Writing a news digest can be an editor’s nightmare. The challenge is to distill complex stories to their bare bones. An editor may start with several hundred well-crafted words and end up with about 70 or less. All the while he or she must keep the accuracy and context of the original report. It’s a tough job and when well done, a real art.
This week, The Star turned a story from one of our sister papers into a digest. But The Star’s effort was sloppy and caused more grief to a family reeling from the murder of a loved one.
The story came from the Kitchener-Waterloo Record and was about the murder of Jimmy Stanley of Waterloo.
Based on quotes from teens at the scene, the Record led with comments that concluded the slaying was gang-related. Never mind that police wouldn’t confirm this and later said gangs were not “the focus” of their probe.
On April 10, The Star ran the story as an Ontario digest at 62 words calling the death “gang-related, friends of the dead man say.”
It did say police were not commenting on motives for the case. But it reported that teens who knew the victim and the other boys charged with first-degree murder, said the death was the result of ongoing rivalry between two notorious American-based gangs.
On April 12, The Star again truncated a Record story into a digest. The result was 65 words that began: “Even though police are downplaying reports that the slaying of Jimmy Stanley, 19, of Waterloo, was motivated by gang rivalry,” security was tight when those charged in the death were in court.
The comment is hard to fathom since the Record story specifically quoted an officer that day decrying as “erroneous and sensationalistic” news reports that the murder was gang-related. A pretty salient fact and it was cut out of The Star digest.
That doesn’t sound like downplaying to me. It sounds like a straightforward denial. But The Star digest included no police comment at all.
That day the Record story also quoted the dead man’s uncle, saying his nephew was never a member of a gang. But The Star digest did not include this fact either.
In this case, by choosing our facts without enough care or consideration for their context, we did a disservice to the family of the dead man. Essentially it was a poor choice to make this story into a digest. Surely, the paper could have found some other place with more space to do justice to the salient facts.
The Star did eventually run a longer piece April 13, again from the Record covering the funeral, quoting the family saying Stanley was not a gang member. The police were quoted saying gang activity was not the focus of the probe.
But Stanley’s uncle Michael Hart said The Star’s coverage was too little, too late.
Ontario Editor Norris McDonald said space is very tight for Ontario news and it would have been nice initially to have had more space for the story. However, he said he would believe friends of the victim rather than the police, who did not know the dead man.
“When we did have an opportunity to publish a larger story, we included the police position,” McDonald said.
Staff Sergeant Matt Torigian of the Waterloo Region police said the story was hyped due to “irresponsible reporting.”
“Gangs are a hot topic, but that’s not what it was about.”
