The Shadow Editors: The Last Sad Gasps of the 'Baltimore Sun'

Tom Scocca: Did you ever read that Baltimore Sun piece? About the hit-and-run?

Choire Sicha: About the 17-year-old boxer who was allegedly run down by the police, whilst on his dirtbike? Yes I did!

Tom Scocca: That was as bad as a newspaper story ever gets. There was no epistemological effort put into it at all.

Choire Sicha: There was a claim, and a weak denial, I believe.

Tom Scocca: The reporter spent maybe half an hour getting a story told by the lawyer. But the claim was–well, it's not even weak, because it simply exists outside the spectrum of persuasion. How good is the boxer? How bad are the injuries? Who saw the incident? Are there other dirt-bike riders who report a pattern of being menaced by the police?

Choire Sicha: According to the lawyer, yes!

Tom Scocca: Exactly. The reporter abdicated any responsibility for getting the story. And this is a story alleging a serious crime–a hit-and-run–by the police, and it ran I believe on page A3 of the daily newspaper, fairly large. But it contains nothing that's not being claimed by an interested party.

Choire Sicha: Well, I'm not sure there are technically any non-interested parties?

Tom Scocca: Let's start with the lead. "Two months ago, 17-year-old Deon Johnson was among the top-ranked boxers at a junior national championship, he said." "He said"?

Choire Sicha: Oh boy.

Tom Scocca: USA Boxing
One Olympic Plaza
Colorado Springs, CO 80909
Phone: (719) 866-2300
Fax: (719) 632-3426
I bet someone there could help you understand how good Deon Johnson is.

Choire Sicha: I'm finding it hard to look him up online without knowing what weight he fights in.

Tom Scocca: It's not even about whether the claim he's an Olympic-bound boxer is true or not. It's about the reporter and the editor being too lazy to even bother getting firm information. Why not say how he did in the tournament? It's a better lead that way.

Choire Sicha: Or, for instance, what tournament it was? Because I cannot raise records of any of this.

Tom Scocca: And this guy fights out of the Umar gym. I have a long and affectionate history with Umar. If the reporter had simply gone to Umar, they could have hooked him up with specifics about the boxer's record and history. They would probably have known somebody who knew something about the dirt bikes.

Choire Sicha: But that's like in West Baltimore. And like, this Deon Johnson person is… oh wait… on a "Pennsylvania Avenue."

Tom Scocca: Looks like Umar's current headquarters is about two blocks from where Pennsylvania crosses North Avenue.

Choire Sicha: And this lawyer's office is on N. Calvert St. It's in the Equitable Bank Building! 10 N. Calvert St.

Tom Scocca: Google Maps: Directions.

Tom Scocca: The Sunpapers is an 8-minute walk from the lawyer's office.

Choire Sicha: Do you think he walked?

Tom Scocca: It's easier than driving. Calvert is one-way going north, I believe. So you gotta get turned around, and then you gotta park. Even on a hot day, I'd walk it. So, in fact, I'm going to bet that this reporter didn't get into a car at all on this one. If you go down to the bottom, I think he refers to this session with the lawyer as a "news conference."

Choire Sicha: Which was attended apparently by others. Although: barely! WJZ; "Investigative Voice." Doesn't Baltimore have some version of Gothamist that should have been there?

Tom Scocca: Evidently not. I don't know why The Sun even pretends to publish a newspaper anymore.

Choire Sicha: Well this is sort of like a pretend-newspaper piece!

Tom Scocca: It is completely a pretend newspaper piece. The various people who assigned, reported, wrote, edited, and placed the piece were all pretending to do their jobs.

Choire Sicha: Perhaps they were busy with something else.

Tom Scocca: I can't imagine what. There's nothing in the paper.

Choire Sicha: I mean, their night jobs.

Tom Scocca: Tending bar. Washing cars. I have great sympathy for the handful of surviving journalists in the building. I guess if they want to keep taking Guild paychecks from Sam Zell's money, they should go on ahead. But I wish they would just fabricate the news entirely, and make something that at least reads like it's not an insult to the customer. If you don't have the time or energy to drive out to West Baltimore and talk to some people, gin up a scene. Here's a starter kit: boarded-up rowhouses, check-cashing shop, Formstone churches, ailanthus trees. Use Google Street View and have a look around. If you get caught, you'll never work in journalism again. That's a win-win.

ADDENDUM: A reader notes that Justin Fenton has done more legwork on other stories–one of which we also happened to have discussed over the weekend!

Tom Scocca: Did you know 12 people were shot at a cookout in Baltimore last Sunday?

Choire Sicha: How would I know that? Who would cover such a thing?

Tom Scocca: I think none of the shootings were fatal. So in fact if you count the pregnant lady who got shot and went into labor and had the baby, I guess it was a net gain for life?

Choire Sicha: *Googles* OMG it was a MEMORIAL cookout too?

Tom Scocca: Yes!

Tom Scocca: The Sun has a huge package under the headline "Hope and the abyss" and it contains almost no usable facts. For instance it says that the day's shootings–there were 18 overall, with I think two fatalities not at the cookout–had something to do with a feud between drug families. But it doesn't, say, identify or characterize them in any way. Were the shooters from the same group of people who were responsible for there being a memorial in the first place? Can't tell from the story. But also, you know: 12 people get shot and it's not national news? Are you trying to read the story?

Choire Sicha: Trying….

Tom Scocca: It's completely unreadable. I really wanted to know what was going on and I got nothing. If you go all the way to the end, there's a guy who drove himself to the hospital with his eye shot out? I think. Maybe he was a passenger?

Choire Sicha: "Map: Party turns to panic" Why would i want a MAP?

Tom Scocca: There's no explanation of how many gunmen there were, how the shooting started, who got hit where and when–actually, pretty much any who-what-where-when-why question you might want to ask about the shooting of 12–or is it 18?–people.

Choire Sicha: Yes I wanted to know, if it was one person, with what weapon do you shoot so many people?

Tom Scocca: Right? Did some people shoot back? Was there crossfire?

Tom Scocca: I'm thinking maybe Monty Cook heard about The Wire and didn't understand that it had a master narrative structure at all times. This thing happened! This person was here! This other person was there! Somebody had an asthma attack! Yes, a big-city emergency room is a confusing place to be on an evening when a mass shooting happens. But that doesn't mean you write a big long story that makes the reader feel as confused as an E.R. nurse.

Previously: Memoirs! Leer at Yer Crazy Memoirs! From a Circus of Times Employees, a Thousand Magazine Excerpts Bloom