Speaking of Sensationalism...
by
lostboy
06/09/2007, 9:10 AM #
Avi Zenilman's entries for Today's Papers are usually excellent, so I was surprised to see this slip.
Today's Papers:
... (overcrowding has led sheriffs to set murderers free) ...
That clause may be accurate on a strictly literal level, but what it seems to imply is that some of the people granted early release were convicted murderers at the time of their release.
What the linked L.A. Times article actually says is
L.A. Times:
...the Sheriff's Department has released ... some who ended up committing murders and other serious crimes
when they otherwise would have been behind bars.
[emphasis mine]
The end result may be just as devastating, but in the context of evaluating the sheriff's decisions to grant early release, letting loose a convicted murderer is at a whole other level of risk than releasing someone who would add murder to his resume later.
The wee-hours rush to write and publish Today's Papers demands we be fairly forgiving, and this is a fairly small mistake. Still, it's worth pointing out when a summary inadvertently misrepresents its source.
