11-21-2011 FOX4 HATE CRIME STORY BORDERS ON NONSENSICAL Ever watch a local news story and just say, "What exactly did was the point?" That likely was the reaction from Kansas City viewers watching a story by WDAF-FOX4 reporter Gia Vang about hate crimes in Kansas City. When it concluded many viewers likely were shaking their heads over what exactly was presented. First, Vang began her report by noting, "The FBI is quick to say it is entirely not accurate" prior to her reporting figures that Kansas City has nine times more hate crimes than St. Louis. That didn't stop Vang from interviewing a white guy who was jumped and beaten two years earlier while walking in KC's Hyde Park. He claims it was a hate crime, but she provided no details on what made it a hate crime. Is he gay? Were his attackers another race? What made him being mugged any different than what happens every few minutes in KC? Vang then presented FBI statistics (which the FBI had already said were "not entirely accurate") that in St. Louis there were just four reported hate crimes out of a population of 355,000; whereas in KC that number was 76 out of 484,000 people. Vang interviewed Alvin Brooks of the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime who seemed to try and make the hate crime report a racial issue, but there was nothing in Vang's report that pointed in that direction. An FBI spokesperson then noted in the report that the figures can be totally misleading because hate crimes can be reported differently in different cities. Vang concluded her report by saying, "Even if the numbers lie a little." She then interviewed the KC guy who was mugged who saids he hopes the numbers are a wake up call. A wake up call for hate crimes? Or a wake up call for some journalism?
11-21-2011 HATE CRIMES: BAD! The alleged victim says he has "a pretty good idea that it was based on my gender [sic] representation". This story is another example of "news entertainment." Silly? Yes. Par for the course? Yes. The end of the story is the giveaway. The reporter should have just said, "Even though the numbers aren't accurate and we haven't presented any facts for our conclusion, you should be worried about hate crimes; they're bad."
11-22-2011 RAISING RED FLAG "Her report of “even if the numbers lie a little” should have raised the red flag for producers to kill the story. The FBI statistical report is considered “entirely not accurate.” It doesn’t make it a lie. "I sure hope they don’t schedule Gia Vang to report political polling numbers. She’ll give a new definition to margin of error!" ---Scott Simon
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