Halloween

Cathy Redfern showed off her chops this morning with a good story about two burglars getting arrested. This is how local crime stories should be done and I couldn't stop reading. PE cop reporter for southwest could learn a few tricks here.

Dave Downey did a good job with the water rationing issue.

At the PE, John Asbury picked up on the story of the Temecula dad who stuffed his daughter in a freezer...allegedly.

And Sandra Stokley followed LA Times amazing piece on the Changeling history including information about a serial murderer living in Mira Loma. Stokley rehashes some of the Times story but she does go into more depth about the property and even talks to owners of it. A good read for Halloween.

The Good:
No actual stories here but just the fact that the PE had 4 and a half stories about the area. Wow. What's the half? GO see the terribly bad section.
Meanwhile the Cal had more than 6. Then again do haunted houses, trees and audio shortages count as real news?


The Bad:
Really. This is what passes for news these days. Nicole Sack wrote about conspiracy theorists complaining about technical problems during comment periods of the City Council. I know this was talked about previously but that was a blurb. This is a story. Good grief Charlie Brown.

The Really Terribly Bad:
Jeff Horseman take a bow. The PE did the same story. On this same uselessness. With the same conspiracy nuts. Tomorrow's Headline: Temecula City Officials actually sunk the Titanic. Temecula City Officials staged the moon landing. Hey local papers PLEASE write about something of interest.

Wednesday Hump Day

John Hall did something on Rod Pacheco’s new publicity stunt. Where was the PE? Who knows but I get the sense the PE likes to stick it to Mr. Pacheco when they can. Our DA is spending more money to go out of state to track down sex crime violators, I can think of better ways to spend that money.

Nelsy Rodriguez had a good run but now she is back to scraping for stories. Her latest one is about an ethics presentation to city officials. Ms. Rodriguez every city does this and Murrieta is no exception. There is no news here.

I would talk about Aaron Claverie's tree story but it pains me to even give it any attention at all.

By the way, what is this blurb on the Web site about? Honestly, can someone explain why this even deserved news consideration.



Now on to the PE

Not a bad little read news obit on an inland man who died in a helicopter crash. I wasn’t real interested but I kept reading. Great details and a tragic story. His wife was murdered 11 years ago. Thanks Mr. Asbury.

Congratulations to Gene Ghiotto who wrote from an Inland perspective about this numbskull cop who shot a person interested in a foot chase. It’s about time cops get nerf guns.

By The Way did you notice the lack of southwest news in the review. Because there was none. Unless you count a band feature news.

The Good:
Nelsy Rodriguez had a nice week going back a few days. This story is a little old but it's worth mentioning as good reporting. It obviously touched a nerve in the city because 127 people have commented. It's about police and fire using city stationary to endorse candidates. The PE came back at this a day later. Uh Oh. Naughty COPS.

The Not so Good: Aaron you have written some good stuff. This is definitely not one of them. The story reads like it's pandering to the Elsinore Mayor. Returning a check for $500 worth a story? Not in my household. Well I take that back. Giving my family a check for $500 would be worth a freaking ode. So this story is the NOT SO GOOD.


The Head Scratcher: Michelle Klampe why do you think this is worthy of a story? Why should anyone care about a school district putting more flyers online? Where have all the editors gone in this bureau.

Anatomy of breaking news in southwest.

A double homicide happened Wednesday. I watched it closely because I have a friend who lives three blocks away. He was scouring the Internet all day for news so I helped him being the newspaper lover I am. Let’s see who pulled through the past two days.

Shocker of the week

The Valley News posts the first news of a double homicide with a small web post shortly past 1 p.m. on Wednesday.

(The Valley News will cover these stories on occasion and has the reporters to do so with Peter Surkowski, Tim O’Leary and Rocky Salmon) Salmon seemed to be on this one and I wonder how he heard about it. Somehow I don’t think the Valley News monitors scanners or keeps in constant contact with police.

The Cal wasn’t far behind with their own post with the same information less than an hour later.

The PE fired back with Tammy McCoy updates including comments and quotes from the field.

The following day stories between McCoy and John Hall were similar because the police were not talking. Hall did have color on a family member crying but I went over that already.

What happened Thursday afternoon?

The Valley News once again put up a new post and a new story that looked at the fear in the community.

The PE had one web update about investigators at the house. The Cal didn’t even bother with an update.

Then at about 5 p.m. the Valley news broke the first news in a bit, which was the name of the woman. And they also called her the victim’s wife.

I wonder if this means the PE and Cal have competition.

The Cal posted a new John Hall story at about 9 p.m. with the husband’s name and a ton of comments from a teenager named Jaime who didn’t want to give her name. His story read in similar fashion to the web story posted on the Valley News.

The PE had no updates but did have the most compelling new information in today’s paper which was written by McCoy and John Asbury. This one gives details as to why the Arson crew was there, the relationship between the two, an attempt to reach family members and an official saying neighbors could calm down because the killer was someone the victims knew.

After two days it was interesting, how these three papers fought it out and it was interesting that the Valley News was sticking its nose into the breaking news business. It also says something about the PE and the Cal that they were getting beat on web updates.

I bet the editors weren’t happy about that.

****UPDATE********

The PE and the Cal both had updates on the murders explaining an autopsy show they were shot in the head.

Both papers have not talked to family members and both have used anonymous sources to describe the Marine. No Nos in my book.

In fact the PE ran a photo. A photo that looks eerily similar to the MySpace page photo the guy has on his page (yes I once was a reporter so I do get curious and when I have free time will dig around—both Jan and Quiana had myspace pages).

Did the PE pull this off MySpace and call it a courtesy photo? If so that’s a big journalism no no.

Also briefly the Valley News faded from the scene which is understandable. Freelance reporters versus staff reporters will usually weigh in the favor of daily newspapers. I will now start to check the Valley News to see what they are doing. After all, it was Tim O’Leary who scooped the valley with his critical story on Council members tied to developers.

Good job today papers

Wow it was a great day for both southwest Riverside County papers.

Both Aaron’s had a story about the real reason why the Lake Elsinore City Clerk resigned…because she was indicted for stealing money at her former job.

Both papers covered the murder out in French Valley. Both seemed stymied by the lack of information from the police but John Hall might have went a little overboard with his description of a family member grieving.

Here is his description..which McCoy either did not witness or chose not to use:

As investigators and deputies milled around inside the crime scene Wednesday morning, a black Ford Expedition hurriedly pulled up on Date Palm Street and a man and woman got out.

After speaking briefly with an investigator, the woman became emotional and blurted out: "Lord no, don't tell me that! She's my only child!"

For several minutes, the woman frantically paced, only saying "no" over and over again.

She and the man again spoke with an investigator and then the woman screamed and pounded on the hood of the Expedition.

"She's all we've got!" the woman screamed. "Not my daughter. Not my daughter. Not my daughter."

A short time later, a sheriff's chaplain and members of the Trauma Intervention Program arrived to comfort the couple.

Is this good color or too much? I kind of believe it’s too much and doesn’t further the story. What do you think?

Zach Fox has been writing housing issues for the past year but nothing really in-depth or earth shattering. He gets a good one here as realtors blast the governments claim that all their bail outs are working. Not in San Diego or the IE.

Nelsy Rodriguez has been busy. I don’t know if that’s a great thing or not. She did a good job talking about a new shopping center groundbreaking and what it means financially to the area.

But she followed that up with a story on an acupuncture clinic Was she paid for this? I have read this story several times and see no reason for it.

Then you have another story about murals unveiled at Murrieta. For some reason it seems hard to me that there isn’t better news in town.

Over at the PE Jeff Horseman did a great job on the City Council allegations series. He does a story from the supporters angle. So many times reporters forget to get all sides in a story and he does here and it’s important. It shows his unbias or at least an attempt to be unbiased. Nicole sack hasn’t done this.

Here is Jeff’s story.

Doug Quan is priceless when he covers cops. Look at this lede:

Romance wasn't on the minds of the man and woman who stole 52 pairs of panties from the Victoria's Secret store at the Montclair Plaza this month.

Instead, authorities say the Baldwin Park pair belonged to one of the sophisticated shoplifting rings that have been targeting Victoria's Secret and other high-end stores throughout the Inland region.

I could care less about Montclair but I had to keep reading after that lede. Winner of the week award.

Michelle DeArmond shows the real reason why people are so heated in opposition of Obama – could it be about race? Check out this newsletter from a women’s Republic group: shameful. The woman has the nerve to say it’s not about race. What a crock. If she had the courage she would own up to it. The picture has a watermelon, KFC, Kool-Aid. Isn’t that all the stereotypes.

On to the actual story. Some people argue this story just stokes the message and is unnecessary. I think the story isn’t but the paper shouldn’t show a picture of the newsletter.

No more restaurants

Congrats to Nelsy for writing about a closure of a restaurant in Murrieta. I thought this story would be a quick, shop is closed story. Nelsy actually used it to briefly take a look at strip malls in the city. Now my only concern here is that she wrote about this restaurant and not about any others because the city asked her to. While that’s at least the bias I see. I perhaps have a reason why Giovannis went out of business. It costs too much. I could go to any other Italian restaurant and get the same for three to four dollars cheaper. At least Nelsy is covering Murrieta. The story is here.

The Cal’s local section actually resembled a business section with Nelsy’s store closing store, Menifee’s Target opening and a story about a Fresh & Easy.

I have heard that Sarah Burge is the new Murrieta reporter and here is a story from her about the City Council candidates. If it is true that Burge is taking over for Murrieta I am happy and Nelsy should be scared.

Reporter Tip of the Day

Please, please do not start a story with LIKE. Now I know rules are made to be broken if written in the right way. But Mr. Aaron Burgin this is not it.

Like the US and its quest for foreign oil independence, local water agencies always look for ways to rely less heavily on drinking water imported from other sources.

Its wrong for so many reasons. Reason 1: Foreign oil independence will make many readers stop.

Reason 2: Like. Like what. What are you comparing here. You have a comparison but the comparison is in the second part.

Reason 3: This is what I call a college or high school lede. It’s easy to write this lede. That’s why you see it in high school and college papers.

It seems some of the most interesting stories from the southwest section of the PE is coming from Hope Pierson and her inside stories. This story was great and it didn’t start with Like.

I would review more stories but both papers have been struggling. At least they now have fires to keep their attention.

hogbacks galore

Nelsy finally stepped away from covering feature stories to get at an issue story in the community. The housing development along the Hogbacks. I am still waiting for Nelsy’s story about the Warm Springs Townhomes. Where is my follow up?

Here is the dumbest story to date. Nicole Sack and Jeff Horseman already wrote that residents request the state FPPC look into campaign finance allegations. She writes a follow up here. This follow up is an example of A)someone not knowing how the process works or B)putting something in print just to get a byline. The FPPC always looks into these allegations. They have to. That’s their job. If I accused Tom Buckley of taking illegal bribes in the form of Elsinore Trout the FPPC would have to investigate.

Ohh I jumped the gun on Nicole Sack. Jeff Horseman did the same thing. I think this was an attempt by the papers to keep the story going. Tomorrow’s headline:

City Council Critics used paper to print out allegations.

I would write more about southwest Riverside County news from the PE but apparently they have totally forgotten about the area. If it wasn’t for Horseman you would think the southwest area voted to become an independent nation and the PE wasn’t going to cover it anymore.