Coverage of Ajay Dev March Differs Markedly From Verbatim Stories For DA’s Press Releases –
In running a story on the Michael Artz trial, the DA’s office sent their typical press release which made it sound like the defendant had been convicted of certain crimes that he was not even charged with, at the same time omitting the fact that he was acquitted of the main charges.
Naturally, we called them on it. The Vanguard ran the story, “Media Bias in Local Court Coverage” which described how the District Attorney’s Office effectively gets to write their own stories. To illustrate the point, we ran the DA’s Press Release side-by-side with the Woodland Daily Democrat’s article covering the same story.
The Daily Democrat editor Jim Smith responded to that criticism, acknowledged it was a problem, it tears him up inside, but given the state of the industry and his lack of staff, there is little he can do.
Mr. Smith wrote, “Years and years ago, The Democrat — like many other newspapers — had a policy of not publishing a ‘press release’ from any public agency until it had been ‘fact checked.’ Preferably, the release was taken and rewritten with appropriate attribution provided, as well as reviewed for background information with a trip to the agency, or office, in question if necessary.”
He continues, “No longer. Today, with cutbacks at newspapers (and The Democrat is no exception) it’s difficult to find the time to run down any release. Believe me, it sits badly in my throat whenever I have to ‘rewrite’ a press release from anyone without taking the time to make the necessary phone calls or do the legwork.”
That is fine, however, why they could not simply acknowledge that the source of the article was the DA’s office rather than their staff is beyond me.
His policy is, of course, not printing every press release verbatim.
Instead, as he explained, “So, we who work for mainstream media newspapers (which again have fewer writers than at any time in their history) have to decide if a press release warrants checking out, or running as it is, basically unchanged.”
And that is where this story comes into play. The DA’s office continues to get their press releases run under a “Democrat staff” byline. The stories are pretty much verbatim to their press releases. The DA’s office has done a better job of noting when the defendant was acquitted on some charges or the jury hangs.
But there is no fact-checking. The DA gets to pick which stories get coverage and which ones do not.
And other groups do not get this benefit. This morning, the Democrat ran a short story about the supporters of Ajay Dev who are having a march tomorrow, commemorating the two-year anniversary of his conviction.
The Democrat’s running of the press release reads like a balanced news story, but it also sanitized the stronger points made in the press release.
Writes the Daily Democrat:
(copied and pasted verbatim)
“Supporters of convicted rapist protest for his release
Advocates of a Nepalese immigrant convicted of raping his adopted daughter are expected to resume their protest against his incarceration at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Freeman Park, 1001 Main St., two years into the man’s 378-year-sentence.
Supporters of Ajay Dev, 42 at the time of his conviction, will read from court transcripts and rally against the Yolo County District Attorney’s methods for applying for grand money, according to a press release from Dev supporters.
A Yolo County jury convicted Dev in August 2009 on 46 counts of sexual assault and rape, 27 counts of lewd acts with a minor and three counts of attempting to dissuade a witness.
At the time the jury concluded Dev, then 42, had repeatedly raped and abused a distant relative he had adopted in 1999 when she was 15.
At its peak Dev’s trial attracted hundreds of supporters who contended his innocence. They have since claimed that the daughter made the accusations to avoid deportation and have argued that the investigation was influenced by a need to show higher conviction rates.”
The actual press release is much more pointed:
Is there anything wrong with the Democrat’s write up of the event? No. At least not on the surface, taken in isolation, though it does sanitize it. Although, the headline is not exactly flattering either. Accurate, but misleading. They believe the convicted rapist was wrongly convicted. That is very different from being a supporter of a convicted rapist.
However, given the way they handle DA press releases, it seems that there is a basic fairness issue that needs to be addressed. Certainly they could have had a balanced story while still printing some of the more substantive, albeit pointed, claims made in the press release.
The policy at the Democrat gives the DA huge power to control the flow of information and it comes out under the guise of journalism because, for the unsuspecting person, a “Democrat staff” byline means that a Democrat staffer wrote and therefore checked the facts of the story, and that is simply untrue.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Yet another reason why the Daily Democrat is good for only two things: 1) swatting flies 2) starting campfires
David, thanks for keeping them honest.
I agree there is a huge difference in supporting someone who was wrongly convicted and someone who wasn’t. We should all be supporters of someone wrongly convicted. We all know the system has problems. In fact we have built into the system appeals, because so many people have had wrong convictions or unfair trials.
I am glad the Daily Democrat decided to get the information out to the public although I wish they would have kept the spirit of the press release intact.
I have heard so many times that it’s just the Dev family supporting Ajay Dev. Over 700 people have signed a petition asking for an investigation into this wrongful conviction…..I agree with the press release–people don’t support a convicted rapist unless they have good reason to believe that there has been a horrible mistake.
I encourage people to go to the two petition websites. The first one is a new petition with a lot of information about the case. The second website is the petition that was started by a citizen from Yolo County that was very upset about the case–he wasn’t a family member and didn’t even know Ajay–but was infuriated by the injustice he saw.
http://www.change.org/petitions/free-ajay-dev-a-victim-of-cash-for-convictions#signatures
http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-epidemic-of-injustice-in-yolo-county-free-ajay-dev
Hopefully people will come tomorrow night to Freeman Park to see for themselves what this is all about.
[quote]Is there anything wrong with the Democrat’s write up of the event? No. At least not on the surface, taken in isolation, though it does sanitize it. Although, the headline is not exactly flattering either. Accurate, but misleading. They believe the convicted rapist was wrongly convicted. That is very different from being a supporter of a convicted rapist.[/quote]
Which is it – there is or is not anything wrong with the Democrat’s write up? You cannot have it both ways…
I think David was saying that there is something wrong with the spirit of the Daily Democrat’s press release.
Eliminating the line that over 700 people are supporting a wrongfully convicted man definitely changes the tone of the press release.
I can’t think of a situation where over 700 people have supported a convicted rapist. When you leave that part out of the press release, then you belittle the support this man has. Something is critically wrong here, and one might not get that by just reading the press release put out by the Daily Democrat.
I hope you come to rally to see for yourself tomorrow night.
Is this a story about calling the kettle black ?
The Daily Democrat’s [i][b]”[i]Supporters of Convicted Rapist Protest for His Release[/i]”[/b][/i] press release is less an expression of informed journalism than it is an incontinent exercise in selective omissions, tortured syntax and punctuated by a feckless malapropism.
Ostensibly, reportorial integrity is expendable by design at the Daily Democrat.
The Daily Democrat is garbage. You could not give me a free copy. The Daily democrat printed slanderous DA press releases about my son who is also a victim of “cash for convictions”. Is this really informative to the public or are they trying to entice people to read tabloid articles? FYI – The Daily democrat failed to report that the of the two most heinous of charges one was dropped for lack of evidence and the other one was acquitted.
I get it, now – When Barrack Hussein Obama’s administration publishes misinformation it’s okay, but when another agency does so it is labeled by some as, “Cash for convictions.”
Got it…
AdRemmer: Misinformation from any camp is wrong.
Cash for Convictions is when the justice system can be bought. Getting grant funds can be a great thing, but having those funds come as a result of making a certain quota on arrests, prosecutions and convictions can make the line for truth and justice a little blurry–especially when those funds are only given to the prosecution and not the public defender’s office.
Convicted on 73 counts. Talk about framed. Can anyone think of a situation like this where someone with convictions on 73 counts (or other multiple counts) was later released because the jury go it so wrong? Now the jury system is not perfect and we all understand this but to get it wrong on 73 counts seems a huge error. Please I beg you is it something that happens all the time?
73 Counts indeed. I know one person who sat on the jury. She told me that the prosecution’s whole case was based on testimony from the “victim”. I would think that for that many alleged occurences there should have been some tangible dna evidence to back it up but there was not. That could have put a doubt in my mind.
Technichick: There should have been tremendous doubt.
The accuser said that she was raped 750x (3x per week over 5 years)yet no one saw any signs not her personal doctor,her teachers,the social worker,her family, or her friends.
There was definitely no dna. As soon as the allegations were made, Ajay requested to take a lie detector test which also showed his innocence.
The accuser’s story changed constantly and was contradicted by her own previous testimony, as well as prosecution and defense witnesses.
I have one more thing to add. It has been noted by the Supreme Court that Yolo County in at least one trial has given some really crazy instructions to the jury “that even if the accused did nothing wrong, he is to be found guilty”. I have that in writing too.
Thank you for your continued vigilance, David. Daily Democrat just cannot be trusted.
I really appreciate the transparency coming from Advocates for Ajay. Their website http://www.advocatesforajay.com/ has a tremendous amount of information to educate the public about Ajay’s innocence and the problem in Yolo County. Their transparency tells me that they want to expose the truth and more importantly that they have nothing to hide. I don’t believe a guilty person would allow such transparency.
I encourage your readers to view their website and to attend the rally tomorrow in Woodland. There they will hear first-hand accounts from witnesses, testimonies will be read from court transcripts, and evidence will be discussed. They will also learn more about Yolo County DA’s “Cash for Conviction” policies that have ruined so many lives.
There is no doubt Ajay Dev is innocent. Come to the rally to learn more.
Mr. Toad, the 73 counts are multiple acts of the same offense. I sat through a trial where there were about 65 charges, basically the prosecution provided just enough evidence that the jury agreed that the most recent incident happened and then took her word for the rest. From that perspective, I’m not sure that the 65 charges were any more convincing than say five.
Thanks for the coverage Vanguard. Wish we could have made it to the rally today. Good coverage on Ch. 13. Solidarity. Justice will prevail and this wonderful family will be together again.