Media - Bloggers Really? Lakewood Attacked On Two Fronts.

[Jim O'Bryan]

I started this as to clean up Spooky Pooch thread as we track inflicted damage.

From NewsNet 5

Spooky Pooch Parade in Lakewood ends with beloved Pomeranian dog being mauled, killed
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/oh_cuyahoga/spooky-pooch-parade-in-lakewood-ends-with-beloved-pomeranian-dog-being-mauled-killed#ixzz2A3GIMh6b

They corrected the front page, to "Dog Attacks Pomeranian Near Parade." But still felt the
need for the headline.

See, people trashing an event for a bottom line?

Not for any good to the community, the event, or to even allow people to make sense of what happened.

Get the headline, screw the community.

Another reason this project was started. Media and bloggers, just going wacky. The three
standoffs we had in Lakewood. Everyone reported "Lakewood standoffs" no one mentioned
they were all people visiting Lakewood.

It makes a difference.

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[Jim O'Bryan]

From Fox8

Family Dog Fatally Mauled at Pooch Parade
Posted on: 1:19 pm, October 22, 2012, by Lindsay Buckingham

**WARNING: The details in the following story are graphic**

LAKEWOOD, Ohio — A beloved family pet was mauled to death at the Spooky Pooch Parade on Saturday, Lakewood police reported...

Fox8, never to be one to underestimate the value of gore in its bottom line or readership...

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[Jim O'Bryan]

UPDATE: Dogs Not Really At Parade

That would be a correction not an update.

Update would be dog owner...

Not, it did not really happen where we shouted endlessly it was at.

amateur


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[Bill Call]

UPDATE: Dogs Not Really At Parade

medium_lkwdbottom.jpg (85.66 KiB) Viewed 1333 times

And this picture wasn't a picture of a typical house in Lakewood but that didn't stop them from featuring it in an article about all the fine houses in Lakewood.

The more immediate danger is our new County Council. They seem intent undermining communities like Lakewood while they offer millions in subsidies for downtown developers. The theory is that the Gold Coast in Lakewood is bad and should be replaced with taxpayer subsidized apartments downtown because if people move from Lakewood to downtown the region will prosper.

I just had a conversation with a young lady who moved to Lakewood from Tremont. She moved out of Tremont because of the crime, the noise and the pollution. How often does the PD mention any of those problems......never?

The real problem isn't bad reporting but bad governing. I'll grow wings and fly before the political leadership in this town starts to challenge the downtown development model.

Simply put: A development model that focuses on taxpayer subsized downtown apartments and tax payer subsidized downtown bars undermines one part of town to enhance another. It's a zero sum game.

I'm still waiting for an answer from our political leadership: Is the economic engine the business that pays the subsidy or the business that needs the subsidy to survive?

[Jim O'Bryan]

The real problem isn't bad reporting but bad governing. I'll grow wings and fly before the political leadership in this town starts to challenge the downtown development model.

Simply put: A development model that focuses on taxpayer subsized downtown apartments and tax payer subsidized downtown bars undermines one part of town to enhance another. It's a zero sum game.

I'm still waiting for an answer from our political leadership: Is the economic engine the business that pays the subsidy or the business that needs the subsidy to survive?

Bill

What you are talking about is bad governing with servile reporters.

Yes this explains the nightmare very well.

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[Betsy Voinovich]

UPDATE: Dogs Not Really At Parade

That would be a correction not an update.

Update would be dog owner...

Not, it did not really happen where we shouted endlessly it was at.

amateur


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I just went online and googled "dog mauled parade Lakewood" and started counting the number of "dog mauled AT parade in Lakewood" articles there were. I stopped counting around fifteen. Not local links. National links.

This kind of "reporting" is irresponsible and damaging. "News" goes out that events in the city of Lakewood, Ohio, are unsafe, and not responsibly run: "No, Honey, remember, a dog was killed at that event last year, we're not going there. We're not taking our dog or children there." Or our own residents: "Our city doesn't know how to run events. We won't be safe there." Does that apply to Light Up Lakewood? How about our Arts festivals? There are cities whose residents walk around scaring people with aggressive pitbulls. We are not one of them, but this story certainly makes us look that way.

Changing the article's title twice didn't take away the fact that the original title, the sensational one, is the one other sources are running with, including our own Fox 8 News misrepresenting our own Lakewood Police: "A beloved family pet was mauled to death at the Spooky Pooch Parade on Saturday, Lakewood police reported..."

Lakewood Police did NOT report that a family pet was mauled to death AT the parade-- a pro-Lakewood, family-friendly event, that was well-organized and safe by all accounts, with dogs being registered and dog behavior being monitored.

I understand that the media site that did this is a nationally-run corporate project, and that it is one of a thousand similar sites that use local names and supposedly report "community news" and that their mission is to make money by monetizing community news. Then the headline makes sense, though it's not true. A dog being mauled to death AT a parade is interesting, especially at a parade of dogs in costume. Readership, hits, metrics. I have sympathy for someone running this site, it's like working for Burger King. You have to sell burgers. The corporate owners are not local, nor do they care about the community; they only care about the bottom line, but to twist or change facts to bring in viewers or hits, in a way that damages our city's reputation under the guise of being supportive to our community, is a lot worse than amateur. It's a way to blight Lakewood as a city. It's a way to discourage people from moving here, or from staying here.

Over the past weekend this same site reported: "Police search for missing 8-year-old boy."

This is terrible news. One of our children is missing? Only later was that updated to "Police search for (and Find) missing 8-year-old boy." The story, published on a Saturday morning, highlights the fact that the child "hadn't come home from school" after attending a Lakewood public school, showing the school's picture, as if our schools should be implicated in his disappearance. As if Lakewood City schools are irresponsible. Just like LakewoodAlive and the City of Lakewood with the Spooky Pooch parade.

The 8-year-old was "missing" for less than an hour. He went to a friend's house after school. I have a friend with a child in the same class. Her daughter said their teacher lectured them about making sure to call their mothers if they go to a friend's house after school.

But apparently armed police, in bullet-proof vests were "seen" by uncited sources, swarming the hallways of the school.

Great reporting. Especially before our schools are going to attempt to pass a school levy. Again the city of Lakewood is made to look terrible to outsiders and our own residents. Lakewood schools lost a child?! The schools are so dangerous armed police must search their hallways?

Every day after school in every city some of the kids stop at friends' houses, or frozen yogurt stores, or the library, signals get crossed, mothers get worried, and if it has ever happened to you, even for 15 minutes, you know that it can be very, very scary. This time this mother called the police and the child was immediately found.

We have a very safe, walkable city, with an excellent police force and excellent public schools.

The idea of a missing child is not one to take lightly, and it is not one to exaggerate or sensationalize.

But on Saturday morning you wake up to: "Police search for missing 8 year old child" along with a picture of the school he "never returned" from?

Think about it. That story was written on Saturday morning. The child was not missing at all when that title was written.

Betsy Voinovich

[Jim O'Bryan]

But apparently armed police, in bullet-proof vests were "seen" by uncited sources, swarming the hallways of the school.

All Lakewood Police carry guns, 24/7/365. All wear bullet proof vests, all the time.

To even mention it is sensationalizing a story for negative impact.

This is exactly what happens when corporations try to monetize local news, or bloggers
that desperately need to feed their egos go for hits on their blogs. You can almost hear
them now shouting up from their basement, "Honey, I got twenty more hits today!"

We have used some eye grabbing headlines, but not that were lies, no one needs to lie.


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