by Steve Reinbrecht
This story about a fight and hubbub after a Reading high school let out Monday is so confusing that it shows the Reading Eagle has little capacity to cover something as important as this kind of public disturbance. What lazy reporting!
The story says two girls fought but doesn't say why the other dozen or so people were arrested or what they were charged with.
Did they fight each other? Fight police?
Girls "were hit" by pepper spray. Who fired it, the police or people in the crowd?
Did police use or display weapons? If not, good for them!
If a woman is taken into custody, her name should be quickly available. There used to be a logbook in the City Hall sally port of everyone brought in. I support instantly making public the name of anyone detained by authorities. We don't want the Establishment to start disappearing people in this country, do we?
I’d like to know exactly how many people were tossed in the paddy wagon, not vaguely that “12 to 15 people were transported to City Hall.” These are people, not steers.
What kind of treatment for pepper-spray victims is available at City Hall?
And with all respect, the story seems like a cop-centric take on the "ordeal."
This all happened at 4 p.m. and this is the best the Eagle could do by press time?
And why doesn't the Eagle call the school the Citadel, and mention that it has about 2,300 eighth- and ninth-graders?
Certainly Reading residents should respect police and not challenge them when they are trying to restore order. Reading's police do a fine job and have for years full of fast changes and dwindling resources.
But many of the people who live in the city have moved here from places where the police are part of the problem, not the solution.
It’s sad when a TV station out-reports a newspaper. But in this case, WFMZ answered more basic questions.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Reading Eagle should follow up on hospital turning away drug addict
by Steve Reinbrecht
The Reading Eagle has pursued prize-winningish reporting on the “scourge” of opiate abuse in Berks County.
But it hasn’t much reported on the treatment options.
“They went to the hospital seeking treatment but were turned away empty-handed to find resources on their own.”
Never concerned with precision, the Reading Eagle doesn’t say if they went to Reading Hospital or St. Joseph’s.
The paper could follow up – what are the treatment options for addicts?
I suspect they are embarrassingly meager in Berks, hence the lack of reporting, because the Eagle would rather avoid embarrassing the Establishment than get at the truth.
There is one methadone center, in West Reading. Others have been proposed, most recently in Caernarvon Township, but opposed by officials swayed by NIMBY complaints.
It’s great to publish sensational horror stories about good children gone bad.
But now for the real journalistic effort – what’s being done? how is the community helping those who have the disease?
The Eagle could ask the methadone center director: if everyone addicted to opiates in Berks County asked for help, are enough resources available?
That’s what National Public Radio asked Michael Botticelli, director of National Drug Control Policy, in August.
NPR: “If half the heroin or opioid addicts in the 15 states in this program all wanted treatment, would there be sufficient programs and facilities to handle them?”
Botticelli: “Many of our treatment systems are operating at capacity, have long waiting lists. Many parts of the country don't have a specialty treatment program, but they do have a community health center. So focusing on increasing the capacity within our hospital systems and primary care facilities becomes really important for us.”
So how are Berks County’s health officials planning to focus on increasing the capacity of the hospital systems and two community health centers in Reading?
What do the two hospitals do for emerging addicts?
The paper reports on a Council on Chemical Abuse event:
“The workshop series focused on education about drugs, the disease of addiction, proper intervention strategies and how the community can help not only individuals struggling with addition, but also their families.”
What about practical information on treatment? Recovering takes months of intense support.
Who offers that in Berks?
What is the process after you call Reading Health System 24 Hour Addiction Hotline -- (484) 628-8186?
Caron, the rehab center near Wernersville, said in February that it was offering $250,000 to $300,000 in scholarship money a month to admit and treat young heroin addicts.
How many are using the money?
The Reading Eagle has pursued prize-winningish reporting on the “scourge” of opiate abuse in Berks County.
But it hasn’t much reported on the treatment options.
It did tell Sunday about the outrage of a Brecknock Township woman who ended up sending her son to California for detox:
“They went to the hospital seeking treatment but were turned away empty-handed to find resources on their own.”
Never concerned with precision, the Reading Eagle doesn’t say if they went to Reading Hospital or St. Joseph’s.
The paper could follow up – what are the treatment options for addicts?
I suspect they are embarrassingly meager in Berks, hence the lack of reporting, because the Eagle would rather avoid embarrassing the Establishment than get at the truth.
There is one methadone center, in West Reading. Others have been proposed, most recently in Caernarvon Township, but opposed by officials swayed by NIMBY complaints.
It’s great to publish sensational horror stories about good children gone bad.
But now for the real journalistic effort – what’s being done? how is the community helping those who have the disease?
The Eagle could ask the methadone center director: if everyone addicted to opiates in Berks County asked for help, are enough resources available?
That’s what National Public Radio asked Michael Botticelli, director of National Drug Control Policy, in August.
NPR: “If half the heroin or opioid addicts in the 15 states in this program all wanted treatment, would there be sufficient programs and facilities to handle them?”
Botticelli: “Many of our treatment systems are operating at capacity, have long waiting lists. Many parts of the country don't have a specialty treatment program, but they do have a community health center. So focusing on increasing the capacity within our hospital systems and primary care facilities becomes really important for us.”
So how are Berks County’s health officials planning to focus on increasing the capacity of the hospital systems and two community health centers in Reading?
What do the two hospitals do for emerging addicts?
The paper reports on a Council on Chemical Abuse event:
“The workshop series focused on education about drugs, the disease of addiction, proper intervention strategies and how the community can help not only individuals struggling with addition, but also their families.”
What about practical information on treatment? Recovering takes months of intense support.
Who offers that in Berks?
What is the process after you call Reading Health System 24 Hour Addiction Hotline -- (484) 628-8186?
Caron, the rehab center near Wernersville, said in February that it was offering $250,000 to $300,000 in scholarship money a month to admit and treat young heroin addicts.
How many are using the money?
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Front page story: Reading Eagle gets 'search warrant'
by Steve Reinbrecht
According to a front-page story Saturday, the Reading Eagle got a search warrant to find out about FBI subpoenas in the Reading City Hall investigation.
According to a front-page story Saturday, the Reading Eagle got a search warrant to find out about FBI subpoenas in the Reading City Hall investigation.
Or maybe that's some sort of silly typo. Rest assured, only real crime-fighters can get search warrants.
That raises the question: Why doesn't Berks County's premier newsgathering institution have a competent editor to read what it publishes, especially in a top story on A1? Can we believe the rest of this important story was carefully written and checked? Or just words on a page ...
Thursday, September 10, 2015
The Reading Eagle should ask elected officials the reasons for their votes
by Steve Reinbrecht
Reading City Council on Tuesday voted 5-1 to appoint John Slifko to fill a vacancy until the end of the year.
The Reading Eagle was there, but didn’t do its job -- finding out why elected officials vote the way they do.
If only one person resists a unanimous vote, it’s often for
a good reason. The Establishment values unanimity and pressures people who rock
the boat.
So let’s hear from the boat-rockers, especially on important things like
the composition of Reading City Council.
“Councilman Chris Daubert cast the lone vote against Slifko.
He did not say why,” the Eagle reported.
Daubert told me later that he was surprised nobody from the
Eagle asked him why, and he gave me his reasons for his no-vote on Slifko.
“I voted the way I voted because I didn't have him ranked as
the best candidate, all things considered. (Experience with budget, etc.)
“I also am not a fan of appointing someone who has never run
for the office or garnered votes for the office. I am beholden to the people
that elected me.
“Anyone that is appointed has Council members to thank, not
the people. I'd support a change to the Charter to eliminate long-term
appointments, but that doesn't fit in this case as it is only for four months.
“Why I didn't speak up in the meeting to explain my vote was
very truly out of respect for my colleagues and for Mr. Slifko. He was going to
be appointed, regardless of my vote.
“I spoke with him before I voted to let him know why I was
doing what I was doing. I really didn't want to ruin it for him, as I have
nothing against him. He's a smart and nice guy.
“I was really expecting a question which I would have then
answered just as I shared with you.”
Friday, September 4, 2015
It's awful that the Reading Eagle suggests local police are being targeted without really checking
by Steve Reinbrecht
It appears that assaults on police officers are increasing around here, Reading Eagle claims in a story Friday, Sept. 4.
That’s a provocative statement in light of national current events.
The Eagle says: “It's unclear if assaults on police officers are increasing, but anecdotaly, at least, that appears to be the case.”
Isn’t it a newspaper’s job to clarify the “unclear”? How hard did reporters try to find out? Why can’t the newspaper nail down this provocative claim a little more tightly? It’s easier to do a lame job, even though bad journalism on such an extremely sensitive subject will just make things worse.
This Eagle article brandishes the same bad logic that the worst populists do by holding up anecdotes – Willie Horton! – knowing that uneducated people will make the fallacious leap.
Don’t police departments keep records of assaults on officers? If the Eagle can list the salary of every municipal weed-whacker in Berks, it might be able to check on this.
Why not ask if such attacks are in fact rising? The Eagle not only fails to fact-check, but doesn’t bother reporting facts in the first place.
Of course being a police officer is a rough job. They need to insert themselves into the most dangerous situations. That’s always been a part of the profession.
"There are times when people you're interacting with escalate the situation needlessly," Fleetwood Police Chief Steven J. Stinsky tells the Eagle. "It's something you've got to deal with and you've always had to."
So what’s the news?
The Eagle lists a handful of local incidents -- four in a week, from Myerstown to West Penn Township in Schuylkill County; four among a population of about 500,000.
Connecting those to atrocities where criminals are targeting officers turns my stomach.
Stinsky said he's “noticed a decline in respect for authorities.”
“This undercurrent, he believes, has contributed to well-publicized fatal shootings by police officers of suspects around the nation.”
If that’s really happening in Berks, the Eagle should dig up the numbers.
Otherwise, such bad journalism just makes problems among police and residents worse.
Last year, 51 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in America, a steep rise from the 27 officers killed in 2013. The FBI released the numbers in May.
From 1980–2014, an average of 64 law enforcement officers have been feloniously killed per year. The 2013 total, 27, was the lowest during this 35-year period.
It appears that assaults on police officers are increasing around here, Reading Eagle claims in a story Friday, Sept. 4.
That’s a provocative statement in light of national current events.
The Eagle says: “It's unclear if assaults on police officers are increasing, but anecdotaly, at least, that appears to be the case.”
Isn’t it a newspaper’s job to clarify the “unclear”? How hard did reporters try to find out? Why can’t the newspaper nail down this provocative claim a little more tightly? It’s easier to do a lame job, even though bad journalism on such an extremely sensitive subject will just make things worse.
This Eagle article brandishes the same bad logic that the worst populists do by holding up anecdotes – Willie Horton! – knowing that uneducated people will make the fallacious leap.
Don’t police departments keep records of assaults on officers? If the Eagle can list the salary of every municipal weed-whacker in Berks, it might be able to check on this.
Why not ask if such attacks are in fact rising? The Eagle not only fails to fact-check, but doesn’t bother reporting facts in the first place.
Of course being a police officer is a rough job. They need to insert themselves into the most dangerous situations. That’s always been a part of the profession.
"There are times when people you're interacting with escalate the situation needlessly," Fleetwood Police Chief Steven J. Stinsky tells the Eagle. "It's something you've got to deal with and you've always had to."
So what’s the news?
The Eagle lists a handful of local incidents -- four in a week, from Myerstown to West Penn Township in Schuylkill County; four among a population of about 500,000.
Connecting those to atrocities where criminals are targeting officers turns my stomach.
Stinsky said he's “noticed a decline in respect for authorities.”
“This undercurrent, he believes, has contributed to well-publicized fatal shootings by police officers of suspects around the nation.”
If that’s really happening in Berks, the Eagle should dig up the numbers.
Otherwise, such bad journalism just makes problems among police and residents worse.
Last year, 51 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in America, a steep rise from the 27 officers killed in 2013. The FBI released the numbers in May.
From 1980–2014, an average of 64 law enforcement officers have been feloniously killed per year. The 2013 total, 27, was the lowest during this 35-year period.
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