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Walsh news turns reporters into tools

By Mark Obbie

Why is fonta href=http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=enamp;tab=wnamp;ncl=1280759120 target=_blankpractically every news organization/a/font falling for the fake news event in Hollywood, Florida, in the Adam Walsh case? It's one thing for police to pull a PR stunt, announcing with a flourish (and with span style=font-style: italic;America's Most Wanted/span cameras rolling) that after 27 years they solved the case by naming the same suspect who was the chief suspect all along. It's another for so many news organizations, fonta href=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/us/17adam.html?partner=permalinkamp;exprod=permalink%20 target=_blankeven good ones/a/font, to play along. Too many barely mention -- if at all -- that the police have no new evidence and that this isn't the first time they solved the case by naming serial killer Ottis Toole as the culprit. At least the fonta href=http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/815955.html%20 target=_blankspan style=font-style: italic;Miami Herald/span's David Smiley/a/font spent some column inches recounting the Toole-Walsh history. And fonta href=http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/hollywood/sfl-flbwalshes1217sbdec17,0,907535.story%20 target=_blankspan style=font-style: italic;South Florida Sun-Sentinel/span's John Holland/a/font called the massively covered press conference long on drama and compassion for the Walshes and short on any, you know, news. But those aren't the headlines hogging news sites across the Web. I can already hear John Walsh's hyped intro for the span style=font-style: italic;America's Most Wanted/span show in the making.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).