It took about a day for TV stations to begin to balance their stories and see there was more than "racist vigilanti-ism" going on. It took an hour and twenty minutes this morning for AM talk radio to admit "there was more we don't know than we do know", and an hour 40 minutes to report there was a child in the car.
As this story unfolded, the local website chrisd.ca was outstanding in holding the media outlets that ignored the crime and focused on allegations of "a hate crime" to account.
By posting Global-TV's original video report and very responsibly also posting about the more balanced follow-up by Lorraine Nickel, Winnipeggers got a transparent real-time lesson on the alternative media as watchdog of the MSM.
Similarly, the posting of the angry response of the Sun reporter to criticism he received for slanted coverage - he pointed the finger at Global while denying being in the wrong himself - proved once again that reporters in this town squirm when taken to task for selective or incomplete reporting.
Today at 4 PM we had the facts nobody else had:
The story of our eyewitness revealed a neighbourhood held hostage, and that the suspect matched exactly (down to the unique jacket insignia) the description of a man "aged 19-23" listed in the Neighbourhood Watch circular, which was given to police when they arrived to take the man away.That is why pictures of the man were taken and posted on the internet - so residents of St. Boniface could see if they recognized him as the man who had been lurking in the area for weeks now. We were told citizens are afraid to open their blinds in case their homes are being cased. One TV report included a man saying that crime was so bad in the area, if property wasn't tied down it was gone.
There was a clear and present danger (disturbingly unreported or ignored by MSM) on Horace Street on New Year's Eve outside the house party.
Not only was the thief trying to break the rear car window right beside the 2 year olds' head in his carseat as his mother screamed in fear; the would-be thief fought the crowd in trying to run away before police arrived, slashing at them with a screwdriver, ripping the glove of a bystander who had come up the street to help -- before the weapon was kicked out of his hand.
The statement of police that charges against the menace were not laid because of "a lack of evidence" is hard to fathom, given the couple whose car was attacked were right there to speak to, and there were other eyewitnesses to his actions. (As a caller today asked, "why wasn't he charged with public drunkenness" ?)
Tonight, after professional agitators told TV reporters that they want this low-life to come forward and file a human rights complaint because he was called names by his intended victims, we have learned yet another MSM outlet has received a complaint for their reporting on the incident and potentially endangering residents of the neighbourhood.Tuesday at 4 PM, we'll have more on the Horace Street coverage, a follow-up on the WRHA cutbacks to surgery at Seven Oaks General Hospital, listener emails, and of course your calls to Winnipeg's only drive-home call-in show.
