The Aerie
Recently KSTP television came to our neighborhood to do a very special, heartwarming story. One neighbor was very upset, and upbraided the reporter in an e-mail sent to the local mailing list.
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What I witnessed was not news; it was an attempt by you to
generate some sensational footage at the expense of an unsuspecting mother who expected privacy in her own home.
I watched the setup of your story as the cameraman filmed the woman's car in great detail from every angle as well as her house and door. I watched you stand in your suit and tie behind a tree around the corner from her door and rehearse the ambush beforehand. From what I could hear from the sidewalk, you confronted this woman about $17,000 in unpaid parking fees. More than once you made the statement that this was an issue of interest to the "taxpayers." Of course parking fines and late penalties are not taxes, and they are not payment for a During your exchange with this woman (who was obviously very upset after being blindsided by you and your cameraman at her door) you even made the statement that she owned a "very nice car." You know that her car is an |
There ensued a discussion on the list as to who was right and who was wrong. Several people voiced their disgust at the reporter. Then others spoke up to point out that $17,000 in parking tickets is no sign of wholesome goodness on the part of the subject of the report.
As usual, I find myself in the middle. I think it's helpful to consider that our culture prefers clear-cut right and wrong answers, and what I've read so far seems to be searching for distinct right and wrong parties. However, in this case everybody might be wrong.
If the woman recklessly accrued $17K in parking tickets, she was wrong to do so.
A news reporter ambushing and publicly embarassing this woman for the sake of sensational journalism is also wrong. It's one thing when '60 Minutes' publicly accosts a powerful executive who insulates himself from justice
with high-priced lawyers: it's another to blindside a common citizen for sensationalism's sake.
A more thoughtful story might have explored the woman's situation, and asked how enforcement and collection agencies had let the situation get so far out
of hand. I came away from the story no more enlightened as to how or why this could happen, and with no sense the situation was going to be resolved.
Does this woman (my neighbor) need help? Is she an arrogant scofflaw? Or a confused person overwhelmed by circumstance? Or something else entirely? Is the department of traffic enforcement a bureaucracy that is consuming limited taxpayer funds while failing to do its job to collect on parking tickets? Or have enforcement agents been working diligent personal hours after work trying to find this woman, and KSTP has finally located her?
No such questions were answered. Nothing was accomplished. All I saw was a startled woman unprepared to answer the unsupported accusations of a hungry journalist at her door during sweeps week.