Crime Coverage on the Net

Maybe it is just me, but it seems news coverage by the mass media (especially the evening news broadcasts) is saturated with crime stories. Everything from the endless Elian Gonzalez legal entanglement saga to airplane hijackings dominates the news coverage for weeks on end. There is no getting away from it. For many, the only real escape is the Internet. Here, surfers can search for whatever information they feel is newsworthy.

The top cyber-spot devoted exclusively to “crime, justice, and safety” is APB News. Since November 1998, this large New York City web site has put together a team of 50 veteran newspaper and television journalists and 150 nationwide freelancers. It is Web-only. One editor, Sydney Schanberg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, joined the team late last year. It comes as little surprise that APB News received the 1999 Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Award for best Web reporting. For either crime news junkies or the casual mouse pushers, there is lots to like about the APB News web site.

Quality Content

A top-flight web site must offer interesting, timely, well-written articles. The APB site delivers. Because the Web has multi-media (video and sound), many articles provide videocam coverage of actual events including courtroom testimony, film-captured crime, and more using Real Audio. In some cases, the footage viewed on the web site is unflattering (possibly incriminating) to law enforcement officials. APB News becomes an amalgam of “America’s Most Wanted” (with actual footage, instead of slick, carefully choreographed reenactments) and the evening news. The presentation is uniquely Internet fare – warts and all.

Initially, mainstream media dismissed Internet-only news coverage as “Drudge-esque” gossip. As large newspapers and news networks added web sites, the derision from “serious news sources” subsided to low grade whispers. Nevertheless, prejudice remains subtle. This was evidenced when in December 1999 APB Online Inc. (parent company of APBnews.com) sued 15 members of a federal judiciary panel US Court for the Southern District of New York to disclose personal financial documents of 1,600 active and semi-retired judges. This information had been made available to journalists and watchdog groups after the passage of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. The ABP request was denied.

Here Comes The Judge

In early 2000, however, US Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist issued a six page letter denouncing the move to block public records. Wow! In a rapid about-face, the newsroom staff is getting ready to post more than 12,500 pages of financial disclosure records of every active and semi-retired federal judge to the Internet. Gradually, we witness more and more documents such as lists of sexual offenders, divorce records, and other civil matters accessible on web sites. APB News has played an important part in moving the ball down the field. Over time, we expect this process to filter down from the federal to state and local levels.

Follow Up

Most often, the mass media throws old crime stories in the dustbin once the newspaper reaches the bottom of the birdcage. The Internet, and a few news sites, allow for “What ever happened to…” scenarios. Currently, for example, the APB site sports a lead article “Sex, Lies and Murder the Pam Smart Case, 10 years later.” As a quick refresher, 22 year old newlywed Pamela Smart was convicted of having her husband killed by her 16-year-old lover in Derry, NH. At the web site, the entire case, including her voice in the testimony (real audio format) at trial, revisits the sensational case. Of particular fascination was the interview the APBnews.com correspondent, Jim McIntoch, conducted with the TV newsman who interviewed Smart after the murder but before the conviction. He provided this chilling account:

He went to her place, and while the crew was setting up the equipment, she said, “You know, I have the top layer of our wedding cake in the freezer. Wouldn’t it be great if you got some footage of me taking the wedding cake out and maybe cutting it?”

He declined the offer. “She was basically writing the story and producing it. She was always trying to orchestrate the media coverage.”

One has to wonder if that same mentality may be at work during school shootings aired on the evening news. Frankly, the Internet (at least in its current form) removes the gloss and horror when the events are viewed on news broadcasts. We learn from the ABP story that Smart has been turned down twice with requests for retrial. However, as you might expect, Smart has a cheesy sympathetic web site for her “Black Widow” lifestyle.

Forever Linked

The Internet and coverage of crime stories are forever linked. The APBnews.com web site tones down the glamour and sharpens the focus on actual events. It is a welcomed addition to news coverage. Incidentally, the web site www.eliangonzalez.com has been registered but is being parked (not in active use). One can only wonder when that situation will change.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://www.apbnews.com/

(This is the 203rd of a series of elementary articles designed for surfing the Internet. Next, “Net Privacy and The New York Times” is the subject on tap. Stay Tuned. Until next week, happy travels through cyberspace. Previous issues of Internet Info for Real People can be found: http://www.thebee.com. Please e-mail comments and suggestions: rbrand@JUNO.com or editor@thebee.com.)