The Dallas county Sherrif’s department has seriously disappointed me. I had an article almost ready to post earlier about it, but the browser glitched and swallowed my post. Since then, I’ve seen Michelle Malkin’s post about how the MSM is up to it’s usual tricks. “All the news that’s fitted to print,” indeed. Only this time it’s the WSJ up to no good.

I wanted to reference that post before resuming with the story I saw in the Chronicle for a reason. Journalism, as performed in the mainstream media, is dead. As if the ghoulish maniac in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre had gotten a job as a news anchor, the current crop of so-called reporters and editors wear the skin of journalism’s heyday like an ill-fitted trophy. Amidst all the petulant whining about blogs and self-congratulation for the wonderful job they do, they have failed to notice that the reason they’re zombies is that they report like them. Not like people who care about the subjects they are reporting on. Reporting should be half-education. Instead, it’s 100% showmanship. The ratings race and the almighty dollar have helped political and personal bias in the info-tainment industry destroy what’s left of the MSM’s creditability.

The article linked above is a prime example of this. As a young kid, I spent a year on the school newspaper. It was total crap, not really deserving of the name, but when she found out I had volunteered for it, my mother insisted on drilling into me the things she had learned in her journalism classes, lo, these many decades ago. “There are five things you need to cover in every story: Who, What, Where, When, and Why.” Sadly, she still thinks the media is asking these questions, and can’t comprehend just how badly they report the news now. It’s just not part of her world view that the press could be that bad; but she’s all too ready to believe that the internet is one big rumor mill. Sigh.

So, coming back to the Chronicle yet again, this Associated Press article is a prime example of laziness substituting for workmanship. It doesn’t read like a news story. That’s because it’s not. It’s a press release from the Dallas County Sheriff’s department, printed almost verbatim. I can’t prove that, unfortunately, since the DCSD doesn’t send me their press releases, and a search of their website turned up none. But note the five points:

1. Who: Juan Robles Gutierrez, a 37-year-old Mexican national. (Ok, this looks covered. I’ll be returning to this point, though.)
2. What: The charges of criminal negligent homicide in the deaths of 23 passengers were forwarded to District Attorney Bill Hill. — (This is poorly explained. The prosecutor is not bringing the charges, the sheriff’s department is. I confess to being a bit ignorant of the justice system here–I know police can “bring charges” in traffic offenses, [that is, ticket you] — but this is a felony. Which I thought was the prosecutor’s call.)
3. Where: DALLAS (Partially covered. It is not explained why Dallas county has jurisdiction regarding this crime, either from geographical or legal standpoints.)
4. When: This is a twofer: — 1st: “The driver of the bus that caught fire while carrying elderly patients fleeing Hurricane Rita has been charged with criminal negligent homicide in the deaths of 23 passengers, a spokesman for the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department said today.” 2nd: “Robles was taken into federal custody on an immigration violation five days after the Sept. 23 explosion near Dallas.” (Covered.)
5. Why: Peritz would not give specific examples of illegal actions by Robles, saying details would be released if he is indicted. “The bus is under his care, custody and control and so is everyone on board,” he said. “Safe transportation from the nursing home to the final destination is his responsibility. Based on the end result, he failed in that responsibility.”

Warning! Warning! Strong odor of bullshit detected! Warning! Warning! Strong od– **SMACK**

Er, sorry folks, it does that sometimes.

First problem with this scenario: Robles is the driver of the bus. Yes, it’s his duty to inspect the bus, but it’s also the company’s responsibility to maintain it. If he acted recklessly, then he’s culpable. But if he checked the bus out, objected to the maintenance, and was told to drive it anyway, then in the Book of Ubu, he’s off the hook. The law may or may not say something different, but is that just? “Drive or your fired. It’s no skin off my nose if you have an accident because the brakes are bad. But you’re going to jail, so hope they don’t!”

Somehow, I don’t think rectification of such an injustice is limited to civil remedies in Texas. It’s possible, but why would anyone risk prosecuting something that under normal circumstances?

On the other hand, if he was warned on the freeway that the bus was catching fire, and refused to take action, then he’s on the hook. Note that the article claims he was. However, a previous version from late September, stated that a different driver on the same bus was warned by a passing motorist, some days before, not Robles himself. The article does not reference this, leaving us in the dark as to whether they are different warnings or the same one, mis-stated in time.

More problems: Robles is an illegal alien. What kind of company hires an illegal alien without a proper license and has him drive a crappy, dangerous bus? A shady one. One that knows the driver can’t turn them in.

What kind of nursing home hires such a company? Well, I bet buses were at a premium, so I’ll give them a pass for now, but I have other questions. Like didn’t the nursing home have anyone on board the bus? Or did they just pack them on the bus and say “so long!” Assuming there was someone from the home on the bus (and I think there were several people, from a reference to an attempted rescue I saw in that earlier article), why did none of them tell the driver, “we have a problem — stop the bus?” What is the culpability of the nursing home in this?

“Sheriff Lupe Valdez said investigators have found no evidence that Robles helped several people off the bus before it was engulfed in flames, which was widely reported after the explosion.

“After an exhausting number of interviews, we have been unable to confirm any of those claims,” Valdez said in a statement.

Peritz said failure to help crash victims was not part of the charges against Robles, and charges against other people were still possible.

Weirder and weirder. Who said he was helping originally? Someone, several someones, had to say that for it to be “widely reported?” Or was this another case of reporters all copying each other and calling it news? How many interviews are “exhaustive?” Who were they with? Surviving passengers? Other motorists? An odd omission, given that they’re stressing that they did lots of interviews. And if standing around and letting them burn isn’t part of the charges, just what the hell is?

Look. I write for a government. Not press releases, but other stuff. If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s not what the government says — it’s what the government isn’t saying that speaks volumes. I know, because I have to do the same thing– it’s called “accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative” — a “negative” being anything that might weaken the case. And our press just isn’t up to the job of ferreting that simple fact out.

For an example, here’s an odd omission: I have not heard anything about people treated for smoke inhalation or 2nd/3rd degree burns. What, they all either died or were in perfect health? Should have been some injured attempting rescues if nothing else. I don’t think there were none, I just think the press has done an awful job giving a full accounting. “23 dead and tape of a bus on fire! Roll it, we don’t need more facts!”

Yes, 23 dead speak for themselves… but what do they say? “We were killed by a greedy bus owner,” or “We were killed by an incompetent driver?” Personally, I doubt the bus driver paid for the bus maintenance. So for him to be liable, he has to have taken an action or inact that caused their deaths. Hence the “negligent” part of the homicide.

So why won’t the Sheriff’s department say what Mr. Robles is alleged to have done or not done? Did they go to the Ronnie Earle School for Wayward Prosecutors? Isn’t there some law that says you have to know what the charges against you are?

Now this is about the point where I took a hard look at the article again. Note the highlighted parts.

“The driver of the bus that caught fire . . . has been charged with criminal negligent homicide in the deaths of 23 passengers, a spokesman for the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department said today.

The charges . . . were forwarded to District Attorney Bill Hill . . . Hill’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Robles was taken into federal custody on an immigration violation . . .

Peritz would not give specific examples of illegal actions by Robles, saying details would be released if he is indicted.”

*ding* The four key words. Let me explain what’s going on here. The sheriff’s department is officially alledging to the DA that negligent homicide occurred, and is banking on the common person’s (and the press’s) fuzzy understanding of the justice system to think that they’ve actually done a whole lot. All they’re doing is privately reporting the DA the results of their investigation, while publicly trumpeting it! It’s up to the DA to decide if he should actually be indicted with the crime and brought to trial.

So what we have here is the Dallas County SD trying to shoot a duck in a pond, and issuing press releases to make sure they get full credit for it.

People have died! Something! Has! To! Be! Done! Robles, already in custody for breaking the law (I have no sympathy for that, FYI), is an easy target. It would be more just to arrest the owners and charge them with negligent homicide. But where are they? Nobody seems to know. So hey, if you can’t find the target you need, use the target you got!

It doesn’t take an expensive investigation. It’s cheap, and it’s “something done.”

And our vaunted free press, which thinks it should get a special pass if they are being investigated by the prosecutors can’t seem to even find the questions, let alone any of the answers! Why is it, almost a month later, no one in the press even seems to know where Global Limo’s “bus barn” is, even if it’s only a piece of pavement? And who owns this shady company? Has the press even asked anyone? It’s like a huge conspiricy of silence, except it’s not, it’s a conspiricy of laziness. What, there’s not one piece of information about Global Limo that has a person’s name on it anywhere? If that’s true, it seems a bit suspicious in and of itself, now doesn’t it? The term “fly-by-night outfit” comes to mind.

It’s also said that the feds have “shut them down” but that wasn’t exactly a high profile action. Padlocks on the doors? I doubt it, since there’s been no mention of seizing property. In fact, I’d bet the “shutdown” was nothing more than sending a letter to whatever P.O. box the company rented to tell them their license was suspended. Odds are, they didn’t even pick it up. And by now, the remaining buses are probably repainted, and it’s back in business with a new name and phone number.

But Mr. Robles is up for 46 years and $230k in fines.

It doesn’t require four years of college and a journalism degree to be a real reporter. It requires a functioning brain, though. Today, all we have is posuers who sneer at blogs, instead of reading them. Or rather, after they read them and steal a few ideas. When they’re not making up their news out of whole cloth, that is. Never forget, one of our shooting wars was started by a newspaperman in a circulation war. “You furnish the pictures, I’ll furnish the war.”

Sad to say, things haven’t changed that much in 107 years.