Category: Conway Daily Sun

The Latest

Krista Dittmeyer has not turned up yet, but news about her baby’s father has. He is in jail for dealing drugs, something thus far that has been out of the news. It was only because of my colleagues’ longtime connections in the community that I was able to uncover who he was and what he was in prison for, but we beat the national media hovering over Conway. That feels good.

Now we’ll see where other community connections get me. I’ve been hearing a bunch of rumors that are tough to substantiate about what Dittmeyer was doing over here. I’ve got a few leads out there, and may have another interesting story by tomorrow night. This one is going to wind up on the Today Show, I guess, but I turned down the chance at an interview. I’ll just keep doing my job, and leave television to the television reporters.

Press Conference

Krista Dittmeyer has been missing for several days. The search for her began on Saturday after her 14-month-0ld daughter was discovered in her car parked in the parking lot of a local ski area. It’s become a bit of a media circus, but the Sun has tried to keep its coverage professional. Here is a short snipet from the Conway Police Department’s press conference:

Read the full story here.

The Fall of American Journalism

Can you guess how the CNN piece went?

I don’t see any value in sensationalism, and that’s what the program I was on was all about. I hung up after the first 15 minutes. Someone from the show called to say they’d lost the connection, and I explained I wasn’t familiar with the show beforehand, but having heard it I couldn’t take part in it. She said she understood, and asked me to explain it to the producer who had asked me on. So I did.

I am a 29-year-old reporter with global aspirations. CNN should be my endgoal. But giving up my commitment to quality reporting isn’t worth it; I would never go work for a program like the one that just had me on (however briefly).

This story is big news. It was on ABC’s Good Morning, and there were eight or 10 television cameras at the press conference this afternoon at the Conway Police Department. But it doesn’t need to be hyped. When one of the biggest names in news is doing the hyping you have to know something is wrong.

I work for a small community paper and contribute to New Hampshire Public Radio — both venues that don’t feel like the news has to be stretched to be valuable to the audience. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to compromise on that. Journalism isn’t just about making money. It’s also about keeping people informed. Scared is not informed. It is a disservice. I have no interest in trumpeting unknowns in order to attract an audience.

If that relegates me to the small-town paper, so be it, but if that is the case it’s a shame. If it takes sensationalism to make it mainstream than journalism is indeed doomed.

But that isn’t the case at all. The New York Times, Washington Post and NPR are consistently excellent news outlets. They play it straight, reporting the news as best they can. There is value in that. It is, in fact, one of the most valuable ingredients in democracy. It scares me what damage is done by the sensationalization of valuable information.

I really only have two things to say after this experience:

  1. Thank you New Hampshire Public Radio, which, when I asked if they were interested in the story said they don’t really cover crime in that way because it comes off as sensational. What a classy response!
  2. Thank you Lt. Chris Perley of the Conway Police Department. He handled repeated attempts to prod him into sensationalism with the utmost professionalism. Bravo.

It’s hard to see your profession let you down. I don’t intend to return the favor.

CNN Time

So I’ve been asked to go on CNN to talk about this 20-year-old woman who has disappeared. Her baby was found in her car, but she has been missing since Saturday morning.

The show I’m going on is a crime program, Headline News Nancy Grace. It’s a little interesting to be on a show like this. Missing women is not the type of news I normally report on. But her family wants as much media attention as possible in hopes of finding this woman, so I figure I can go on and give as straight a story as possible. We’ll see how it goes…

One More Vote

Last night was the town election for Conway, and today was the final day (hopefully) of reporting on an event that have ebbed and flowed for more than two months. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to cover something else.

I got a call today from what sounded like an older woman. “I hope you’re proud of yourself for what you put in the paper,” she said. “You probably got fired from your last job.” Then she hung up.

I’m not really sure which story that call was in reference to, but I have a couple ideas. I ran all the candidates’ names through the court system and came out with a couple who had criminal records. I called both men and gave them a chance to explain what happened. One didn’t seem to care, but the other freaked. “How can you do this?” he said. “Are you trying to hurt me?” I heard from some people around town that he was not happy with the story in the paper, and that he felt like I shouldn’t have written it.

Normally I wouldn’t have much sympathy for that — if you don’t want your record examined don’t run for public office. But this guy really was driven to get this position, even though he was not likely to win at all. It was one of those cases when I could feel for the guy, but I wasn’t about to do anything different.

I’ve become used to criticism as a reporter. I’ve written a number of stories people don’t like. When I used to work at the Reporter, everyone had my cell phone number. I’d get calls at home from angry politician unhappy with how I wrote about them. At least now those calls go to the office.

I can hear that criticism, and I don’t mind airing it in public. I would have encouraged the woman to write a letter to the editor blasting me for the story, had she only stayed on the phone long enough for me to respond.

But she didn’t. Elections do that. They fire people up and get them breathing hard. And then I stand in their way for a quote. I can’t expect not to gett spit on once in a while. I’m just happy it only comes once a year…

Don’t Print That!

I had a great conversation today with a guy running for police commission who didn’t want me to put in the paper that he’d been convicted of disorderly conduct and possession.

Those charges are from five years ago. “That’s in the past,” he said. True.

But the pending trespassing and resisting arrest charges aren’t from so long ago. Those are from January, and they won’t go to court until May 11, one day shy of a month after the election.

The man at first argued that this was his private criminal record, and I had no right to be putting it in the paper. I explained that I wasn’t looking to broadcast his record, but he had opted to run for public office. Every one of the candidates running for office went through the same level of scrutiny, I said, and we weren’t singling him out.

(Another man running for selectman and budget committee was arrested two and a half years ago for stealing scrap metal from the dump—a town entity. He was convicted of theft. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have someone convicted of stealing from the town elected to run it? I can’t make this stuff up.)

After explaining I wanted to give him a chance to explain his side of things he (the police commission candidate) did just that. He said he was set up (the selectman candidate said the same thing), and that he was the victim of police brutality, although he didn’t report it. I’m not sure about those accusations, but I can say he felt like I was tossing his hopes of winning the seat in the garbage. He called me back after we got off the phone the first time to tell me his attorney wanted me to know he might take a plea. I don’t want to be spreading this guy’s name all through the paper, but voters have a right to know who is running.

I’ve spent the last week and a half running through all the selectmen candidates, police commission candidates, library trustees, budget committee, etc. (I leave the school board to Lloyd.) They are all going to have their perspectives put in the paper. Almost no where do they get challenged before the election. We put in a few editor’s notes, like when a candidate says they would bring new ideas like LED streetlights (there are already LED streetlights), but we don’t have time to do full stories on all 30 candidates.

So here I’ve done a little digging, and I knock this guy totally off balance. I feel like telling him, “Look, but don’t run if you don’t want your criminal record discussed.”

The paper shouldn’t do that, he said, it’s private.

“Any middle school kid can go to the court house and request these records,” I said. “They are anything but private.”

I don’t think a criminal record should mean you can’t run for office, but I do think voters should be allowed to make informed decisions. On the other hand, some of the other candidate profiles should come with disclaimers themselves…

That’s politics, I guess.

A Little Too Close

I wrote my story about the man who fell down Mount Washington earlier this month. It was an interesting thing, to write about this man’s experience. Usually as a reporter I know less about whatever it is I’m reporting about than the person I’m speaking with, but not this time. This man was ice climbing on Mount Washington, a mountain I’ve put a lot of days in on. He was climbing Pinnacle Gully in Huntington Ravine, a route I first climbed 10 years ago. In my free time I guide clients up there, and sometimes I’ve been known to jog up there (or to other cliffs) to get a bit of climbing in before work. To tell his story, then, was surreal.

Not that I wanted to pass judgement. He made some decisions I would not have, but I have always been a conservative climber. It was more that he was describing for me, moment by moment, a fall very similar to one I’ve watched two other people take. One was a random climber who almost collided with me and my two clients, and the other was my ski partner. One broke both legs, the other broke both arms. It’s not a fall I want to see again.

But like the post before, about confronting the reality of reporting from dangerous places, this was a story that forced me to confront the reality of the dangers of my passion. Like the man I interviewed, I love to climb. To hear it from him, he is broken and yet he can’t wait to climb again. He is like I would be, I have to imagine, only I haven’t yet taken the fall.

It’s strange when a story forces you to look in the mirror. I was reporting for the Sun, telling a story for the readers, and yet the message seemed just for me. Funny how that happens.

So Much To Write, So Little Time…

This evening I got to talk with a man who fell 1,000 feet down Mount Washington and lived. He broke his femur, his knee, his hip and his wrist but never lost consciousness. He told me about thinking he was going to die, about yelling “HELP!” in a pathetic attempt to save his life, and about someone hearing him just before they skied away. He told me about looking down at his wedding ring as he waited to either be rescued or die and missing his family. He told me about screaming and swearing at his rescuers as they pulled on his broken leg to move it back into line. He told me about feeling he’d let his mentors down.

It was a last minute interview, squeezed in after a story before I left for the evening. It made me want to cry and to vomit. I have stories piling up, but this one is going to move to the front.

That 40 minute interview reminded me of something: I love my job. I hadn’t forgotten that, but I came home feeling that more than ever. Some stories just scream to be told.

Ray Day

My alarm is set for 4:45 a.m., because tomorrow I’m hanging out with Ray.

Ray Burton has been has been the executive councilor from the North Country since the year I was born. He was actually there even earlier, but he took a break for a bit and only came back 30 years ago.

He and I got into a discussion about the Conway bypass a month ago after I called him with a few questions. I asked him if $400 million couldn’t be better spent in the North Country than to speed up traffic by 20 minutes.

“What would you do with it?” he asked me.

“I don’t know,” I said, a bit surprised to be asked, “build the second wing on the state prison and fully staff it? I bet good paying jobs in Berlin would have more impact than a bit of road construction.”

The truth is, there isn’t $400 million for the bypass. There isn’t even $64 million for part of it. There is no big pot of money that can be spend on roads or on prisons, and the project is likely going to be pushed off even longer because of state funding problems. But that’s a different story for a different time. My discussion with Ray took a side turn there, and it ended with Ray inviting me to be his guest at the executive council breakfast and meeting.

“I’ll be there,” I said.