From: [self defense owner] at [shell.portal.com]
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 1995 09:51:36 -0700

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I've been researching the inner workings of the media in an attempt to
understand how we can improve coverage of self-defense incidents. The
example I've been using, when talking to various people in the business,
is the three carjackings reported to SDN in the four day period from
Friday through Monday. 

In two cases, the criminal was successfully fended off with a firearm by
the victim. In the third case, the driver was shot in the back and killed. 

Guess which story got national coverage. Guess which two got NO coverage,
other than on SDN. 

I've discussed this with ABC, CBS, NBC, and the Associated Press. I've
asked them why their central editorial staffs chose to cover only the
negative story. Even by random chance, they had 2:1 odds of covering one
of the "good" stories - but they didn't. Why not? What's the name of the
man or woman who is making these choices? 

Here's what I learned, and what we need to do about it.

First of all, it's important to understand that the various nationwide
news organizations don't keep crews in every city across the country. 
When we see video of a shooting in Spokane, for example, it was taken by
the local network affiliate station and most likely used for their local
news. The local station then has the OPTION of uplinking it for use by
other network affiliates. So the story can die, right there in your home
town, if your local station does not feel it is "interesting" enough.
That's the first barrier to nationwide coverage. 

Once the info has been uplinked, it must make it through the network's
syndication group. In the case of ABC (who gave me the most information),
they have seven regional editors who scan that day's material for
interesting stories. These seven people have a conference call mid-day to
decide what each will make available for nationwide use. If enough of
these editors are interested in the story, it is made available. If not,
it dies. 

(This "regional screening level" is different for each organization. While
ABC has seven regions as described above, the Associated Press has fifty -
there's a separate editor in each state.)

Assuming the data makes it through the regional editors, it is then
available for use by any of the network's affiliates and members
nationwide. However, this is not a guarantee of coverage: It is still the
local station's, or newspaper's, option to use the material or not. 

I had hoped that polite but firm pressure on the corporate headquarters of
ABC, AP, etc. would improve coverage of self-defense incidents. 
Unfortunately, it appears that their "decision mechanism" is spread out
enough that there's no one, single spot where that pressure can be
applied. 

Bottom line: This is a war that we must fight locally. When you receive an
SDN incident report, you need to call your local newspapers and radio/TV
stations and get a few friends to do the same. They may be the only ones
with on-the-scene data and video... so we have to convince them it's
interesting enough to put "on the wire." 

If we can convince our local media that *every* self-defense incident is
interesting enough to put "on the wire," eventually the next layer of
editors will see a trend.  With that many reports coming in on a regular
basis, there must be some interest, right? And they'll start passing them
on to the network feed. 

That will make local stories available nationally. And since we will have
ALREADY convinced our local media that we want coverage of self-defense,
they'll start playing those stories from other communities, too.  We'll
have come full circle - and finally have some balance in the media.

This will take some time, folks. We won't see change overnight. But it's a
vital part of our right to preserve RKBA. We need to reach voters at every
level, including those who don't even own firearms. We must keep working
at it, and make those calls to our local media EVERY TIME we hear of a
self-defense incident. 

Thanks for your efforts toward preserving the Second Amendment. 

Richard L. Hartman
Spokane WA USA