Friday, June 27, 2008

GETTING THE FACTS 3

One of the tenets of journalism is getting the facts straight, but that seems to be getting more and more difficult to accomplish on a day to day basis at the nation's newspapers.
You journalists are making it really difficult for your readers to believe anything you write, when you are constantly printing differing information on the same story.

Joel Julien of the Express tells us that the rescued Avita Bissoondatt is the "...niece of attorney Darin Bissoondatt,", but his colleague over at the Guardian, Geisha Kowlessar tells us instead that the young woman is the "...daughter of attorney Darin Bissoondatt,...".
So which is it?

Miss Kowlessar also tells us "Investigators have identified the dead man only as “Sadman,” of Tunapuna.", but Mr Julien tells us "Dead is a 25-year-old career criminal with the alias "Sandman" known to police for previous crimes...".
And which one of you had the typo?

Again, Mr Julien's version of the story is that "The Bissoondatt's (sic) four captors greeted the police with automatic gunfire. The police returned fire and "Sandman" was killed.". But according to Miss Kowlessar, "During the operation, one man was killed in a reported shoot-out with police....Another man, who ran out of the house after spotting the lawmen, managed to elude the police...".
And the Newsday's Nalinee Seelal tells us when the officers got to the camp, "...they saw four men running away. The kidnappers who were armed with machine guns fired at the police who returned fire, hitting all three, with one dying on the spot while the others escaped in the forest."
So, how many men were there really?

And the time of the actual rescue differs as well, according to which version you read. Mr Julien tells us "The drama surrounding Bissoondatt's rescue mission unfolded around 1.30 yesterday afternoon."
But Miss Seelal tells us the police responded to a tip-off "...at about 10.30 am...".

Then Miss Seelal tells us "Police officers took the injured kidnapper to the roadway at North Coast Road, but he was already dead by the time he was placed in an ambulance.". But Mr Julien tells us "At exactly 5.03 p.m. the first body came out, it was Bissondatt's captor...He was carried away in a tray of an unmarked police van.". (Maybe he was later transferred to the ambulance.)

But kudos to CNMG and TV6 for getting the dramatic video of the police carrying Avita out of the forest on a stretcher.
Where was CNC's cameraman?