Tabloid TV at WSB-2
May 9, 2007
Yellow Journalism is Alive and Well at WSB-TV
First, we will reprint the news story that aired on WSB-TV News, and then we will provide a few comments…
Shack Behind Glenwood Academy Contains Porn
POSTED: 4:23 pm EDT May 8, 2007
UPDATED: 6:16 pm EDT May 8, 2007
DECATUR, Ga. — Parents are alarmed after an old shack containing porn, drug paraphernalia and beer cans was found behind their children’s school. The run-down shack sits behind the Glenwood Academy on Ponce de Leon in Decatur.
The shack is located next to a well-worn trail only a short walk from the school’s playground.
Scattered around the shack are X-rated pictures from pornographic magazines, old beer cans and bottles, a pair of pants and drug paraphernalia. Channel 2’s Tom Regan said the shack is located within 100 feet of the fenceless Glenwood Academy playing field.
“One of our concerns is that someone is back here getting high, looking at the pornographic materials and thinking, ‘This is an opportunity to get a child,’ said parent Karen Langley.
The school’s principal said they became aware of the shack last week after children attending a picnic saw it and told their parents.
Beyond the sexually explicit pictures, there are other potential dangers to kids who walk into the shack. Sheet metal with sharp edges hang down and there is broken glass all over the ground.
“This is not a safe place for kids to be,” said Langley.
Decatur Schools facilities director Mike Bruenig said, “It’s not our property, so we really can’t go in and tear it down without some kind of due process.”
According to Bruenig, the city has contacted the property owner and he has agreed to take it down.
(Copyright 2007 by WSBTV.com)
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Comments from SOS-Net:
What is truly amazing is that last year, they (WSB-TV) were offered an opportunity to interview Registered Sex Offenders at a local therapist’s office; SOS-Net has obtained copies of the e-mail exchange with Anchor John Pruitt. Mr. Pruitt and WSB were offered the opportunity to find out first hand, if all Registered Sex Offenders were a threat to children or if the myth was just a convenient fear-mongering venue for ratings by the media and votes by politicians.
Let’s connect the dots for our obtuse friends at WSB. First, we must point out that, according to the United States Department of Justice, in about 90% of the sex abuse cases, the victim KNOWS their offender, and that stranger danger represents less than 8% of the cases.
Secondly, WSB-TV made sure to interview a “soccer mom” and air the fear in an effort to further scare parents. In place of common sense, which tells us that teenage boys will have private meeting places where they sneak a peek at porn, hide their booze and drug stash, and in general just be boys.
Now let’s be totally clear on what this means. First, Registered Sex Offenders are not living within 1000 feet of this school. That is the law. Therefore, if a sex offender was using this shack as a “staging area,” for an “opportunity to get a child,” that person is NOT living nearby or is most likely off law enforcement’s radar screen.
If the latter is the case, then is this not proof that the sex offender registry and more importantly Georgia’s sex offender laws are ineffective? However, WSB would never report that, because this type of responsible reporting would actually work toward making children safer.
Today’s mainstream media do not want to help make children safer, why? It would greatly reduce the body bags, which would greatly reduce the source for sensational news stories, and sensational news stories are the lifeblood of our media outlets. They guarantee higher ratings.
I contend that this type of “news” and reporting (and I use these terms loosely), is nothing more than Tabloid Journalism, and it is in fact making our children less safe. This is the same conclusion and declaration the FBI made.
Fear drives ratings and advertising dollars, fear makes for political sound bites and votes. At the end of the day, it is up to parents to insure their children are safe, evidently; the media and government are just not able to do that.
Until they become responsible citizens, our children remain at risk, until they stop the pandering of fear, our children remain at risk. We are simply stuck on stupid when it comes to the sex offender issue. End of story.
(About the pictures, top left - shows inside of “porn shack”, yeah it really looks like someone other than kids was hanging out in there just waiting for a victim. Bottom right - exterior of “porn shack”, again, it looks just like the place a child molester wants to hang out in. WSB-TV should have its license pulled for running such a stupid story, at the very least; viewers should switch over to another channel. When we stop supporting ridiculous and irresponsible journalism by the media, they will feel the effects of our outrage in their bottom line, and when that happens, they will change the status quo.)
