06.21.07
Squeak, Wheels! Squeak!
After writing the post I made here last night about the hate crime murder of Aaron “Shorty” Hall in Indiana, I sent out email to the New York Times, the Associated Press, and to Dennis Ryerson, the editor of the Indianapolis daily paper, the Star. My partner joined me and sent his own emails shortly thereafter.
I can say two things for Mr. Ryerson: he reads his own e-mail, and he is responsive to people writing to him to tell him about glaring omissions in his paper’s reportage. He wrote me back at 8:23 a.m. this morning, which I imagine constitutes first-thing-in-the-morning, with this:
I don’t know the details here or why this didn’t get coverage. I’m copying to our metro editor, Blair Claflin.
I followed up with links to the Bloomington coverage and so forth, for which he has thanked me.
It made me glad I bothered. But that’s really not the point. The point is: PLEASE don’t let it stop here with me and my partner. If it matters at all to you that the public eye be brought to bear on crimes like the godawful murder of Aaron Hall, please write and send your own letters, too. Feel free to use mine as a template. Or write your own.
The more the media hear from people like me and you, the more they will realize that they cannot just let stories like this languish. The more the media write about events like this, the harder it is for cases like this one not to be brought to justice.
Squeak, wheels! Squeak!
p.s. The reason the DailyKos link in the previous post doesn’t work is because I forgot to put the “h” in the “http” — I would fix the link, but then those of you who read this in a feed would get another complete sending of the entire post because it had been edited.
p.p.s. The “hey, there’s a story you’re not covering” email address for the Associated Press is info@ap.org .