I read an article a while ago that sensationalized a house break-in gone bad.  It featured a man (home owner) who was arrested for shooting one of the burglars and killing him.  He was subsequently arrested for murder himself and the internet broke.

It sounds horrible to be arrested for defending your home, If this is all the information you have.  This is the stuff that sells papers and makes people shake their heads in disbelief.  Wow, just how could this happen in Canada.  Then all the political partisans have a field day somehow blaming the Prime Minister.  Seriously?

What is actually happening, is that news sources (psuedo news sources) are capitalizing on sensationalism.  They know if they only tell half the story, it’s more likely to draw numbers to their site than if they also include more facts around the whole story.  It serves their interests to only tell a half truth – technically they’re not lying – just messing people up knowing everyone will jump to their own conclusions.  And boy did they ever.

Shortly after the story came out, like the first day, there was more information on the man .  He’s known to police, for instance, has been charged in the past and sells drugs.  He was also shooting at fleeing people – not cool.   It’s more a story of a drug deal gone bad than a home owner charged for protecting himself, but that won’t sell magazines and newspapers.  The problem with bad / half truth reporting is that it buries the truth as the world picks up and perpetuates the half truth.  Lazy reporting and all sides, both liberal and conservative are guilty.  It’s more a “people jumping to conclusions and not willing to research” than a political one.

Don’t trust any news source that doesn’t have the guts to put boots on the ground and prove they’ve covered the story.  90% of the information I can find on this story is lazy reporting, just copy and paste and twist it a little more to get more sensational.

I’m also calling out the local news sources and police forces who aren’t trying to counteract this sensationalism.  As the false reports grow, the actual truth is getting so buried, no one can find it anymore.  We need a local source and the local police to provide an update to refresh this aberration of reporting and straighten out the information before the world gets any more ugly over it.

The internet is already broken….

Is there anyone who will go that extra mile to get, and report on the actual story any more?  Are there reporters who will find and write about the truth any more?  How do we trust any news source when their agenda is sensationalism and selling stories?  Questions need to answered.  There has always been sensationalized story writing, it’s just more prevalent now when all they want is to make money by copying stories from unconfirmed sources and flipping truth.