I just saw Skydog on TV!!!!

[GrantDawg]

Ben and his guitar, getting more famous by the minute.

[Easy Mac]

Were they playing with Shannon Tweed on Skinemax?

[Tasan]

What was he on TV for?

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Tasan

What was he on TV for?

Leading a devo for THS students. He'll be on the 11 o'clock news on WSB in Atlanta.

[Fritz]

I love Devo. Girl U want is an excellent song

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Leading a devo for THS students. He'll be on the 11 o'clock news on WSB in Atlanta.

I was afraid of that. What a crappy reason to get on TV for. What a horrible day...

Someone set up a tape and grab it, then get it over to avi or mpg format...I have a place to host it...

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by Fritz

I love Devo. Girl U want is an excellent song

Dola

Careful Fritz, this has been a bad day and this is closely related to it...

[Fritz]

there is a chance I have no clue what a devo is, heathen that I am.

In any case, no disrespect to anyone.

[vtbub]

Prayer Devotional?

[Ben E Lou]

I haven't seen much coverage. I had no clue how big of a story this would be though. It is the lead story on every station in Atlanta, and is in newspapers around the country for tomorrow apparently.

It was very weird getting up to sing and speak with all the cameras there.

[Celeval]

I watched it too, 11 Alive wasn't bad coverage; they also have an online messageboard of sorts for condolences that they will be passing along to the school.

http://www.11alive.com/discussions/t...p?TOPIC_ID=242

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Celeval

I watched it too, 11 Alive wasn't bad coverage; they also have an online messageboard of sorts for condolences that they will be passing along to the school.

I'm working on an update to www.younglifenorthdekalb.com right now. It'll probably be up in the morning.

[FargoFreez aka fof playa]

Originally Posted by Tasan

Dola

Careful Fritz, this has been a bad day and this is closely related to it...

Easy. Look at the title of the thread.

It's been a trying day for Fritz as well.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

I haven't seen much coverage. I had no clue how big of a story this would be though. It is the lead story on every station in Atlanta, and is in newspapers around the country for tomorrow apparently.

It was very weird getting up to sing and speak with all the cameras there.

CNN has it on the website, which isn't surprising considering it's Atlanta-related:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/01/....ap/index.html

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Tasan

I was afraid of that. What a crappy reason to get on TV for. What a horrible day...

Someone set up a tape and grab it, then get it over to avi or mpg format...I have a place to host it...

I've got it on my tivo. I can tape it, but I can't get my capture card to work.

[Ben E Lou]

Celeval:

I finally got around to watching all of the online coverage this morning. You're right in that 11-Alive handled it best. If any of you want to see appropriate TV coverage, I'd encourage you to check out the videos at www.11alive.com


On the other hand, the weasels at WSB-TV are apparently the ones who took it upon themselves at around 6:20am yesterday to tell two young teachers so they could record their reaction. After they were told, Meredith and Carey ran in the school hysterically crying, and the principal of course told the press to stay out. Apparently they stepped back beyond our view, and snapped a picture through the windowed door of the school. I copied the picture, because I figured some of you would want to see it, but I don't want to give WSB-TV's web site any more hits than they've gotten. Here is the pic in question:

[CamEdwards]

the media can be real assholes in times like this... pardon my french.

[SackAttack]

Is there a jury in the world that would convict if somebody had taken the photographer's equipment and beaten the shit out of it?

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Is there a jury in the world that would convict if somebody had taken the photographer's equipment and beaten the shit out of it?

I think the idea is to beat the photographer with his camera.

[Ben E Lou]

Let me just say that it is a very good thing that we didn't notice that they were there. There were a few of the male coaches standing there when they ran in crying. As I said, they are two YOUNG teachers (<25)--both of whom were Tucker graduates. Pretty much all of the men standing there (yours truly included) already naturally feel fatherly/protective toward the two of them anyway.

[Poli]

I was on sportscenter once.

[Abe Sargent]

My Dad was one of the experts asked to come in during the second half of Nightline and talk about stuff.

-Anxiety

[GrantDawg]

Never trust a reporter. Never, never, never.

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Never trust a reporter. Never, never, never.

That's not true. Most reporters want to do the right thing, and some have a sense of fairness and decency that borders on obsessive. Others don't care about anything other than getting on the front page, like the ones in this case.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

That's not true. Most reporters want to do the right thing, and some have a sense of fairness and decency that borders on obsessive. Others don't care about anything other than getting on the front page, like the ones in this case.

never.

[GrantDawg]

Just to add to the point. Never because you don't know whether thay are trustworthy are not untill they burn you.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Just to add to the point. Never because you don't know whether thay are trustworthy are not untill they burn you.

That's probably decent advice for those who deal with the media on a rare occasion.

Those who do it frequently though ... well, ask the ones I spent the better part of a decade covering. They learn who to trust over time, small things first, then bigger things.

If I had a mantra during those years, it might well have been "Don't burn any source you ever want to have again". And I don't believe you'll find a single source, from cops to lawyers to politicians who will say I ever burned them on anything. If anything, you'll find a few that'll say I covered their ass on occasion. As the old saying goes "The easiest way to hang a politician is to quote him accurately."

Did I persecute a few? Now that's a different question altogether, but none of those select few were sources either.

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Just to add to the point. Never because you don't know whether thay are trustworthy are not untill they burn you.

Well, that may not be a bad rule of thumb, actually.

Here's some specific advice from a former reporter on how to deal with us:

- Don't assume the reporter is on your side. He/she is there to get the story, not to help you. The reporter is not your public relations manager. It's not their job to find a way to make you look good.

- There's no such thing as "off the record" unless you make it clear beforehand. You can not tell a reporter something, think about, then decide later that it was off the record. Don't tell a reporter anything off the record unless you've specifically stated this in advance and the reporter still wants to go ahead (usually they won't)

- Come to think of it, if you only deal with the media occasionally, don't go off the record at all. Just say "no comment".

- If you're approached by a reporter and you don't want to talk, just say "no" politely and keep going. Don't stop and try to explain why you don't want to talk. Keep moving, and they typically won't chase you very far (unless you're the entire focus of the story, of course).

- Don't necessarily assume that any reporter assigned to cover a tragic event is some sort of vulture who gets his kicks preying on victims. Most reporters don't want to be there any more than you do. Many of them have seen things in their lifetime that would break your heart. They're not doing this for kicks (or for the money either, in most cases).

[BigJohn&TheLions]

I was on tv once. I was the guy without a shirt on COPS a few years back!

[johnnyshaka]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Celeval:

I finally got around to watching all of the online coverage this morning. You're right in that 11-Alive handled it best. If any of you want to see appropriate TV coverage, I'd encourage you to check out the videos at www.11alive.com


On the other hand, the weasels at WSB-TV are apparently the ones who took it upon themselves at around 6:20am yesterday to tell two young teachers so they could record their reaction. After they were told, Meredith and Carey ran in the school hysterically crying, and the principal of course told the press to stay out. Apparently they stepped back beyond our view, and snapped a picture through the windowed door of the school. I copied the picture, because I figured some of you would want to see it, but I don't want to give WSB-TV's web site any more hits than they've gotten. Here is the pic in question:

Just read all the stories about what the Venables are going though...man, that is absolutely tragic.

I can't help but wonder what was going through the kid's mind when he decided to do this...it's just sad.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by johnnyshaka

Just read all the stories about what the Venables are going though...man, that is absolutely tragic.

I can't help but wonder what was going through the kid's mind when he decided to do this...it's just sad.

This story just gets more and more awful. It sounds like the kid who did it wasn't the voilent animal with a long rap sheet that all of us in Tucker had pictured, but instead a truly tortured, tormented and sad soul--the very screwed-up son of a screwed-up woman who experience a horrible tragedy of his own three months ago. His picture has been in the paper before, but not of his own doing:

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/met.../16chaney.html

Violence haunts killer's family

By MARK DAVIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

He was one of those people who pass underneath the usual social radars -- the kid who dropped out of high school, the young man who lived quietly with his mother in an aging Lilburn subdivision.

Then last year she shot and killed a preacher, her own mother and herself. On the pine-lined street where he lived, Terry James Chaney's life suddenly was the subject of speculation and worry. He was alone in that two-story house. Was he OK?

Now, say neighbors and police, the answer to their questions is abundantly clear.

Tuesday night, Chaney's life ended in much the same way his mother's did -- violently, in gunfire, and only after innocent people were killed.

Chaney invaded two Lilburn homes, stealing a car at one, then driving it to the other, where he shot and killed a Tucker High School football coach, Bill Venable, and his son, Billy Jr., police said.

By then, the 19-year-old's time had just about expired. He ran into nearby woods, a police helicopter illuminating his flight and police dogs panting at his footsteps.

When Chaney shot a dog, police shot and killed him.

Thursday, police detectives worked to assemble the jumbled pieces of what seemed a random crime, and weren't sure they could ever determine just what made Terry James Chaney do what he apparently did.

Chaney, who dropped out of DeKalb County's Towers High School in September 2000, had no criminal record of violence. His rap sheet had one entry -- an arrest for loitering.

"We've got some unanswered questions," said Cpl. Dan Huggins, a Gwinnett County police spokesman. "There's a possibility that some of them will never be answered."

The answer to what may have driven Chaney to kill a man and his son in their home could well have roots in the violence that erupted in his life three months earlier, Chaney's neighbors said.

On Oct. 5, Sheila Chaney Wilson picked up a gun, went to Turner Monumental AME Church in Kirkwood and killed two people -- the Rev. Johnny C. Reynolds, who was preparing for Sunday services, and her mother, Jennie Mae Robinson.

Then Wilson, who friends said had long battled mental illness, fired the gun one more time, on herself.

The sudden violence rocked Kirkwood, where restored bungalows and trim lawns are quiet proof of a neighborhood enjoying a renewed sense of community spirit.

A newspaper photo from Wilson's funeral shows a young man, neatly dressed and looking sad -- her son, Terry.

Feeling the need to be neighborly after the shocking loss of Chaney's mother and grandmother, Geneva Jadrnak of Lilburn walked across the street to the 19-year- old's house, a contemporary-style structure with gray diagonal siding and a back yard filled with mature pines. Chaney, she said, was polite, but distant.

"He never said much," Jadrnak recalled Thursday. "He was so quiet."

Others in the neighborhood wondered how he was paying bills, for he rarely left the house. On Dec. 24, neighbors noted, he held a yard sale, putting out in the yard the home's washer and dryer, plus assorted furniture.

Was he so desperate for cash that he'd have a sale on Christmas Eve? "We're investigating that," Huggins said.

Police spoke with some of Chaney's relatives Wednesday, informing them they had identified the young man as the Lilburn home invader. As families often do, they drew together, welcoming friends and answering the calls of well-wishers.

Charlie Robinson, the young man's grandfather, wondered aloud what could have prompted his grandson to take up a gun and kill two people.

"He was always a good boy," said Robinson, a retired construction worker who had given his grandson welding lessons at his Atlanta home. "This has been a rough year."

[The Afoci]

The one thing that really really bothers me with the media is the story of the troubled criminal in murder cases. Fuck him. I don't care what the hell happened in this kids life. Lots of people have bad thing happen, not everyone takes it out on others. If the kid had any balls whatsoever and he wanted to die, do it yourself and don't take others with you. He is nothing but a coward. May he rot in hell. I have no mercy for this kid at all. Fuck his tough life. Does the murder of a kids father and brother now allow him, with the sympathy of the media to go kill someone? It would make a great story. Like usual, the victims are the ones hearing the sad sad story of the worthless pile of shit that commits such a crime.

[Ben E Lou]

I agree and disagree with you at the same time Afoci.

Is this kid responsible and accountable for his actions? Absolutely. If the police hadn't killed him, he should have gotten the death penalty.

Is it obvious that he has got to be a REALLY screwed-up kid? Absolutely.

I don't believe that those two thoughts are mutually exclusive.

As much frustration as I've had with the media in this situation, I certainly don't fault them for painting the picture of this kid in the way they have, particulary considering that two of the highest-profile double murders in recent memory in metro Atlanta are tied together in this way.

[The Afoci]

I don't disagree with the fact the kid is screwed up. Anyone who does this is. Shouldn't that be obvious? It is like saying a forrest fire is being fueled by the trees in the forrest.

When my best friend was murdered my senior year, my parents were going thru a tough time in their marriage. I didn't kill no one. I knew who the murderer was. I could have killed him. As much as I wanted to, I didn't.

Maybe this first story won't say it, but soon, there will be stories of what went wrong with this kid, what society has to do to protect kids like this and so on. The whole focus will be shifted on to the poor murderer and how his whole life was ruined because of such and such and at the end of the story it will say, blah blah was gunned down by police after killing two people. It is very sad.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by The Afoci

Maybe this first story won't say it, but soon, there will be stories of what went wrong with this kid, what society has to do to protect kids like this and so on.

I sure hope so. And I hope that someone comes up with some great solutions that would prevent this from happening again. I'm positive the family of those lost would appreciate that, too. I'm sure they would hope something good could come out of something so senseless and wrong.

[The Afoci]

They will never be able to figure out what causes people to kill people. The reason is because 100,000 people could be exposed to the same thing and maybe only a couple will kill someone. Then lets say they do figure it out, are they going to go arrest people or put them in hospitals before they commit the crimes? No. And these stories aren't to try and find a solution, they are to put a more human face a dink that thinks that his life is bad, so lets ruin someone elses. And I couldn't care less about the hurt the murderers family is going thru. They can come up with every reason for what their kid did, but it still has no justification for killing the people he did.