I was watching the news fairly close looking for tonight's material when my wife pointed out something that I had missed completely. And this is one that I find really to be one of the worst examples of priorities by the news for a very long time! It's even worse then my previous complaints. I think once you read it you will agree with me.
Just to be sure that every one is on the same page, this was a local story on the local news. You didn't miss it as most of the world news was about last night's presidential debate. That is a problem in the United States, the election season means that nothing else happens in the world, but I will get back to the topic. The first story was 5 minutes and the second was over 10 minutes. I'm going to start the second to prove a point.
The second, and longer, story was about a new program being put into place by the city police department. The program is focused on finding animals that are being abused and remove them from the environment along with filing charges against the owner. Don't get me wrong, I think this is a really great program and something that is needed as more and more people are abusing and/or neglecting their pets. I'm not sure where the additional funding is coming from but since I don't live in the city I'm not overly concerned. What does concern me though is that it is being done by the city and not on a larger scale, as in state wide. I suppose it may be a small step. And of course, they really played it up showing several very weak animals and talked about how sick they were and how the shelters need donations.
Great story, right? Why am I complaining? The first story, less then half as long, was about a woman that was arrested today. She is being held on $5000 bail for abuse. But this abuse was not on an animal, it was on her 3 year old son. Apparently she would lock her son in his bedroom for up to 22 hours each day. There was a complaint filed by someone when they found out about it. About the only thing that we found out about the story was that when the police entered the room he was on the bed sitting in his own waste and that they had spoken to former roommates and family to find out why it wasn't reported sooner. It wasn't that the police spokesman didn't have more to say on the subject, it's that they cut him off.
So there you have it. Do you agree with me that the priority was wrong? I'm not saying that I don't want to know that animal abuse is on the rise and that someone is stepping up to the plate to correct it. I'm saying that it doesn't deserve more time than a story about an abused child. Especially since the child was born and there were others in the apartment that didn't bother to report it! How about doing some real investigative reporting and find out more about the rest of the story.
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