For years we have complained that the Daily Democrat has simply taken a press release from the DA’s office and re-printed it verbatim. There is no fact-checking for accuracy. They simply take the word of the DA’s office and print it as fact, usually under the deceptive byline of “Democrat Staff.”
On Wednesday, family and friends of Ajay Dev, who believe he has been wrongly convicted of the rape of his adopted daughter, will mark the third-year anniversary of his sentencing with a protest march and vigil. They have done this for every year, and the event usually attracts a few hundred people.
Unlike the DA’s office, the Dev family does not get the complete reprint of their press release. Instead, they get a heavily editorialized story, still under the Democrat Staff byline, with an inflammatory and deceptive headline.
The headline: “Protest calls for release of Yolo child molester.” The rest of the article contains a number of inaccuracies, as well.
My first response is that if you are going to reprint the DA’s office press releases verbatim and without editorial comment or fact checking, then you need to be fair across the board.
Second, if you are going to add content and editorializing to the article, it should be accurate.
Third, wouldn’t a more neutral title have been more appropriate?
Jim Smith, the editor of the Daily Democrat, admitted last year at this time that he is biased.
Jim Smith wrote, “In my book, Ajay was found guilty by a jury after a trial. That decision which is being appealed. That’s how our justice system works. Until that appeal is heard and the jury’s decision is overturned, Ajay is guilty and must do the time as ordered by the judge.”
That implies that he finds these things a useless exercise and he also believes that if the jury finds someone guilty, they are guilty unless the system overturns it.
Nevertheless, I think Mr. Smith could have picked a more appropriate title. It is obvious that the protesters do not want to release a child molester. What they believe is that the man convicted of 46 counts of sexual assault and rape, 27 counts of lewd acts with a minor and three counts of attempting to dissuade a witness, the man who was sentenced to 378 years in prison, is innocent of those charges.
How about: “Protesters Believe Dev Wrongfully Convicted” – that would have been a fair and accurate title. It leaves open the possibility that they could be wrong, but they do not want a child molester set free any more than the Innocence Project works to free murderers.
Accuracy is a huge problem in this piece.
They write: “At the peak of Dev’s trial, hundreds of supporters protested outside the Yolo County Superior Courthouse, claiming 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.”
They have “since” claimed? I met with the family back in July of 2009, and they claimed that the daughter made the accusations up to avoid deportation, among other things, back then. Bolstering their case was a trial in Nepal and the fact that police and prosecutors secured her visa in exchange for testimony.
The reason her visa was in doubt was that she was partying and carrying on and let her grades slip in college.
Finally, they write: “In 2011, more than 100 supporters of Dev turned out, most carrying signs and claiming that the District Attorney’s Office as well as West Sacramento Police carried on a campaign of racism.”
That is not accurate. First of all, the Devs lived in Davis, not West Sacramento.
Second, here are two pictures of last year’s protest. There are in fact three main signs. First, “Demand Justice & Truth: Ajay Dev is Innocent.”
Second, “We Will Not Stop: The Fight For Freedom.”
Third: “Free Ajay Dev: 378 Years of Injustice.”
There are a few signs that say: “Yolo County: 48% Minority, 80% Prosecution.”
None of the signs that I can see, let alone “most,” claim that the DA’s office or the police are racist.
So why add inaccurate commentary to news articles on press releases, when you do not do that for the DA’s office? We get it that Jim Smith is still angry that the Dev family and supporters had petitions emailed to the newspaper. We get it that Mr. Smith believes the proper venue to air this grievance is the court system.
At the same time, I think most families of the wrongly-convicted feel powerless against the force of the system. Innocent people like Maurice Caldwell, Obie Anthony and Franky Carrillo languish in the system, often forgotten for years.
The first critical step in the system is to get someone to notice them. Keeping the issue alive and keeping public pressure on the system is a good approach – certainly as good as any.
I agree, in the end, that the court system itself will have to make the call, but until then, the family should keep on fighting.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
“Daily Every News Outlet Skews The News “
From “The Pinto Texas Tattler” to the “New York Times”, every news organization skews the information to the interests of their readers, or to the reader demographic they’d like to attract . The Vanguard’s skew is baited to that peculiarly Davis liberal/progressive demographic, which chums the water for the neo-cons, a bonus !
The Vanguard is telling the Woodland Democrat how to write its stories? Since when is the Vanguard the arbiter of “all things right and relevant”? LOL Many of the accusations by the Vanguard of wrongdoing could be attributed to the Vanguard itself – seems to me a bit like the pot calling the kettle black. Many Vanguard readers have pointed out the shortcomings of the Vanguard, and the Vanguard has turned around and attacked those same commenters who are trying to point out the Vanguard’s shortcomings w the hope the Vanguard will improve its journalistic standards.
IMO the Vanguard has no lock on purity/virtue here, and might want to take a good hard look in the mirror before criticizing other “news” organizations. For instance, how many times have readers pointed out that the Vanguard’s headlines do not match the content of the article, and are purposely inflammatory? Cannot remember specifics, but this issue has been raised on the Vanguard many times.
I think one of the major problems w “news” organizations is the merging of actual news with opinion. This is a trend that has been happening over a period of years, particularly with the onset of 24 hour news channels. Often headlines don’t match the articles content. Frequently the article is nothing more than a rant with a political agenda. It is virtually impossible to get straight news anymore. Journalistic standards have gone by the wayside.
And it does make me wonder how “factual” news stories were even when I was young and thought I was getting the “real” story. The Dan Rather fiasco was a good illustration of just how slanted news can be, to the point where evidence can be concocted to advance a preconceived agenda. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of objectivity anymore, in news reporting. Sad…
There is always going to be some differences in interpretation but the Dally Democrat stated that the Dev Rally last year was aimed at the West Sac police. Why? The West Sac police have no part in the Ajay Dev case. It makes one wonder why they felt the need to print something like this. Was it to get shock value?
Accuracy is important especially when you are making these kind of allegations.
There is always going to be some differences in interpretation but the Dally Democrat stated that the Dev Rally last year was aimed at the West Sac police. Why? The West Sac police have no part in the Ajay Dev case. It makes one wonder why they felt the need to print something like this. Was it to get shock value?
Accuracy is important especially when you are making these kind of allegations.
Sorry that comment posted twice. Also it should have been Daily Democrat.
David, her is a classic example of the old journalistic adage, “Never bury the lead .” Had the headline read: Editor’s Personal Animus Shown in Headline, it would have been more accurate and to the point, unless you intended a discussion of modern ethical standards and practices of journalism .
should read “here” Put an edit button on my Vanguard wishlist .
Everyone has a bias problem except me said everyone.
Another big misrepresentation is when the Daily Democrat wrote:
“At the peak of Dev’s trial, hundreds of supporters protested outside the Yolo County Superior Courthouse, claiming his innocence.”
The Advocates for Ajay only held a protest AFTER the trial when Ajay was wrongfully convicted. During the trial, we all felt that there was a plethora of evidence to show that Ajay was innocent. We were shocked that he was convicted and never imagined that this could have happened because we knew the truth.
Please join us today, Wednesday, August 8th at Freeman Park in Woodland to hear more about this case, and why we know Ajay was wrongfully convicted.
Re the Daily Democrat, it seems to be as barebones as possible.
I asked Jim Stevens whether the DD had reported on the staff rape of a client at Safe Harbor mental health crisis facility in Woodland.
He said he did not report on the rape at all because a few months had gone by before he found out about it. (It’s the kind of thing one would want to know about before moving into the facility.)
When the DD reported on Ricardo Abrahams’ death and his family’s
litigation against Safe Harbor, the prior year’s rape was again not mentioned by the DD.
Asked if the DD checks the police logs on a regular basis, Jim said
the newspaper doesn’t have time to to that!
[i]The reason her visa was in doubt was that she was partying and carrying on and let her grades slip in college.[/i]
Who is the source of this information?
“Daily Every News Outlet Skews The News ”
From “The Pinto Texas Tattler” to the “New York Times”, every news organization skews the information to the interests of their readers, or to the reader demographic they’d like to attract .
Then they are NOT news sources anymore are they? When information is skewed it is called opinion. If a newspaper prints press releases for different groups and agencies then the press releases should be in a special section with a heading press release and printed as is. This way the community knows it was written by someone other than the newspaper.