Rush To Condemn Teens

I have rarely seen a more ridiculous set of excuses by a supposedly professional journalist as to why a story could not pursued as those set out by Paula Simmons in her mea culpa column on the Conley death.

All of the details behind the case such as Conley's past, the details from witnesses phoned into the Journal, the lame media stunt by the Chief of police to help pack up the victim's home, and even an interview with previous EPS members who had run in's with Conley could all have been reported on in the Journal.

A ban on publication of evidence that was presented during the bail hearing was not the road block to good journalism.

The road block to presenting the other side of the story was in a lack of interest in presenting the other side of the story because it is better to be seen jumping on the bandwagon of, 'knee jerk reaction,' than doing your job properly.

Has the Journal has dumbed its reportage squad down so far that no one could find a way to get the truth out?

If Simmons is right in her column, and the Journal received phone calls seperate from the bail hearing, then that is information that can be disseminated in the press, and it should have been.

It seems all the Journal wanted to risk was getting slivers in their knees from jumping on to the pandering bandwagon of, 'knee jerk reaction,' and adding to false sense that our youth justice system must be to blame for this unfortunate death.

Or the Journal did not want to spend the money to investigate the story past the usualy media release handout of the Edmonton Police Service.

Thank youNorm Greenfield