Man dead, media silent

On Saturday, March 27, a man named Clyde Ratcliff was allegedly speed and not long after was pursued by Springfield police.  Mr. Ratcliff lost control of his car and it crashed into a fence.  Police broke a car window and pulled Mr. Ratcliff from the car.  Everything that happened after that is in dispute.  The outcome, however, is not: Mr. Ratcliffe is dead.


Many questions will be raised in the weeks to come, and whether they will be answered to the community's satisfaction, I don't know, but right now I just have one question:  where the hell was the media?  Four days passed and the Springfield Republican and our three television stations, WWLP 22, CBS 3 and ABC 40 were silent.

Now, there is no doubt that Mr. Ratcliff's death after an encounter with the Springfield police would be of immediate and great interest to the residents of Springfield.   Since November numerous accusations of police brutality that have rolled through this city starting with the beating of Melvin Jones III by Springfield police which was recorded on a cellphone.  Much has happened since then, including the firing of two police officers just yesterday.  Masslive.

But the media was silent for four days, until today, when member of the African-American Clergy Alliance and family members of Clyde Ratcliff paid an unannounced visit to Mayor Domenic Sarno.  . Someone told me that the night Mr. Ratcliff died, Channel 40 did a preview of upcoming news and said something about a man chased by police who had crashed his car-- but that no news story ever followed.  I didn't see that for myself and if anyone knows of any media coverage of Mr. Ratcliff's death that took place before today, I'd like to know.  I do know for sure that the Republican wrote nothing, and before this evening, found nothing on the local stations..

Now, just how does something like that happen?

It could be incompetence, but how does incompetence happen to affect one newspaper and three TV stations at the same time?

How does the media get this kind of news?  Obviously police scanners play a role.  What other ways is information communicated?  Did all these methods break down at the same time?

Or was the media asked to sit on this story for a while?

Teeny, tiny, PATHETIC correction

Spoke to Jim Gillen, City Desk editor at the Republican yesterday-- asked him WHY the paper keeps getting the ward representation deadline wrong. He said, "Don't worry, we'll take care of it."

So in this morning's paper, inside section bottom of left side, about ONE INCH that says

CORRECTION
Springfield: State law requires the city get approval to put a question on the Nov. 6 ballot ny Oct. 2. The date was incorrect in a newsbrief and editorial yesterday, due to an editing error.

That's the whole thing. Why didn't the paper mention the question under discussion is ward representation? A little context would have been more than appropriate.

Newspaper WRONG AGAIN!

Just WHAT does it take for the newspaper to get this VERY IMPORTANT DEADLINE RIGHT? Once again the paper has said the deadline for getting ward representation on the ballot is October 19. It is NOT the 19th, it's the 2nd! I have been trying to correct this mistake with them ALL WEEK. One would almost think the paper WANTED people to relax, not worry...

Here's the article from newsbriefs:

House OKs Springfield ward representation
BOSTON - With no debate, the state House of Representatives yesterday voted to approve a bill that would create a system of ward representation for the Springfield City Council and School Committee.

The bill now moves to the Senate. Legislators need to approve the bill by Oct. 19, a deadline for the Springfield Election Commission to place a binding question about ward representation on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Thanks-- but paper gets the date wrong.

The Springfield Republican had a pro-ward representation editorial today which, I hope, will play a part in pressuring legislators to keep pushing the home rule legislation through ward rep can go on this November's ballot. But the editorial got the deadline date wrong! The editorial said the deadline was October 19. It is NOT the 19th, it is the 2nd! This misinformation is counter-productive to the real sense of urgency citizens and legislators need to be feeling right now. TUESDAY! TUESDAY! TUESDAY! Even a core Arise member left a message on my phone tonight saying, "Well, at least we've got till the 19th." I think/hope the paper will correct this tomorrow.

We had a ward representation meeting tonight. If the question gets on the November 6 ballot, we certainly know what we have to do-- it's old-fashioned grassroots work. Arise, Oiste and the NAACP have organized on fair city council and school committee elections for so many years, we've laid a lot of groundwork.

But we still just don't know.

We decided tonight that we will have a press conference Tuesday, October 2nd, noon, on the steps of City Hall, either:
to celebrate Springfield's opportunity to vote in ward representation
or
to castigate those elected officials who waited until the eleventh hour to act, when the eleventh hour was already too late.