Cap’n Ken’s Homespun Wisdom

Now that Fox 5 has run its “clarification” about the Atlanta homicide story during the newscasts that ran the reports I”ve seen, I can confirm that they are lying about what they originally reported, which is pathetic, but not entirely surprising.

In the clarification (this one is from 10 p.m. last night - the script was the same in both newscasts this morning, but read without the smooth skill of Russ Spencer), Fox 5 states:

“We want to clarify a report we aired yesterday. We reported that FBI statistics showed a dramatic increase in homicides in 2006 in Atlanta”s Zone 6 precinct, which includes much of the eastern part of the city. Now during that report, we showed video of locations in East Atlanta Village, and in fact there were no homicides in East Atlanta Village in 2006. We regret the false impression caused by that videotape.”

That is an absolute lie. Fox 5 did not report a dramatic increase in homicides in Zone 6. Fox 5 reported a dramatic increase in homicides in “east Atlanta.”

Specifically, they reported:

“The increase has been seen citywide, but nowhere has the jump been as dramatic as in east Atlanta, where in 2005 they had 6 murders; last year 15, a 150% spike.” - this was in their report that aired at about 5:30 a.m. yesterday. The “as dramatic as east Atlanta” line was accompanied by a shot of the “Welcome to East Atlanta” sign.

And:

“The murder rate is up all over the city, but especially in east Atlanta, which had 6 murders in 2005 and 15 last year, a 150% increase.” - this was in their report that aired at about 6:30 a.m. yesterday, and the report generally was toned down to focus less on East Atlanta.

“Zone 6″ was never mentioned.

Fox 5 reported that homicides were up dramatically in East Atlanta. They want to dance around what they reported and pretend this was simply a matter of poorly-placed video. But they clearly associated these murders with the East Atlanta neighborhood (not some vague notion of “the east part of Atlanta”) by never mentioning any area other than “east Atlanta” and showing our “Welcome to East Atlanta” as they said murders were up in “east Atlanta”.

Yet they are unwilling to admit their mistake and fully own up to the damage they inflicted on the neighborhood”s reputation. Instead we get sugar-coated revisionist history intended to make Fox 5 look less at fault than they actually were.

Apparently Fox 5 is more interested in protecting its own reputation than they are in damage they inflict on East Atlanta”s reputation.

LSU and the SEC are jumping ship from Sirius to XM for sports broadcasts, with most schools (including LSU) switching over to XM this fall. To that, I say boo. As I”ve said before, XM sucks. They suck because their music channels suck. Sports, talk and other programming is a matter of what deals they have in place (until now, XM”s college sports offerings also sucked).

Of course, Sirius and XM are supposedly merging, so this may be a circumstance I only have to suffer through for one season. And I keep getting offers from Acura for a $77 annual XM subscription, so I can jump on that if I really want to be able to listen in to Jim Hawthorne and Jordy Hultberg on Saturday nights this fall.

Yeah, that”s a lot to pay for that kind of abuse.

Oh, this has pissed me off. Last night and today, Fox 5 here in Atlanta has been reporting on the increase in murders in our fair city during 2006. The biggest increase in the number of murders occurred in Atlanta”s Zone 6, of which East Atlanta is a part. In 2006, there were 15 homicides in Zone 6, compared to 6 in 2005.

So Fox 5 decides to focus on this increase in reports by Mark Teichner that aired on their 10 p.m. news last night and during their morning news program today. I”m not sure how long this will remain live on their site, but here”s a version of the report on their horrible myfoxatlanta.com website.

In that report, Fox 5 makes this statement:

“But nowhere has the jump been as dramatic as in East Atlanta, where in 2005 they had 6 murders; last year 15. A 150% spike.”

In case you do not see the video, it was peppered with scenes from East Atlanta, including our big green “Welcome to East Atlanta” sign and shots along Flat Shoals Avenue.

But there”s a little problem here. Their claim that murders were up in East Atlanta is 100%, absolutely, indisputably false. During 2006, there were exactly zero murders in East Atlanta. None. Not any.

Atlanta”s Zone 6 includes eleven separate “beats”, and the APD reports crimes by category, zone and beat. This is accessible through a crime mapping tool on the APD website.

Here”s the rundown of homicides in Zone 6 broken out by the individual beats:

Beat 601 - 0 homicides
Beat 602 - 3 homicides
Beat 603 - 0 homicides

Beat 604 - 1 homicide
Beat 605 - 1 homicide
Beat 606 - 0 homicides
Beat 607 - 1 homicide
Beat 608 - 4 homicides
Beat 609 - 1 homicide

Beat 610 - 0 homicides
Beat 611 - 4 homicides

East Atlanta is Beat 610 - zero homicides. Yet Fox 5 chose to tag East Atlanta with having a 150% increase in murders during 2006. This is likely a result of the typical extremely lazy journalism practiced by local television stations, but the effect is that over their air they have repeatedly painted East Atlanta as an area of the city that has experienced a 150% increase in homicides over the past year, and tangentially suggested East Atlanta has a drug dealing problem, as they have placed the cause of Atlanta”s increased homicide rate on drug activity.

Often times the media refers to “east Atlanta” in the generic sense (there is a big difference between “east Atlanta” and “East Atlanta”), but in this case, Fox 5 specifically came to East Atlanta, broadcast our welcome sign and neighborhood scenes along with the statement that murders in “East Atlanta” have risen 150%. Completely irresponsible and absolutely associating this with “East Atlanta”, not just “east Atlanta”.

I”ve written to a bunch of people at Fox 5 demanding a retraction to this defamatory portrayal of East Atlanta. We”ll see what happens, but I wanted to at least expose the truth here.

That is all.

Update: Apparently Fox 5 leadership doesn”t like to respond to emails, but if you create a blog on their crappy community site calling them out, they”ll give you a response. The guy there is hiding behind the notion that “eastern Atlanta” is what they meant, so I don”t expect much of a meaningful retraction, but we”ll see.

No, really. A physical Apple Store “closed for renovations” and - according to the nice gentleman who told us not to take photos - re-opening tomorrow morning [check that: apple.com says June 9].

This is the Apple Store at Lenox Square in Atlanta - today, June 1 around 11:15.

So are they remodeling for some particular reason? Anything interesting going to appear when they re-open the place in a week?

Intriguing.