The Monkey King's Used Primate Emporium and Book Reviews

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Wallace Westfelot and Tom Wicker, �Indictment � The News Media and the Criminal Justice System�

Started February 4 � Finished February 4, 2002; 81 pages. Posted 5 February 2002

It must have been at least two and a half years ago when I picked this up. Mr. Sleepy and I were the only representatives of De Anza College to attend the Associated Press Managing Editors' conference in Anaheim at the Disneyland Hotel, where the irony was lost on no one.

The first thing we noticed was how much the San Jose State journalism students were suck-ups. They were also, for the most part, members of the �New Breed� of journalism, meaning they were more interested in getting their face on television or in the headlines than really caring about the subjects they covered.

They were also insufferably boring and stuffy � none of these people even wanted to join Mr. Sleepy and me for drinks, out of fear of admonishment from the big players from the majors. What they didn�t know � and we did � was that their actions made these editors view them with distrust.

Why do we know this? Because we sat with them, smoking and drinking late into the night, every night, for the three-day affair.

�I don�t trust anybody with who carries a portfolio in their hands with no drink to be seen,� one editor remarked to me after being shyly approached by a budding photographer. See, there�s a rule for the old boys in journalism that follows the �Three D�s� of journalism: the good ones are either drunk, divorced or dead. As you can guess, Mr. Sleepy and I got along fine with these people.

On the second night of the conference we were brought to the Richard M. Nixon library for a conference sponsored by the Freedom Forum, another irony lost on no one except the SJSU students. We all loaded up on a chartered bus, solemn and serious, then arrived to find there was a free bar waiting for us inside. Everybody started slowly and respectfully, having hors d� oeuvres with wine or the occasional beers, but the free drinks lasted for two and a half hours, and it wasn�t long before we were all ordering whisky and cokes, still smirking at the San Jose students with their Pepsi in hand.

Finally we filed into the lecture room to hear a dissertation on how the press covers (or fails to cover) legal cases. The speaker was making excellent points on the lack of follow up cases and the bent toward celebrity or shock value cases. I squirmed in my seat as I listened, trying not to concentrate on how bad I needed to use the bathroom (I finally succumbed after seeing at least 50 other people quietly leave and return).

As we left, we were handed copies of the report that I have now finally read, more than two years later.

That night at the Disneyland bar, Mr. Sleepy and myself sat with our regular crowd of editors and got to see the other side of the story. They acknowledged that crime reporting is notorious for failing to follow up on stories of a lesser nature, but much of that was due to the criminal justice system.

I know what they�re talking about. An instructor at De Anza murdered his wife and got caught after dumping the body in the Santa Cruz Mountains while I was on staff. It took over a year and a half before that case went to trial. The De Anza paper kept on the story to their credit (I had since left the paper and the school), but it got scarce mention from the San Jose Mercury News, which had placed the story on the front page when the instructor was first apprehended.

�Yeah, we should try and keep up with the stories,� one editor said, �but when you have a staff of less than sixty, and only five of those covering cops and courts how do you keep up with a docket that tries the same amount EVERY WEEK?�

�And how do you decide what to cover?� another editor interjected. �If you concentrate on smaller cases, you will inevitably be reporting on minorities � they said it themselves, �minorities are three times as likely to stand trial as a white guy.� If we report on these cases, we�re going to be accused of racial bias when the finger should be pointing toward the cops making the arrests!�

So what�s the answer? Fucked if I know. Hire more reporters, I guess. I�m available.


Rating: Why rate this? You can't get it anywhere, as it's a cheap binding job. Worth getting for free with free drinks.

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