Adding to David Beers' list

To your list of "...poverty, racial and gender discrimination, addiction and mental health, urban planning, law enforcement and other..." things involved in this case should be added the practice of responsible journalism itself. The police and the community failed the people of the Downtown East Side, so did most professional journalists. Had even one quarter of the women who disappeared been from addresses in Kerrisdale, there would have been no long list of 'missing women'. Creating a list, which grew for years prior to the arrest of the alleged perpetrator of 'some' of these crimes, would not have been either a possibility or a consideration. The local news media kept better records of the weather.

The current combination of prurient interest and shocked sensibility in those same homes, where the fate of a few drug-addled prostitutes was never more than a moment’s concern 10 or 15 years ago, is so obscenely ironic as to compete with the details of the coverage itself.

and I have yet to read/hear

that he fed the bodies to the pigs...except in the foreign media.

what are we trying to protect ourselves from?

all this hysteria about censorship is kinda ill, from my point of view - tell us all the sick and twisted details - I for one do not want to be protected from reality, but to learn from it.

I'm presently in Hungary ...

... and there is an article on Pickton in the local press in Miskolc! BBC World ran a story on cable tv.

What can a homeless 14-year-old do to survive in BC today?

David Beers, I really appreciated your statement that

The tragedy of the missing women of the Downtown Eastside throws into sharp relief issues of poverty, racial and gender discrimination, addiction and mental health, urban planning, law enforcement and others that have been, and will continue to be, commonly explored by our reports and commentaries.

and I hope that the Laws of Unintended Consequences will help the unwitting CanWest to report on a daily basis for a full year, on the shocking reality of provincial budget cuts or program elimination.

Because, as G West so aptly pronounced, only an informed and responsible press can provide the wider view of why these tragedies are unfolding in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver.

Serial killers where you least expect to see them.

This is what I mean, from a CanWest B.C. daily on describing the recruiting grounds for the deaths of the helpless and marginalized:

Moms, kids brave hostile welfare lines
Families, disabled clients share lines with drug addicts after policy switch

Louise Dickson
Times Colonist
Thursday, January 25, 2007

Outreach worker Michelle Prusa is angry at the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance for changing the way it releases cheques to the disabled and single mothers on Welfare Wednesday.

Prusa was livid yesterday after taking her disabled client to 908 Pandora Ave. She waited in line with about 60 people outside the building while a "cracked-up" woman, arms flailing, tried to stand in the cheque pickup line.

Last month's visit was even worse when a man pulled out a knife in the waiting room, said Prusa.

"It's dangerous. And you can't imagine what the little kids are seeing."

Until a few months ago, there were five separate offices in the building to dealing with clients, said Richard Chambers, the ministry's director of communication. To serve clients better, those offices were amalgamated into one mixed office on the first floor where everyone now picks up their cheques.

But, said Prusa, even the staff are shaking their heads at the change. And the clients aren't impressed either.

Breeze John, 14, was in the waiting room last month when the man pulled out a knife.

"It's scary to me," said the teenager. "That's when me and my auntie got up and left with the kids. She didn't want my little nieces to see that."

Yesterday, a single mother pushing two children in a stroller was relieved to be walking away from the building, cheque in hand.

"We're surrounded by drug addicts touching our kids," she grumbled. "They come up to my baby and grab her cheeks all the time. When we were just in there, a little newborn was just screaming and this dirty junkie grabbed a soother out of the stroller and popped it in the baby's mouth. If that had been my kid, I would have had something to say about it.

"It's ridiculous. It's just stupid."

The woman, who didn't give her name, said she hadn't complained because nothing would change.

"What are we? We're a bunch of single parents who don't have jobs. Our say doesn't really matter."

Theresa, another single mother, said it depressed her to watch the woman "tripping up on heroin."

"It's horrible. It's a sad situation. It makes me feel sad and embarrassed," she said.

A supervisor eventually moved the single mothers inside. "Someone's in distress so I want to bring children away from here," she explained.

Melissa left her three children in child-minding at the YM-YWCA while she dropped off her welfare stub.

"There's no way I would ever bring my children here," she said. "And there's no way I'm going to stand here either."

The last time Melissa came to the office two years ago she witnessed a nasty confrontation with a security guard.

"I never came back until today."

Prusa said she is also concerned about children sitting in the waiting room with people who are ill with colds, flu or tuberculosis.

"It's a big germfest. Little children shouldn't be exposed to it."

Staff are aware of these concerns and are meeting and talking about them, said Chambers.

The policy is being looked at. On the next cheque-issue day, depending on the circumstances and if lineups become extreme, staff are prepared to look at and process mothers with children and the disabled on a priority basis, said Chambers.

"It's not a permanent decision that that's the way it's always going to be, but a decision that would be taken if necessary." Staff want to give the new service model a chance, said Chambers.

In the past year, the ministry has encouraged clients to sign up for direct deposit. The Pandora office serves 3,200 people -- 2,500 have direct deposit, the remaining 700 pick up their cheques in person.

Victoria police Const. Lori Beauvais said police have been called to the building 25 times since January 2006.

"It's not a lot when you consider the amount of people coming and going. It's just the type of call we go to. They're related to illegal behaviour or to assist ambulance. There are threats, unwanted people and fraud," said Beauvais.

yeah I read that article and

yeah I read that article and as someone who actually spent 7 months teaching life and career skills in the DTES, I can say the people are right in their concerns - it takes a hard person who has gone through what the residents of the DTES have gone thru to take their bullshit - and believe me, until you've actually worked with meth heads and their insane sense of entitlement, you have no clue about how bad it is....

I feel for these folks, and without question MP/MPP's salaries need to be indexed to the welfare rate...

as shocking was how CNN and the rest of the Mainstream Media completely glossed over the Dems response to the State of the Union - class inequality was a big big part of Sen. Webb's powerful speech.

Our corporate media have no empathy for the poor and their complaints...

I'm on a selective media boycott, myself

I decided well in advance that I'd do all I could to avoid the Pickton coverage. I'm not interested in the grisly details of a string of gruesome murders.

So, no TV news, except for the BBC on Newsworld (recorded on Tivo, to make skipping over easier–all my TV is pre-Tivo'd). It's been years since I've read the Province (even for free), so giving up that is no problem. And, since moving outside of Vancouver last year I generally only get the Sun and Globe on Saturdays, and the odd Friday. Taking that down another notch will be pretty easy-most Saturday Sun's are so pitiful that I feel ripped off after reading them anyway.

How will I stay informed? Well, I've been on the Internet for 20 years, so it's easy to find reputable news outlets there. The business news I used to get from the Globe I can still visit on the Web. And the New York Times is a fine bargain at US$50 per year online. There's The Tyee, the Guardian and the BBC. As for Doonesbury, that's online too. And I have subscriptions to Harpers, the Atlantic and the New Yorker. Plus all the technical journals and other non-news reading.

The interesting thing is, after a year of avoiding the papers and TV news, will I ever go back? I used to be a 3 newspaper per day guy, in the 1980s and 90s. For the past year I've been a 3 newspaper a week guy. After the trial I might not be buying 3 papers per year. Unless I get a puppy, of course.

You'll wake up American, with your brain deeply integrated

grouchomarks: I used to have neighbours -- lovely people -- who would regularly boast (as if it needed saying, over and over) "We never watch TV." I always wanted to say "Do you read books?" but I didn't, to preserve peace, order, and a good neighbourhood.

So you're down to only 2 narrow-focus news services (Globe business & Tyee), 1 British and all the rest U.S.-sourced news.

This is not a balanced diet, grouch.

You're gonna wake up American one day soon, with your mind completely colonized, pledging allegiance to George & Laura.

Come on home again, eh?

Globe Coverage Trashed

I see some Globe readers are complaining about irresponsible Globe coverage of the trial. Two brief reader letters:
--I accept that you have to report on the Pickton trial ('I'm Just A Working Guy' -- Jan. 24), but please spare us the front-page coverage complete with pictures and excerpts from transcripts.

This trial is expected to last for more than a year. Please place your articles inside the newspaper where we can avoid them if we wish.

LINDA SILVER DRANOFF

Toronto

--Re The Pickton Trial Day 2: Is there a plan to continue to number the days of the trial on the front page above the fold? Must you continue to print Robert Pickton's picture in colour on the front page (or on any page)? Will it be the first thing I see in The Globe and Mail every day for the next year? Please consider another strategy.

JANE CAWTHORNE

Calgary

G West: Irony? Yes..too much.

BC Mary: I have to admit I found some irony in the article you posted with the "welfare mom" (often maligned and stereotyped),
looking down on the "dirty junkie" - and apparently doing her own prejudicial maligning and stereotyping, and fear mongering (...first
a soother in the mouth, next he'll be molesting your child!). I do agree the person in question's act was ill mannered though.

Italics

('Fraid my attempt to italicize all contents of the 2 letters, didn't quite work).

News Headlines

It will be very interesting to see how far back the local big rags can push the Basi, Virk, Basi trial in April. I just can't shake the feeling that the Picton trial and many other stories will push it further and further to the obscure pages.
Smoke and mirrors.

Astute observation, Gary.

Astute observation, Gary. It will be interesting indeed. Gord is probably on the phone to CanWest as we speak.

seen this before?

I remember during the Paul Bernardo trial in the mid-90's, I was startled and somewhat sickened to read a Vancouver Sun half-page feature that included testimony describing horrific sadism and murder in grotesque detail.

I remember putting the paper down and wondering how many people were reading that same article. I couldn't help wondering if somewhere in the the Lower mainland, RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT, somebody could be getting excited by all these details, aroused and even inspired? I imagined somebody carefully clipping the page, RIGHT NOW, for their special scrapbook or what have you.

Did the Pickton farm have a Sun subscription? Did these women start going missing in the mid-90's?

And please, do we really need to just maybe just possibly be exciting, arousing or even inspiring some new lost soul to live out his own special dream?

WE REALLY DO NOT NEED TO KNOW WHICH PIG ATE WHICH BODY PART.
Help us, Lord.

Susan Riley Trashes news coverage

Columnist Susan Riley is critical of the news coverage:
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/opinion/story.html?id=9089e318-9e8f-46ce-b526-616f1f465ba7&p=2
A few excerpts:

OTTAWA - "This will be the first and last column I write on the Robert Pickton murder trial. It will not contain "graphic," "gruesome," "disturbing" or "horrific" information or images.

So be warned. There is a limit to human curiosity, I guess, and I've reached mine. I know the outlines of the case, the scope of the alleged crimes, and that is enough.

Get back to me when you have a verdict, Peter Mansbridge. Park the story inside, newspaper editors. Try to find some real news, radio shows.

...I'll bet by the end of this grisly affair, we will not have learned one thing about human nature, or the dire byproducts of poverty and addiction, that we don't already know.

What appalls me is the way it is being turned into entertainment.
Some news networks, outlining their coverage plans, sound as if they are promoting the latest television cop series"...

To read or not to read

That is the question.

"Should the media be reporting the facts as they are disclosed?" does not seem to be queried here, which is good. I think.

How to report "sensational" trials

In his guidelines on the Pickton trial, Professor Ward writes:

" . . . journalists should seek sober, accurate, non-harassing coverage of the trial that goes beyond news updates and delves into the deeper social and human aspects of this trial. . . . How did these horrible murders happen? What was the role of the police, the justice system and the media during the long period from initial reports of “missing” women to the trial? Did social attitudes towards these women -- their occupation or place of residence -- influence the slow social response to this case? . . . "

I respect the Professor's position, but is it really a court reporter's job to delve into "deeper social and human aspects" of a trial?

I hope not. The job of a reporter in a court proceeding is no more and no less than to report on testimony, as if he/she were the eyes and ears of the public in the proceeding. If this sounds like glorified stenography, well, so be it. The moment the reporter begins to introduce "context," seek "balance," probe "social attitudes" etc., that's when distorted journalism begins.

I don't want a newspaper or its reporters sanitizing their coverage to protect me from the guts and the gore of a criminal proceeding. That's paternalism with the strong whiff of censorship. That's nannyism.

"Reader Beware" is implicit on every newspaper masthead.

"Reader Beware" is implicit on every newspaper masthead.

It ought to be, but it isn't. The last thing Canwest is concerned about is trying to 'discourage' anyone from buying Canwest papers.

Moreover, if you'll agree to subscribe you can probably get the first three months (they call it a trial) for free.

It isn't necessary to sanitize to avoid sensationalizing. Sensationalizing – with respect to this trial – has been the rule, not the exception.

Yes,"Sensationalizing has

Yes,"Sensationalizing has been the rule".

The reporter in the court room is not the one who decides to run colour pictures on front pages, with salacious headlines.

It's the newspaper editors who determine how the trial is covered in their papers.

It's they who choose to place gory headlines and details on page 1, instead of inside the paper along with warnings to readers.

It's editors who choose to avoid or include placing parallel articles in papers, looking at the broader issues that have relevance: childhood abuse, our drug and prostitution laws, societal attitudes to drug addicted sex workers, harm reduction and other social services programs, police indifference and bungling of the case for years, and, not least, biographical pieces about the women themselves.

The more the media focuses just on Pickton and the crimes, the more unbalanced, irresponsible and valueless the coverage will end up being.

Show me the gore

Bobb999:

You say: "The more the media focuses just on Pickton and the crimes, the more unbalanced, irresponsible and valueless the coverage will end up being."

How so? Why does coverage of an atrocity, a serial killer, an aberration, always need to be couched in context? Why do we try to sanitize it, or make it more palatable, to see it through a filter of psycho-babble? Is it not real? Is Pickton some kind of extraterrestial? At the time of the Holocaust, was it not enough to see the images, to hear the survivors? Do we need it explained to us as part of a "broader social problem?" Heck, scratch deep enough and you will see that we are all a small part of the "broader social problem." Is that why the stark bloody details are so abhorrent to you?

No, by all means, let's focus on the crimes, lets hear and read ALL the grim details. What are we so frightened of? The "value" that you are looking for in the coverage is nothing more or less than than knowing what a human being is capable of. Let's hear it, be shocked by it, learn from it. Focusing on what the "media" says or doesn't say is a copout. Nobody is making this stuff up. It happened.

As the Roman philosopher Terence said: "I consider nothing human alien to me."

Just the facts

I'm with Clawman. It's the job of reporters to give us the facts and let us make our own conclusions. Context and such is the purview of editorials.

If you are not interested in the facts, don't buy the paper or watch and/or listen to the news (depending upon your favourite flavour of media)

If the facts revolt and frighten you (as well they should in this case) be thankful you're not on the jury or in the press gallery, with little choice but to absorb it all.

Don't disagree in this particular case.

But, it's possible to present the 'facts' in such a way that they aren't sensationalized and turned into enormous black headlines on the front page of every edition. The Sun especially is wallowing in it and clearly counts on using the Picton trial as a way to boost circulation.

I think that a parallel can be drawn between this case and the Bernardo case in Ontario where more care was taken with respect to the victims' families and their privacy and dignity. As I remember it, the content of the videos that were a big part of the evidence in that case were never covered in the press. That case also involved dismemberment if I recall.

Clawman: If re-read my posts

Clawman:
If re-read my posts you'll see you're misinterpreting...because I never said gory details that come out in testimony should not be published. As G. West says, it's how those details are presented that is the issue.

I'm pleased to see some media outlets are exploring the societal context.
CBC TV has broadcast 2 different documentaries the past 2 weekends on issues surrounding prostitution.

And CKNW radio yeaterday broadcast back to back segments: One with SFU criminologist, John Lowman, on further legalization of prostitution and activities surrounding it.

The other on the City of Vancouver's current investigation into the potential value of further drug maintenance programs, including the idea of drug substitution
(there is evidence that addicts to the more harmful stimulants, such as crack and meth, can be weaned off those, replacing them with the less harmful stimulants such as ritalin, for example).

This is very relevant to the Pickton case.
-Imagine if in the '90s those women had had access to easily accessible, quality detox
programs. And for those unable to kick, drug maintenance/replacement. Many of them would not have had the desperate need to turn tricks on the street, and would likely be safe and alive today.
It's important that ideas like this are explored in the media and understood by citizens and politicians.

If we can prevent future risk of violence and other health risks to addicted women through these and other programs, such ideas are of utmost importance in the broad issues discussion.

Broadening the context discussion beyond the murders themselves, does not just belong on the editorial page.
We need reporters researching and informing the public on this stuff, what's worked in other countries, etc.

Clawman name dropped an

Clawman name dropped an obscure-to-most Roman writer:
Quote: "As the Roman philosopher Terence said: 'I consider nothing human alien to me.'"

Funny, that's the 2nd time this week I've seen that quote online...The first was in an article(at Slate.com?) about a controversial documentary at this year's Sundance, a sympathetic look at men who practice bestiality with various domesticated livestock.

Of course, Terence came out of a culture where it was at one time acceptable entertainment for the public to attend the Coliseum and masturbate in the stands while virgins were being ripped apart by lions. Maybe Terence was there stroking too!

-I would apply the quote in a broader fashion and ask:
Regarding those unfortunate women, physiologically addicted to substances which, due to our foolish drug laws, were
unobtainable except by their exposing themselves to risks of street prostitution and black market drug use:

How was it that the police and many citizens viewed such women as too alien to them to be worthy of the same degree
of concern they afforded other, "worthier", members of society?

Terence, Pickton and journalism

Terence was saying, I think, that we should not shrink from the careful and scrupulous observation and study of EVERYTHING that we do as humans, whether it is the fostering of democracy, the making of war, serial killing, or dispatching virgins in the Coliseum. A corollary, I think, is that all of these things ARE part of being human, and worthy of study. Otherwise, how are we to know ourselves, if we don't acknowledge our extremes?

No matter how enlightened our social programs (and here I'm on my own, without any help from Romans), there will always be Picktons and Bernardos, just as there will likely always be Hitlers and Pol Pots. So yes, better police work, and better drug laws, and more sensitivity to the victims of poverty and addiction, (as well as more attention to the people we elevate to power) might mitigate the damage that these people do. But they won't cancel out the dark side of the human soul.

And so, while "broadening the context discussion beyond the murders themselves," as G. West suggests, might make us feel a little better as law-abiding citizens, and put some moral distance between us and the murderers, and might even create a safer society in some small way, it won't bring us any closer to understanding what makes people like Pickton do the things they do. As we argue for more "socially-beneficial" journalism, let's not make that the story. Willie Pickton, unhappily, IS the story, and that's what we need to be focusing on.

A little more care clawman

Those words: "broadening the context discussion beyond the murders themselves," are yours clawman, not mine. Kindly quote me accurately, or not at all.

In fact, you haven't dealt with my point at all. Perhaps you should read the post again.

I also wonder if you've read Roger Shattuck's excellent book:
Forbidden Knowledge: from Prometheus to Pornography.

The fact that some human beings have stooped to unimaginable levels of depravity and immorality is no reason to suggest that such things ought to become prurient objects of general attention in the mass media. Willie Picton is, I would humbly suggest, not the STORY. The story is the general level of unconcern and the disinclination of the authorities to shoulder the duty of care, which ought to be owed every human being while they are alive.

The real crime here, from a societal point of view, arises directly out of the attitude of profound and thoroughgoing indifference that a score or more of women of a certain 'class' could go missing without generating much more concern than the loss of a couple dozen umbrellas.

My view.

The general public and the institutional organizations who act as our servants and representatives are the ones who should be wearing sack cloth and ashes.

A little less focus on that single picture of Picton the alleged killer and a little more attention upon the conditions that led to this tragedy is in order.

In addition, I don't just mean the pathetic repetition of the 6 names of the dead women whose murder Picton is currently being tried for. That too is pointless sophistry.

The "real crime"

The "real crime," G. West, was the brutal murder of several dozen women. There are possible contributing social causes which must not be ignored. But when you diffuse the blame, you are unconsciously diminishing the guilt of the perpetrator. That's a very postmodern reflex. But I believe it's wrong.

After Rwanda, many people blamed the West. There is probably an emotional justification for this belief, but the killers were in fact tens of thousands of men, women and children wielding machetes. If you forget that, justice suffers. I think it's the same with Pickton. That's why I continue to insist that HE and what he did are the primary stories.

baloney

Once again, Clawman, you just aren't a very careful reader.

You lift two words, put quotation marks around them and draw an unfair and unwarranted conclusion from them, typical modern journalism.

Now look back at what I actually said - all of it.

I did not diminish the guilt of whoever is responsible for these crimes and I did note, as you and nearly everyone else irresponsibly fail to do, that Mr Picton is only the 'alleged' perpetrator of these crimes.

Not very responsible on your part and the idea of bringing Rwanda into the mix is a complete non sequitur.

You might not be surprised that I share, with General Romeo Daillaire, the conviction that the West is steeped in blood from Rwanda - just as the hosts and hostesses of elite Vancouver neighbourhoods are - relative to the missing women of East Vancouver.

Firstly, I should say my

Firstly, I should say
my jaw dropped when, just hours after I'd posted about old Terence (above), "CBC News Sunday" broadcast an interview by Evan Soloman with Dr. Deepak Chopra. Guess who Chopra quoted among others? -Terence. Which quote? - Same one as above!
Is this "Remember Terence Week"?!

G West and I are in basic agreement on these issues.

The tragedies of these murders were, in many ways, avoidable, making them that much more tragic.

In a society that aims to be compassionate and reduce suffering, it seems apparent that the issues of:
How was it these women were left so vulnerable, and:
How can we lessen the likelihood of similar crimes in future,
are much more important stories than:
How many saw cuts did Picton make, their precise location,and how long each was (as the Globe reported), and similar minutiae
of Picton's butchery techniques.

What does society learn from details like those? Will knowing them help prevent future murders? I doubt it.

Again, I'm not saying don't publish the details of testimony

(continued)

[the above got posted prematurely!]
...but, please, let's not imagine the minutiae of murder is the important story here.

I guess it's the "important" story to those who would view the whole thing mostly as macabre entertainment, like those popular
true crime shows on TV, which most folks view for entertainment, not education or enlightenment.

Apparently, some would be criminals dowatch such shows for "education" though. I read an article interviewing police officers who said criminals are more and more learning how to avoid leaving DNA evidence. The theory is they are learning crime tips from these true crime TV shows.
What a boon for society!

both sides need coverage

We should be careful with how we present Robert Pickton in our posts as he has only been charged with these murders, not convicted. The pig farm was a "busy hive of activity" as the media stated, and there are rumours about Hell's Angels covering up for his brother (basically making Robert a frame guy). So please don't state this man to be a sole mass murderer of numerous women when we don't have the evidence to justify it.

I agree on one hand that journalists should be strictly the eyes and the ears of this court case. The importance of knowing a (possible) serial killer's mind and actions plays a serious role in knowing how to detect one. As well, the importance of the truth of what happened to these missing women should never be overstated.

On the other hand, these missing women were directly linked to a much bigger problem of police negligence that I hardly believe Pickton is solely the case. The ignored warnings from officers of a potential serial killer, the lack of searches done on the missing women, the absent monitoring of DTES sex workers, the fluke luck police officers found evidence in Pickton's mobile... the fact that this was a case slowly building itself up for years is not something that can be glanced over. We have serious issues with policing at hand that need to be taken care of just as much as we need this trial taken care of.

Let us not forget that a lot of these killings surely would have been avoided if these women were of a higher status.

yourleader

You may have a point. It reminds me of a statement a policeman made about Clifford Olsen.

He said that before Olsen embarked on his murder rampage against children, he had been in jail on lesser charges. He was
a cellmate of a man who had murdered an 11 year old girl. This guy had confessed the crime to Olsen without remorse and recounted his crime in great detail.

Olsen went on to testify against the murderer, no doubt just to lessen his own sentence.

It was shortly thereafter though that Olsen was on the street and began his murders.
The policeman believed Olsen had been "inspired" to commit child murders after hearing the first hand account of the cellmate.

This would fit your theory.