Are you saying it's OK to bruise a bus driver as long as you don't smack his
head hard enough to give him a concussion? I certainly hope riders
assaulting the driver is not a commonplace occurrence on Minneapolis buses.
If a reporter gets shoved, we hear about it for weeks, but the driver went
to the hospital and there is no mention of it. A paragraph in the metro
section certainly seems to be in order. If a bus driver gets beaten, and
the Strib doesn't report it, did it really happen?
Rich Chandler - Ward 9
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Brandt
> Jack Ferman raises the issue of why some TV stations covered a "serious
> beating" of a bus driver and the Star Tribune didn't. First, although
> getting beaten isn't fun, the seriousness of this one is debatable.
> According to TV, the driver was treated and released at the hospital for
> bruising. That's not as serious as a concussion or a broken skull.
>
> Beyond that, it was a threshold decision by the paper. I'm told by people
> who monitor these things that drivers get attacked monthly. We rarely
> report routine beatings of anyone, much less drivers, and if we did, the
> newspaper would have room for little else. Undoubtedly there would be
> fresh criticism of the paper for portryaing an even more distorted picture
> of Minneapolis or (fill in your favorite city here) as a crime-ridden
> place.
>
> People who are familiar with how television news works know that the
> availability of film footage plays a major role in deciding what's aired.
> There was footage available here, and that transcended news judgment.
>
> As for J Burn's criticism that the Star Tribune and other news media like
> to perpetuate the stereotype that violent crime happens only north of Hwy
> 55, here's a challenge: Tell me one murder that's happened elsewhere in
> the city, or the entire metro area, that wasn't covered in the Star
> Tribune.
>
> Steve Brandt - Star Tribune
