An Open Letter to KARE 11:
I would like to talk to an editor regarding your August 18 article, “DWI crackdown busts 225 drunken drivers on first night.”
Repeating is not Reporting:
This article follows the script of repeating what the DPS reported as “facts,” but for a news organization, these “facts” need to be interrogated. Two hundred and twenty-five people were arrested for DWI. That is not the same as 225 drunken drivers being caught.
Presumption of Innocence:
These drivers have not been formally charged and they have certainly not been convicted. Not all people accused by the police of a crime are guilty. Honestly, a policeman can write a “tab charge” for DWI for you right now, sitting at your desk. That’s all that happened 225 times this weekend. Two hundred and twenty-five drunken drivers were not caught. Two hundred and twenty-five people were arrested without benefit of any Complaint being sworn or judge determining probable cause or a jury determining guilt. Just today, I got an acquittal for someone who, on a different weekend, could have been one of these 225. Tom was arrested for drunk driving, but he most certainly was not drunk.
Alcohol-Related Incidents:
Finally, when you breathlessly report “alcohol-related” deaths and injuries, you should note that that figure comes from NHTSA (National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration) which counts as alcohol-related any incident in which any person involved had any measurable amount of alcohol in his or her body. As NHTSA refers to it, a “non-zero” BAC (blood alcohol content) or a sip or more.
If I drive a car completely sober and hit another car with a sober driver, but a drunk passenger in my car gets killed, that is an alcohol-related death by NHTSA terminology. (PDF document on file with author, DOT HS 811 374, 2011)
I would be thrilled to talk to a reporter about this. Be cutting edge. Write up one of these stories with actual news, facts, things your readers can learn from, rather than DPS propaganda.
Sincerely,
Barry S. Edwards
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