View Full Version : Is NewsOK.com being particularly salacious or...



Pete
07-16-2012, 07:50 PM
...is there really this much crime in OKC?

Seems like recently almost all the local news is murders and violence.


This is a screen capture from today:


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/newsok71612.jpg

HewenttoJared
07-16-2012, 08:36 PM
Lack of actual stories IMO.

Midtowner
07-16-2012, 08:44 PM
We have a pretty high crime rate.

Steve
07-16-2012, 09:11 PM
Lack of actual stories IMO.
Nope. I'd argue we had quite a bit of non-crime local news today. The situation is actually something we struggle with from time to time. NewsOK has its own rhythm, formula in posting stories and sometimes it pops up like today, out of whack. It's discussed internally, and something that they try to monitor.

Spartan
07-16-2012, 09:18 PM
I think they might actually have a reasonable story on crime, because I have a hunch that crime has increased dramatically. In the last few years the trend has been noticeable in many big cities, not just Chicago which makes the most news.

Last time I went out to Saints real late, I passed a huge shooting scene at the 7-11 at Western/10th, and then at 13th/Classen a few cop cars were flashing and surrounding a chalk outline of a person. Every now and then I pass similar scenes, but never two major scenes within a minute of each other on a single trip. Then two nights ago I was coming back from Norman and passed a huge gathering of 40+ cars with under-carriage lighting, spinny wheels, and other assorted accoutrements in the Blazer's parking lot at 82nd/I-35. I was perturbed and called it in, because I have grandparents still living in the inner south side and I am worried about their street.

OKC is having a crime problem right now in ways I have never noticed before.

adaniel
07-16-2012, 09:38 PM
"If it bleeds it leads." The sordid and sick sell. That's been true for some time.

I just got done watching a story on KFOR on a man shooting himself in his junk. I wonder if Linda Cavanaugh wonders how her distinguished career morphed into reporting about garbage like this....

BTW OKC's crime rate has always been elevated but I disagree that crime is "skyrocketing." Most large cities not named Chicago are enjoying lower crime rates then they've seen in decades. Safe cities and decline crime don't sell papers and get eyeballs in front of tv's though.

Snowman
07-16-2012, 09:57 PM
It may have something to do with two of the money drivers local sports and weather have a bunch more completion with enthusiast blogs/twitter/other web properties that cover those areas faster and/or in more detail.

Matt
07-16-2012, 10:04 PM
"Oh, don't give me this 'we don't **** Grandma' routine. Don't give me that. **** me."

--Dennis Frog, R.I.P.

Spartan
07-16-2012, 11:07 PM
"If it bleeds it leads." The sordid and sick sell. That's been true for some time.

I just got done watching a story on KFOR on a man shooting himself in his junk. I wonder if Linda Cavanaugh wonders how her distinguished career morphed into reporting about garbage like this....

BTW OKC's crime rate has always been elevated but I disagree that crime is "skyrocketing." Most large cities not named Chicago are enjoying lower crime rates then they've seen in decades. Safe cities and decline crime don't sell papers and get eyeballs in front of tv's though.

Decreasing crime was the story of the 1990s and 2000s, but the 2010s look to be a distinctly different era and times have changed, for the worse in a lot of ways.

Spartan
07-16-2012, 11:14 PM
I just got done watching a story on KFOR on a man shooting himself in his junk. I wonder if Linda Cavanaugh wonders how her distinguished career morphed into reporting about garbage like this....

Yeah, it's leading on NewsOK now.. just wait till Pete takes this screenshot:
http://newsok.com/man-accidentally-shoots-self-in-genitals-is-arrested-in-oklahoma-city/article/3692972?custom_click=masthead_topten

"He told police he bought a gun on the street in Kansas and had planned to sell it in a convenience store parking lot near SE 44 and Shields Boulevard. On the way there, he pulled over to make sure the gun functioned properly." And, of course, the rest is history... at least natural selection worked amazingly well in this instance.

RadicalModerate
07-17-2012, 12:29 AM
I especially like "Argumentative Grandsons Have Competing Dispositions".
It's, like, straight out of THE ONION. Or perhaps part of a transcript from an old Monty Python sketch.

In fact, I wonder if the staffers putting this stuff together for mass consumption are channelling the journalistic spirits of The Weekly World News. Remember? "Haunted Toilets" and "Bat Boys" . . . ? Google it.

BREAKING NEWS!!! (for those to lazy to Google)
Go no further than the opening page.
http://asktheghosthost.tumblr.com/post/24902858772/funny-headlines-from-the-weekly-world-news

okcpulse
07-17-2012, 05:52 AM
Crime rates increase and decrease in waves. It happens year after year. What IS increasing is the verocious nature of the crime. Humans seem to have graduated from robbing banks and convenience stores to nasty murder and rape scenes that would shock the criminals of yesterday.

kevinpate
07-17-2012, 06:11 AM
Homicides in particular have seen a noticeable spike when 2012 is compared to the same period in 2011.
Sadly, I don't think that's limited to this metro area, even in our state.

BBatesokc
07-17-2012, 07:38 AM
Might not be the place to ask this, but since Steve is in the room...... If you know, what was the thinking/justification behind releasing the mug shot, legal name, alias name, Facebook quotes and employer of an informant in the Carina Saunders murder? All the TV media redacted her name and blurred her face. Regardless if her information turns out to be true, since when is it journalistically ethical to expose witnesses/informants through publication? And yes, I understand its a public document, but redactions happen all the time.

I know this story is not your beat, but I thought you could help me to understand the thought process.

Roadhawg
07-17-2012, 07:52 AM
...is there really this much crime in OKC?

Seems like recently almost all the local news is murders and violence.

I've noticed that since I moved here 4 years ago. I didn't think there was this much violent crime in OKC.

SoonerDave
07-17-2012, 09:07 AM
A former classmate of mine who is now an OKC policeman talked about this very issue to me. He offered that crime is definitely going up in precisely the way the law enforcement community predicted it would a few years ago when they were asking for increased manpower, all based on several factors - increased gang activity, increasing focus on OKC as a drug hub for groups influenced by Mexican drug cartels (which is horrifying all in and of itself), and the increased popular focus on the need for security in the downtown entertainment district. Bottom line is that the police have too few officers staffing too great an area experiencing crime influences not previously known here, or at least not to the degree we are presently.

This was bolstered by an entirely independent offering about gang activity from someone at my church who used to work very closely with federal agents in conjunction with gang activity. You wouldn't believe some of his first-hand stories - not conjecture or rumor, but first-hand accounts of what's going on in OKC.

Yeah, I think the headlines are lurid for a reason to a degree, but I also think there's a sobering reality behind them. The activities that create the headlines are out there, too...

We may well find out that the next, smartest MAPS project will be to reinforce, expand, and modernize our police force...

ou48A
07-17-2012, 10:25 AM
A KTOK news reports said the OKC murder rate was up by about 50% so far this year.
Much of this is gang related and much of that comes from the Hispanic gangs that have move into our area in recent years.

OKCTalker
07-17-2012, 10:25 AM
Thank goodness we don't live in Tuscaloosa - it is just being reported that 11 people were shot and 17 injured in a bar shooting overnight.

Roadhawg
07-17-2012, 10:27 AM
Thank goodness we don't live in Tuscaloosa - it is just being reported that 11 people were shot and 17 injured in a bar shooting overnight.

Tuscaloosa was probably saying the same thing about OKC after the Thunder Alley shootings.

Bostonfan
07-17-2012, 10:29 AM
Thank goodness we don't live in Tuscaloosa - it is just being reported that 11 people were shot and 17 injured in a bar shooting overnight.

we're in the bible belt, so it's all good.

mcca7596
07-17-2012, 02:28 PM
we're in the bible belt, so it's all good.

Haha, yep, that's what everyone likes to comfort/delude themselves with. "It can't be that bad; at least we have good family values to influence our children."

Yeah, being one of the most dangerous cities per capita is good for the children as long as they can pray in public about stopping it. :-/

Roadhawg
07-18-2012, 06:55 AM
I saw a promo on Ch. 9 for a story on OKC's increasing crime rate for Thursday nights news.

BBatesokc
07-20-2012, 07:48 AM
I saw a promo on Ch. 9 for a story on OKC's increasing crime rate for Thursday nights news.

http://www.news9.com/story/19070574/oklahoma-city-one-of-the-deadliest-places-to-live

But, we should all feel safer now....

http://kfor.com/2012/07/20/deputies-raid-strip-club-17-arrests/

Roadhawg
07-20-2012, 08:19 AM
I'm going to have to check out Little Darlings when things cool down *lol*

The Channel 9 thing didn't amount to much, didn't tell us anything we didn't already know.

kevinpate
07-20-2012, 10:27 AM
... The Channel 9 thing didn't amount to much, didn't tell us anything we didn't already know.

If you were still there through some commercials, it did all it was intended to do.

bluewhitesun
10-03-2012, 06:35 AM
??? crime has increased the past few years because the economy has sunk, poverty brings crime....!! everything revolves around money. gangs-prostitution-drugs=crime=money.
like when somebody does something you could never picture them doing...?? well, desperate times call for desperate measures, doesnt mean people have "turned to crime" the past couple years, they did however turn to a different lifestyle because they felt they had no choice.

krisb
10-03-2012, 07:36 PM
It's well understood that crime ebbs and flows despite the economy.

Spartan
10-03-2012, 08:43 PM
I'm going to have to check out Little Darlings when things cool down *lol*

The Channel 9 thing didn't amount to much, didn't tell us anything we didn't already know.

I knew crime was bad. Didn't know we were almost as bad as STL and on par with KC. Didn't know that Nashville, Tulsa, Audtin, etc have had half or a third the number of our homicides. Wow

Prunepicker
10-04-2012, 08:38 PM
It's well understood that crime ebbs and flows despite the economy.
This is profound. But the truth always is.

Good point!

Prunepicker
10-04-2012, 08:42 PM
I didn't know this, but can't honestly substantiate it.

(http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/01/5-us-cities-worst-gang-violence/1095/)From Atlantic Cities (http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/01/5-us-cities-worst-gang-violence/1095/)
Five cities – Long Beach, Los Angeles, Newark, Oakland and Oklahoma
City – are the U.S. capitals of gang homicide. That's according to a new
report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which also
found that homicides in each of those cities have their own local flavor.

Prunie Ed - I'm not disputing this, but I find it hard to believe.

disinfected
10-05-2012, 03:15 PM
Possibly going a bit off topic, but isn't that a weird study to be conducted by the Center for Disease Control?

Hawk405359
10-06-2012, 04:35 PM
It's really just supply and demand. The stories that get the most hits get reported more. So you get college football then major politics, then crime in just about all news outlets.

Spartan
10-06-2012, 08:16 PM
I didn't know this, but can't honestly substantiate it.

(http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/01/5-us-cities-worst-gang-violence/1095/)From Atlantic Cities (http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/01/5-us-cities-worst-gang-violence/1095/)
Five cities – Long Beach, Los Angeles, Newark, Oakland and Oklahoma
City – are the U.S. capitals of gang homicide. That's according to a new
report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which also
found that homicides in each of those cities have their own local flavor.

Prunie Ed - I'm not disputing this, but I find it hard to believe.

This is Richard Florida's rag for those who don't know

Prunepicker
10-06-2012, 08:23 PM
This is Richard Florida's rag for those who don't know
Who is Richard Florida?

windowphobe
10-07-2012, 06:12 PM
Richard Florida is the originator of that "creative class" concept that informs rather a lot of contemporary urbanism. He's a senior editor at The Atlantic, and that section is pretty much his baby.

metro
10-09-2012, 02:41 PM
Fast and Furious

Prunepicker
10-09-2012, 07:42 PM
Richard Florida is the originator of that "creative class" concept that informs
rather a lot of contemporary urbanism. He's a senior editor at The Atlantic, and
that section is pretty much his baby.
I've enjoyed reading the Atlantic over the past few decades, although some of
it is full blown tripe. I've most likely read his articles or essays.

soonerguru
10-12-2012, 11:06 PM
??? crime has increased the past few years because the economy has sunk, poverty brings crime....!! everything revolves around money. gangs-prostitution-drugs=crime=money.
like when somebody does something you could never picture them doing...?? well, desperate times call for desperate measures, doesnt mean people have "turned to crime" the past couple years, they did however turn to a different lifestyle because they felt they had no choice.

The economy does influence crime but OKC's economy is about the best it's been in 30 years, so that doesn't really apply here.

soonerguru
10-12-2012, 11:10 PM
This is Richard Florida's rag for those who don't know

Richard Florida owns the Atlantic? huh?

soonerguru
10-12-2012, 11:12 PM
Found it odd that that study indicates most of our gang homicides involve African-Americans. I thought the consensus on this thread was that our Hispanic gang culture is the root of the rise in homicides? Either the CDC study is flawed or our perceptions are off base.