Sensationalsim or shoddy reporting?

Yesterday I blogged about a story broadcast on WPEC Channel 12's 6 p.m. news yesterday. I felt it was odd a church without electricity would have $25,000 worth of sound equipment.

Today the Palm Beach Post covered the same story. I'll just quote part of it.

Burglars stole about $1,200 in cash after the church moved into the building at 5312 Broadway, he said. Two months ago, about $7,000 worth of property was taken, including audio equipment.

There's a big difference between $8,000 and $25,000. All of it wasn't audio equipment either. Why didn't someone at Channel 12 ever think the figure was off in some way?

There's another story in the local area. A golf course worker got murdered. This was Channel 12's other big news yesterday. The online edition doesn't include it, but the 6 p.m. news last night had a brief interview with some woman. She said the woman who got killed may have been murdered by a robber. The person being interviewed said the victim had made some people angry.

None of this woman's suspicions was reported in the Post today but there were some skeptics according to the Sun-Sentinel.

Some residents were suspicious of robbery as a motive for the killing. "If it was a robbery, why didn't they pick up the money?" asked Joe Paduano, 68, a 20-year resident of the area. "Why did they leave it on the floor?"

Maybe I'm reading too much into Channel 12's reporting. Then their coverage of these two stories makes me less likely to pay attention to television. Not that I do very much tv news watching these days.

How about those who do rely on television? Can you trust the local television stations to do the news right and without sensationalsim?

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