Our local paper covers death and crime very selectively bc "people don't want to know"

[KurtNYC]

I live in a small town north of NYC right now. The local population is about 7,000 people. The town was buzzing about a prostitute who died of a heroin overdose on the street in the middle of town but there was no mention of it in the local paper. I thought that was pretty odd but I was then told "lots of things happen here that people don't want to know about" (?!)

Then a lot of other things made sense. Last year there was gang war here, teens emptying 9mm at their enemies on the sidewalk and they shot a little kid in the process. No story. My neighbor, assaulted by prostitutes after he asked them to take their business off his porch. No story. Prostitutes work in cars in broad daylight 1 block from main street, and some locals deny that the town has a long history of prostitution even though this town is infamous for it. Heck my apartment was,we believe, a house of prostitution in the 50s or 60s and then became a Salvation Army location. You can't (shouldn't drink) the local tap water because it is carcinogenic. The City sends out an illegible water report once a year to remind us all not to use the water. Property taxes are high at 3% per year and we have the 4th worst schools in NY state.

I wouldn't care much whether the paper covers this stuff but I would like to have a sense of how dangerous this town really is and what's going on so that I can avoid it. Today's top story is "Mushrooms growing in parking lot at WalMart" but down the page is "Police investigate reports of gunfire."

Aside from one other small city (16,000) this is the only small town I have lived in. Is this unusual ?

[shraby]

1. Contact the editor of the newspaper and ask why matters

of importance to the welfare of the residents is not covered. The public has a right to know if there are a lot of burglaries in an area because it will alert them to making sure their cars and homes are locked, for a example. The newspaper is protecting nobody with their non-coverage.

[mrcheerful]

2. It is like that all over the country unless it is election year then the papers will be

non stop black criminals run wild. I've seen the same here when a black child was found headless in a Catholic Church lawn. The story only ran one day in local papers before being dropped. The next election cycle the same paper ran stories daily about drug busts non stop until after the elections. The paper is now no longer printed and the city no longer has a paper. There is now a Tri City paper for this area.