Monday, June 11, 2007

Monkey Business?


Last week there were rumors flying around Warsaw like you would not believe. In a small town? Imagine that! My kids came home from school and told me that Warsaw Community Schools were being sued by the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo and all Warsaw classes were banned from the zoo. The rumor to back that up was that a student had thrown a sharpie marker into a monkey cage and a monkey had ate the marker and died. And then there was supposedly a penguin stolen. And some "high" students. And duck eggs destroyed. Three of the local radio stations owned by Talking Stick, an affiliate of Federated Media, reported the story as rumors, but unfortunately people only heard the story and didn't hear the words "rumor" or "unconfirmed". You can read the complete story here.


In another headline story last week, there was a fire in Warsaw that wreaked heavy damage on a local business, the SPECTACLE Shoppe. As one might discern from the name of the business, it was indeed a complete eye care business. But the Journal Gazette reported the story as a barber and beauty shop. See article here. Another independent Warsaw radio station picked up this news ditty from the Journal Gazette and reported it as a barbershop also, so much for the hometown station.


I know you have all seen my ongoing rants about the use of Kosciusko in the Journal Gazette as if it were a specific town, rather than a county. I am on this rant just to show how sloppy the media is getting in their reporting.
Back to another BIG story earlier this year involving a wrecked red hummer and a gentleman trying to check into the state police headquarters in search of a hotel room..... reporters forgot to dig a little deeper, they would have found this "drunk" to be the owner of a rather large used car lot in the "Kosciusko" area. Funny thing, the other day when I drove by one of his lots, you guessed it, a right sharp looking red hummer for sale. hmmmm.

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