a name etc. Then the authorities will reveal to you that there has been a serial killer stalking through your streets that they knew about, but didn't want to release information about until they were positive and had good reason to release the information

Why panic the populace with a mysterious story of some "serial killer" on the loose, when you can't give the people specific details so that they know what to look for? That does no good for anyone, hence, they keep it quiet until there is a reason to release the info.


thaddeus
 
I live outside of Phoenix (Mesa) and the media was interviewing her friend and she said that she was talking to her on the phone when the bullet struck her while in the back yard. If I can the chance maybe I can speak with a couple of officers who work at our school about the incident.

Not trying to start a flame war--it just seemed to be suggested in the first post that possibly the media was distorting data in order to make gun owners look bad.
 
The incident I am talking about happened over a month ago. It happened in north central Phoenix (just about the opposite side of Phoenix from Mesa for those that don't live there). The girl was not talking on the phone. Police said that evidence shows rape occured. I think we are talking about two completely different incidents.

[This message has been edited by thaddeus (edited July 10, 1999).]
 
It's the same story...


Stray bullet strikes, kills Phoenix girl

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By William Hermann
The Arizona Republic
June 16, 1999

A bullet fell from the sky Monday night and killed a "sweet and bright and very decent young lady" who had just stepped into the back yard of her central Phoenix home.

Shannon Smith, 14, was talking on a cell phone with a friend when she was struck in the head and killed by what police say was a stray bullet from an unknown source.

"It seems impossible, but it has happened before," Phoenix police Detective Mike McCullough said. "Falling bullets are most dangerous around New Year's, when people are firing guns into the air."

He said Shannon, who was to attend Xavier College Preparatory school next year, was talking with a girlfriend on a cell phone when she heard what she thought was a collision on Camelback Road, just south of her home in the 200 block of East Pasadena Avenue.

"She walked out of the house," McCullough said, "and then the friend heard nothing from her."

He said Shannon's father found her about 10:40 p.m.

"No parent should ever go through this," Otis Smith said. "Our daughter died in our back yard because someone fired a gun into the air for whatever reason or no reason at all.

"We appreciate the outpouring of support from our neighbors and friends and ask that anyone who has information leading to the identity of the shooter give that information to police."

Smith told 911 dispatchers that he found his daughter in his back yard. He said he didn't see any blood, but she wasn't breathing.

Paramedics took Shannon to St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. McCullough said an X-ray showed a bullet had penetrated her brain.

"We are treating it as a homicide," McCullough said, but it's a homicide with no motive, no weapon, no suspect and no witnesses.

"We had no 911 calls about shots fired, nothing that would indicate someone had fired a gun anywhere near that time," he said.

Ballistics experts note that the bullet that killed Shannon Smith could have traveled a very long way. Rifle bullets traveling at high velocity can go more than two miles. Even pistol bullets fired at a relatively low velocity can travel great distances.

Sierra Bullets ballistics technician Carroll Pilant said that a 115-grain, 9mm cartridge fired from a pistol aimed at 28 degrees would send a bullet flying 5,640 feet.

He said that same bullet fired almost straight up would travel about 4,076 feet before falling back at a rate of 500 feet per second.

Shannon had graduated from Madison Meadows Elementary School just weeks ago.

"Shannon was a very good student and well-liked by all the other kids," Madison Meadows Principal Joanne Johnson said. "She was the star participant in our cafeteria's volunteer program.

"Shannon was a great overall child and we all feel terrible for her parents. Losing her is an awful thing."

Jennifer Leinenwever was Shannon's teacher last year. She accompanied Shannon and other children on a trip to Washington, D.C., two weeks ago.

"This was a sweet and bright and very decent young lady," Leinenwever said. "She has a great family, very close.

"I had her in language arts class and she was a gifted student. She was very creative and responsible. Shannon was always the one who would run errands for you, a kid you could trust."

McCullough noted that on New Year's Eve in 1995, Ricardo Ulloa, 11, was killed when a bullet fired into the air came down and hit him outside his parents' central Phoenix apartment.

Police are asking anyone who knows of shots being fired near Central Avenue and Camelback Road on Monday night to call the General Investigations Bureau at (602) 262-6141.


***
 
I called my buddy again to verify the story. Yes, it is the same story as above. Somebody is lying, and it ain't my friend of 12 years as he has nothing to gain from it and I know him too well. He is in management of the store mentioned and this is not a "hearsay" story. The Police told him that there was evidence of rape, that she had been executed etc as said above. If push came to shove, I would believe my buddy over the newspaper. BUT, and this is a big "BUT", this leads me to the Police. Is there some reason why they would lie to my friend? Is this common practice in order to get video evidence from someone....to tell them a made-up story in order to get the tapes? I dunno. Something is very strange, and I don't immediately side with the newspaper and assume that their version is correct or true. If the cops are lying, why would they be lying? If the cops are telling the truth, then why is the newpaper lying?
 
Something is strange indeed...

Why would the police tell your friend that the girl had been raped and murdered and the media that she had been killed by a stray bullet. Keep in mind the print, radio, and television media all reported the same. Would her parents know if their was evidence of rape?
 
Misinformation from the Police??? No way... :D

Well... Got news for you... It happens...

There are occassions when the Police provide false information to the media in an attempt to flush out the bad guys....

Case in point, in Phoenix... A robbery (convienence store or liquor store, not sure) that occured recently, the perp got the cash, and stabbed the clerk in the eye with a screw driver, but the info to the media reported something different.

The Police were hoping that the bad guy would start bragging about how he REALLY did it... Not the info that was being reported, and in his attempt to correct the story, would be found, which he was... You can only brag about the real facts if you were the one who was involved. If the real events are not disclosed, the chances of finding the actualperson is higher.

The Police have every reason in the world to retain information related to an investigation, and not allow, or distribute it to the media. Instead, they provide misinformation, so that some hot shot investigative reporter doesn't really discover what happened, and blow their case, or they make agreements with the reporters on what to disclose.

You may never know what really happened by watching the news...
 
Unfortunately, the sheeple believe what they see/read and are accordingly stampeded in the direction the politicians and image-makers want.

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The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
 
Wait a minute guys.

Shannon was killed a year and a month ago.
The girl referenced in the first post was supposedly killed a month ago.
A year of difference even tho the same area.

????????

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Sam I am, grn egs n packin

Nikita Khrushchev predicted confidently in a speech in Bucharest, Rumania on June 19, 1962 that: " The United States will eventually fly the Communist Red Flag...the American people will hoist it themselves."
 
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